An Opera in Ukraine Reminds the World of Putin’s War Crimes
Russia’s child abductions are the focus of a new opera, Mothers of Kherson, that premiered in Kyiv, Ukraine. The cast is reported to have received standing ovations for their performance, and the opera was said to have evoked ‘tears and catharsis’ (Higgins and Matveichuk 2026: 24).
After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, news of the abduction of Ukrainian children by Russia began to emerge as the children were distributed to Russian families scattered across Russia. Over 20,000 children[1] are estimated to have been ‘victims of deportation or forced transfer to Russia’, which may have included “… a change of name, being assigned Russian citizenship, being adopted into Russian families, and being exposed to Russian military education”.[2] President Putin and Russia’s commissioner for children, Maria Lvova-Belova, were charged with war crimes over these abductions by the International Criminal Court. Yet today, many across the world have forgotten or dismissed these abductions — even as growing evidence suggests that some of these children are now being trained by the Russian army to fight against their own homeland.
May this opera help raise global awareness and refresh memories of these crimes against so many children. How could Putin, who undoubtedly approved of these abductions, be invited and given a red-carpet welcome to the United States before joining the US President in his armor-plated limousine?
References
Higgins, C., and Matveichuk, M. (2026), ‘Tears and Catharsis: Emotions high for premiere in Kyiv of opera about Russia’s child abductions’, The Guardian, 11 June: p. 24.
Notes
[1] https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2025-06-18/debates/EE1E012F-EF4E-4BED-BE4B-FD5F67864906/AbductedUkrainianChildren
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/10/mothers-of-kherson-opera-kyiv-premiere-russian-abductions-children-ukraine