Stolen children in Ukraine: A new DNA database helps in the search for their families

"It was November 8, 2022: A few men in uniforms came to our school and told us to follow them immediately," says 15-year-old Viktor from Kherson. No one wanted to go, but the teachers encouraged the children. Unable to contact his mother, he spent several months in Russian-controlled camps for Ukrainian children. For weeks, his mother didn't know where he was.

Viktor’s story was written down by a German journalist and published together with those of other children and young people in the book “ Stolen Lives ”.

Life in the camps served as a form of re-education: The day began with the singing of the Russian national anthem. No one was allowed to speak Ukrainian. Between sports sessions, Russian history was taught. The children were indoctrinated into believing that their parents no longer wanted them or were dead.

Anyone who didn't obey orders, like Viktor, who refused to sing the Russian national anthem, was punished by being locked in solitary confinement in the basement. Viktor had to endure days there in the dark, wearing only his underwear. He describes it in the book as being threatened with a straitjacket or deportation to Russia. Some children never returned to their bedrooms from the basements, and no one knew where they had been taken.

Viktor was lucky; in May 2023, the organization "Save Ukraine" managed to rescue him from the camp and return him to his mother.

But thousands of other Ukrainian children, from toddlers to teenagers, were brought to Russia, many adopted by Russian families. A DNA sample could help them.

Researchers at the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, after evaluating numerous sources, estimate that nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children have been abducted. Russian authorities, however, claim they have "rescued" more than 700,000 children from Ukraine "from the war." Aid organizations, however, consider this figure to be propaganda.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Commissioner for the Rights of the Child are accused of illegally deporting children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for both.

Ukrainian children can be adopted in Russia through a simplified procedure. Authorities are allowed to change the child's name and place of birth. Younger children, in particular, can hardly or no longer remember their biological parents and their former home after a certain period of time. They are thus lost to their families.

But Sara Huston, a geneticist at the Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, and pediatrician Elizabeth Barnert of the University of California, Los Angeles, aren't willing to accept this. They are currently building a DNA database for children who disappeared from Ukraine. Both have experience with this. Barnert, for example, has been establishing a DNA database for missing children in El Salvador since 2005.

Based on her experiences, she and Huston founded the DNA Bridge project in 2022. Scientists and ethicists are developing legally and ethically sound rules and contracts tailored to the respective conflict regions to reunite separated families with the help of DNA samples.

"The first part of the process, while not particularly complex, is still fraught with pitfalls," Huston explains in an interview. Parents who are missing their children can currently go to the Ukrainian police and have a swab taken from their mouth. In the lab, certain sections of the genetic material are then decoded and stored in a database.

"But for one thing, the police in Ukraine are currently overwhelmed with searches for missing and fallen soldiers, or even civilians," Huston reports about her experience. DNA samples are also used in Ukraine to identify those killed on battlefields or in villages. On the other hand, people fear that a Russian victory could result in authorities and thus databases falling into the hands of the occupying forces. And that the data would then be deleted or tampered with.

Huston and Barnert have therefore brought the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) in The Hague on board. "We support sample collection on site; the analyses could be conducted either via the ICMP laboratory or in a specialized laboratory in Ukraine," explains Andreas Kleiser of the ICMP in an interview. A secure database could also be made available. In any case, this requires the consent of the donors. The ICMP has drawn up corresponding consent forms with the Ukrainian police, which are also accepted by families.

Parents or relatives can also register on the ICMP website. They will then attempt to send a sample collection team to the family. Some have accepted this offer, and DNA samples have also been collected from refugee families outside of Ukraine.

Starting this summer, larger teams from non-governmental organizations trusted by the people in Ukraine will travel through the villages and give people the opportunity to submit their DNA samples on-site. "It's often difficult to gain the trust of people in a war-torn country, especially when it comes to DNA samples and thus very personal information," Barnert reports. "I've experienced this repeatedly in El Salvador, too."

Furthermore, not all affected families find it worthwhile to participate in a project that may take several years or even decades to achieve success. A DNA sample usually doesn't bring the missing child back immediately. It often takes years for a young person or adult to discover that something is wrong with their adoption. Only then will they begin to investigate further. Many abducted children are only able to provide their DNA sample on their own initiative as adults.

Sections of their genetic material are then decoded, just like those of their relatives, and compared with the entries in the database. Parenthood is legally proven if there is a DNA match of over 99 percent. Grandparents, siblings, or aunts and uncles can also be identified via DNA comparison.

"The child's right to find their biological relatives or even their parents is valid even after 20 years; it doesn't expire," emphasizes lawyer Kleiser. "And it's very important for adults who were abducted as children to know their origins and at least be able to get to know their biological relatives, even if their parents are already dead," adds pediatrician Barnert.

She has accompanied such family reunifications in El Salvador. She says these are very emotional moments, not easy for anyone involved. Each side has a thousand questions, fears, and even accusations. Were you okay? What do you remember? How was I kidnapped? Did you search for me intensively enough?

Not all children seek contact with their biological family, says Barnert. Some are happy with their lives and their adoptive family and simply want to know where they come from. In other cases, it takes years after discovering their origins for a child to be ready to meet relatives. And a meeting doesn't automatically mean that a person wants to live with their biological family again.

Therefore, every reunion must be accompanied by psychologists or pastors whenever possible. "Every happy family motivates me to continue working on DNA Bridge," emphasizes the pediatrician, her voice trembling slightly.

An article from the « NZZ am Sonntag »