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This week, I was honored to speak at a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the Russian Federation's abduction of at least 20,000 Ukrainian children.
Many of these children have been shipped to Russia, tortured, told their own country and families are "the enemy," and finally, sent to the frontlines of the war to fight against their homeland. No child should ever have to endure that kind of barbarism.
The Russian Federation is also indoctrinating and militarizing Ukrainian children in the territories Russia has occupied in Eastern Ukraine. According to some reports, 43,000 children are already enrolled in Russia's paramilitary youth program, with one million others vulnerable to brainwashing and abuse in the occupied territories.
This is an issue I've been following since the start of Putin's war, and I'm grateful to those who are calling attention to it, including First Lady Melania Trump, whose compassionate advocacy has already helped several children return home.
We must hold those responsible accountable and ensure this ends — not only for Ukraine’s sake, but for our own. Russia’s attempt to re-engineer an entire generation is a battle plan. They are preparing children for war with NATO.
As I said at the hearing, the repatriation of these children is a national security imperative — and beyond that, it’s a moral imperative. This is a time for moral clarity, and history will judge us by how we respond.
Click below to watch my full remarks at the hearing.
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