Anand to close Toronto summit on returning Ukraine kids from Russian captivity

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand will close a two-day conference on missing Ukrainian children today after multiple countries promised more action to bring home those abducted by Russia.

In 2024, Canada and Ukraine jointly launched an international coalition of nations committed to finding and returning Ukrainian children abducted by Russia since it began its full-scale invasion in 2022.

Those efforts have been expanded to include efforts to return civilians and prisoners of war taken by Russian officials since Russia's 2014 seizure of Crimea.

The European Union has announced a new round of sanctions on officials accused of helping to abduct Ukrainian children — something the International Criminal Court calls a war crime.

Norway, which is co-hosting this week's conference in Toronto, has pledged the equivalent of $35 million to support work by UNICEF and the International Committee of the Red Cross to bring Ukrainian children home and help them reintegrate.

Officials in Ukraine say 2,600 of the 20,000 children abducted by Russia have since returned.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2026.

By Dylan Robertson | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.