Senate bill would designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism over kidnapping of 20K Ukrainian children

A bipartisan group of senators rolled out legislation Thursday to designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism over its barbarous mass abduction of thousands of Ukrainian children during its ongoing invasion.

Should the bill become law, Russia will join Cuba, North Korea, Iran and Syria on the list of US-designated terror states as part of a campaign to make Moscow’s economy “radioactive” on the world stage.

“This is what terrorists do. They rape, they murder, they kidnap,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) declared. “If Russia doesn’t want to be a state sponsor of terrorism under US law, return the children.”

Graham was joined by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Katie Britt (R-Ala.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) in pitching the bill.

Russia has been accused by Ukraine and international watchdogs of kidnapping nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children from their homes and putting some of them up for adoption, with the apparent intent of raising them to be Russian.

Some of the kids reportedly have been sent to military camps and taught to wage war against the country of their birth.

Save Ukraine, a non-governmental organization, has sounded the alarm over a Russian adoption database or “catalog” of nearly 294 Ukrainian children in which users can sort them by eye color, age, number of siblings and other factors.

Ukrainian officials believe that more than 19,500 children have been abducted by the Russians.

“The violent abduction of these children is a crime against humanity. Vladimir Putin is a war criminal,” Blumenthal declared. “Putin believes that there is no Ukraine. What he is seeking to do by kidnapping these children is to erase Ukraine from the face of the earth.”

“Imagine if 20,000 American children were abducted by Russia. The president of the United States would be talking about it every day,” the Connecticut Democrat went on. “In fact, we would have gone to war.”

First lady Melania Trump raised the child abductions in an impassioned letter to the Kremlin tyrant that her husband handed to Putin during their summit in Alaska Aug. 15.

Graham acknowledged that if the bill became law, Putin likely would not be allowed to set foot on US soil, preventing a repeat of the Anchorage meeting.

Klobuchar argued that Russia must return the abducted children to their families before serious talsk on ending the war can begin.

“If they’re really serious about wanting to negotiate peace or come back to the table again, then this has got to happen,” she said, “or we will be setting and the world will be setting a horrible precedent.”

Initially, the senators planned to add Belarus, Russia’s western neighbor and key accomplice in its war efforts, to the list of US-designated state sponsors of terrorism.

But Belarus’ recent decision to free some 52 prisoners at the pleading of President Trump prompted them to pump the brakes on targeting Minsk — for now.

“Maybe there will be a breakthrough with Belarus here,” Graham explained. “We haven’t foreclosed it, but we’re focusing on Russia today.”

Graham and Blumenthal have also partnered on a separate bill that would slap secondary tariffs on countries such as India and China that continue to import oil from Russia.

Trump has suggested that the measure isn’t necessary and that he can impose those secondary tariffs via executive action. As a result, the sanctions package has been put in limbo for weeks.

“I would just say this measure is no substitute for our sanctions bill, which is also bipartisan, 85 co-sponsors,” Blumenthal stressed. “After this [drone] incursion in Poland, the time is now to show strength.”

“Appeasement is not a strategy.”