Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission Director Katie Frugé added her name to a letter from other Christian leaders calling for President Donald Trump and his administration to require abducted Ukrainian children’s return in negotiating peace between Russia and Ukraine.
In a public Facebook post about the letter Frugé noted: “As a mother, my heart breaks at the thought that almost 20,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly taken by Russia, their identities erased, & families separated.”
Last year her team at Texas Baptists hosted Ukrainian leaders at their Dallas office, she explained.
The meeting allowed her team “to hear their stories, pray with them, and offer our support.”
In her post, Frugé said the group from Ukraine gave her a book she still treasures, “cowritten by the children of Ukraine detailing their horrific experiences during the war.”
“I wept reading their stories,” she noted.
She said she was “honored to join other faith leaders urging President Trump and Secretary Rubio to prioritize the missing children and their safe return as the US works towards peace between Russia and Ukraine,” and expressed gratitude that momentum for the children’s return is building.
According to her post and the letter, “President Trump included the importance of their safe return on a March 19 phone call with President Zelenskyy.”
The letter, signed April 3, was addressed to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
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The letter
Letter writers cited their Christian faith as the motivation for their concern for vulnerable children and why they advocate for the children’s safe return, noting “since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin has intentionally targeted the most vulnerable—children.”
“President Putin has ordered the systematic forced transfer of nearly twenty thousand Ukrainian children to Russia and Russian-controlled territories,” the letter reads, including the links.
“These children, ranging in age from four months to 17 years old, have been subjected to political re-education, military training, and forced assimilation into Russian society.”
The letter also notes: “Many have been placed in Russian families, illegally adopted, and had their birth certificates altered to erase their Ukrainian identities. The Russian government has denied Ukrainian children access to their families, subjected them to physical abuse, and failed to provide them with adequate food and care.”
The letter points out the abduction of 20,000 Ukrainian children isn’t just a “tragedy” but a “deliberate and systemic act of injustice,” made all the more atrocious by Russia deliberately targeting for deportation, “orphans, children with disabilities, and those from low-income families, knowing they are least able to resist.”
Fewer than 6 percent (1,256 children) of the more than 19,000 children deported to Russia since 2022 have been returned to Ukraine, the letter credits Save Ukraine with reporting.
As faith leaders, the signatories pointed to Scripture as the ultimate guide for their actions, specifically highlighting Genesis 1:27—every child is made in God’s image; Zechariah 17:10—defend the poor, the widow, the orphan and the foreigner; Matthew 22:39—love your neighbor as yourself; and Isaiah 1:17—seek justice for the oppressed.
In bold print, the letter writers proclaimed: “No peace deal should be finalized until Ukraine’s children are returned home.” They backed up the imperative with the Geneva Convention, which “explicitly protects children during wartime, and the deportation or forced transfer of a population is a violation of international law, potentially constituting crimes against humanity.”
They urged the administration, “as leaders of the free world, to ensure that Ukraine’s children are returned home without precondition in advance of peace talks.”
“Now is the time to lead with courage and moral clarity,” by ensuring the children are returned before a peace deal is finalized, the authors concluded.
The letter was signed by Myal Green, president and CEO of World Relief; Brent Leatherwood, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission; Daniel Darling, director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals; Frugé and 35 other Christian leaders.
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