Artillery art to remind Pope Leo of missing Ukrainian kids

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gifted Pope Leo XIV on Sunday an image of the Virgin Mary and Jesus painted on wood scraps from a box that carried heavy artillery munitions. The pair met after Leo was formally installed as head of the Roman Catholic church during an inaugural mass on Sunday. The image represented the children of Ukraine, specifically the ones who were deported and taken to Russia, Zelenskyy explained in a statement Sunday. He asked for the Vatican’s prayer and support for the children to return home, along with other Ukrainian prisoners.

Is Russia stealing children from Ukraine? Daria Zarivna, head of the Ukrainian government’s Bring Kids Back initiative, reported in February that Russia had abducted nearly 20,000 children and transferred them to Russia. A March report from the Yale School of Public Health Humanitarian Research Lab supported Zarivna’s report. Yale’s findings were based on data from public databases, government communications and legislation, corporate records, Russian news reports, social media activity, and commercially available satellite images.

The Yale-affiliated lab identified more than 8,400 children from Ukraine who have been relocated to at least 57 facilities across Russia and territory occupied by Russia. There are also documented cases of children being physically abused, barred from communication with their families in Ukraine, and given inadequate food and care in Russia, the Yale report added. A March report from the Institute for the Study of War agreed with Yale’s findings, noting that the actual number of stolen children was likely higher.

Yale’s lab program tracking the children launched in 2022 with $6 million in funding from the U.S. State Department. However, the program’s future became uncertain in February when the Trump administration cut the lab’s funding. The lab received a six-week funding extension, but the program's long-term future remains unclear, according to an April report from The Yale Daily News.

Russia’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations has said that the overwhelming majority of the evacuated children arrived in Russia with their parents, legal guardians, or caregivers.