The Ben Mulroney Show - The abducted Ukrainian children of the war with Russia

Episode Date: June 23, 2025

Guests and Topics: -Valeriy Kostyuk If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! https://link.chtbl.com/bms Also, on youtube -- https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. Canada's relationship with Ukraine runs deep. When my dad was prime minister, I remember going out west with him to a big Ukrainian festival. And I remember my dad telling me back then, I believe it was in the late 80s, early 90s, he said, Ben, there are over a million Canadians

who can trace their history, their culture back to Ukraine. I think that was a time where our national population was about 25, 26 million people. That's how many Ukrainians have helped build this country. And of course, one of the biggest points of pride that my dad had was in naming Reynatyshyn as our governor general. He was the first Canadian of Ukrainian descent

to be the Queen's representative as the head of state in Canada. So we are forever inextricably linked to Ukraine and our staunch support, regardless of political stripe of that country is a point of pride for me. They are our brothers, they are our sisters. Their pain is our pain and this unjust war that has been perpetrated against this incredible,

resilient, wonderful people is one that I will stand against until that country is free. But with everything going on in the Middle East, it can sometimes be easy to push what's happening in Ukraine to the back burner. I wanna bring it back to the fore in a way that should probably repel and disgust almost every single one of you.

We've talked in our country about cultural genocide, where our prime minister exceeded to the pressure of labeling Canada's behavior towards our First Nations as just that. I'm going to give you an example in real time. We're going to discuss in real time a cultural genocide that is being perpetrated against the people of Ukraine with our next guest, Valeri Kostiukhi, the executive director of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation. Valeri, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me, Ben, and thank you for such a meaningful introduction.

Well, let's talk about that. As meaningful as it is, I think what we have to talk about now is something that people have probably heard about in passing, they've probably talked about academically, but I wanna talk with you about what is in, there's no way this is not a cultural genocide the Forcible removal of tens of thousands of young Ukrainians from their families to be what?

Kidnapped and exported to be raised as Russian Yeah, so I mean You're you're you're correct Ben It is you know a genocide and if genocide, and no matter how you spin it, if you're looking at even the Genocide Convention that was issued by UN in 1948, forcible transfer of children from one group to another with the intent to destroy in whole part or partially a group, a cultural group like that is

considered an act of genocide and what's happening in Ukraine is not just collateral damage of war it's a deliberate campaign to erase Ukrainians by targeting their most vulnerable, the children and there's over 20,000 Ukrainian children that have been abducted by Russia since 2022. And as a Canadian Ukrainian and as Canada Ukraine Foundation, we're proud that Canada leads the effort of addressing this issue by co-chairing

Bring Kids Back UA platform together with Ukraine. That's right, you have a fundraising campaign that's wrapping up today. Let's talk about it now. We'll talk about it at the end as well. What is this fundraising campaign and how can people contribute? So Canada Ukraine Foundation is running a campaign called Every Child Deserves a Future. It's about saving lives and also protecting the children who are abducted and who are currently being held by Russia.

So our goal is to support programs of rescue, rehabilitation, reintegration, and other essential programs addressed at Ukrainian children. So we've partnered together with an organization called Save Ukraine, which was founded by Mikola Kuleba. And Save Ukraine is currently running rescue missions returning abducted children back from beyond enemy lines.

So they facilitate rescue missions. They support parents that do the outreach to them to help bring their kids back from Russian captivity and also from children that want to get out of that brutal reality. So they have- Well, Valeria, I think it would help our listeners if you gave them some real concrete examples

of some of these kids. I mean, we can talk about it in the abstract about kids being abducted and taken to Russia, but give me an example of like a child in particular. So, Canada-Ukraine Foundation has previously funded 12 rescue missions to return these children. One of these stories that hits at home is the story of Dennis.

Dennis is 16 years old. He is from Kherson, which is a city that was occupied by Russian troops and has been liberated by Ukrainians. So he has type 1 diabetes. He was forcibly taken by Russian forces from his school to a so-called recreation camp in occupied Crimea. You know, and despite having type 1 diabetes, he was denied timely access to insulin. And you know, that's life-saving

treatment that he needed with type 1 diabetes. Over several months, he was shuffled through camps and vocational programs without proper medical oversight. He was put through, you know, indoctrination processes in these quote unquote recreational camps. And eventually after spending months in this uncertainty and this, you know, unfair conditions, he contacted Save Ukraine through discreet communication and this, you know, unfair conditions, he contacted Save Ukraine through a discrete communication channel,

and they helped him get out of this, you know, quote unquote recreational camp, and they helped with the state admission. Do any of these kids end up adopted by Russian families? That's one of the ways of how Russia puts children. Do any of these kids end up adopted by Russian families? That's one of the ways of how Russia puts children- And I say abducted, I say adopted, but they have been effectively kidnapped. They've been kidnapped and then illegally put out

for adoption. There's a lot of very specific stories that have been shared in the media previously and actually by official statements of Ukrainian government. And these children are essentially being put, like the tactics that are being put through are quite insane. I mean, they are being put through youth armies,

they're being put through schools where they're bullied and abused for being Ukrainian. There's also instances of even sexual abuses. But when these children come back through Save Ukraine, they're being put through a rehabilitation program, including with their families or with the foster families that they're being put into once they're returned in Ukraine. So they are provided all of this support in order to come back to life without oppression

and without abuse that they've experienced while being in Russian captivity. So lastly, before we get to the end of this conversation, but certainly not the end of the work that you need to do, talk to you about the different ways that your organization helps get these kids out. So we worked very closely with Save Ukraine, which is an organization that was projects we fund.

One of their projects is of course rescue missions, which we previously fund. There's different ways of how people get in touch with them in order to to facilitate these missions. And also there's a whole process that they go through to ensure that this is a child that needs support and works with families and does their research. They also provide rehabilitation services through the Hope and Healing Centres which we've been funding and which provides psychological support, physical rehabilitation to children that are either orphans or children returning to their families and they're going through this

process together with their families or even orphan children's that have other issues, be it physical or mental, and they're being put through this support program in order to rehabilitate and reintegrate back into the society. So- Valeri Kostiuk, we're gonna have to end it here, but before we do, I mean, it's such important work. It has shades of the Handmaid's Tale written all over it. And it should be shocking to anyone who values human life, who values children, who values sort of the importance

of family, culture, history, and our shared bond with the Ukrainian people. So I wanna thank you very much, and I wish you the very, very best. Thank you, and to learn more and donate, your listeners can visit cufoundation.ca to learn more and become a part of this effort. Thank you, my friend. Thank you, my friend.