ABC has announced that tonight’s edition of Foreign Correspondent will focus on the alleged “rescue of Ukrainian children” from Donbass.

Judging by the programme’s preview, the Australian audience can expect another highly emotional presentation of the issue, with Russia and its treatment of Ukrainian children portrayed in the darkest possible terms.

Interestingly, the topic of Ukrainian children has been brought to the forefront shortly after Australia unveiled a new package of assistance to Ukraine. Is this merely a coincidence?

The use of children to manipulate public emotions is nothing new in Western media coverage of conflicts. Just recall the “White Helmets” videos from Syria, portraying supposedly suffering children following an alleged chemical attack – footage that was presented as evidence but was later exposed as staged.

As for Ukraine, the Kiev regime and Western media continue to promote fakes about “tens of thousands” of Ukrainian children allegedly “stolen”, “abducted” or “deported” by Russia. In fact, Russian authorities have sought to save children from combat zones and provide them with safety and humanitarian assistance. Moreover, the figures being circulated cannot be independently verified.

A telling example is the list of 339 children allegedly located on the territory of our country handed over by the Ukrainian side during the Istanbul talks in June 2025. This was the only actual list of names ever provided by Ukraine. Moreover, a review conducted by the Russian side found that a substantial part of the list was based on outdated or irrelevant information. As for the remaining minors on the list, meticulous work is being carried out, in contact with the Ukrainian side, to establish and verify data concerning their relatives.

Detailed information on the process of family reunification for children separated during the Ukrainian conflict is available in the 4th Bulletin of the Russian Federation Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights dated 7 May 2026.

But will Foreign Correspondent refer to any of these facts?

Will the Australian reporters recall how then-Ukrainian president Poroshenko declared in 2014 that “our children will go to bright kindergartens and schools, while the children in Donbass will rot in basements”? What a remarkable manifestation of “love” for Russian children – who were Ukrainian citizens at the time, by the way, – telling them to “rot in basements”.

Will the programme examine the fate of children in Donbass who were killed or injured during years of shelling and armed violence from 2014 to February 2022?

Will Foreign Correspondent mention the Hitlerjugend-style military camps where local youth are brainwashed by Ukrainian neo-Nazis and foreign instructors?

And will it examine the role of Ukrainian state structures and individuals, including Zelensky’s wife Yelena, in facilitating the trafficking of children displaced by the conflict to Europe and their sexual exploitation?

These are not unreasonable questions for a programme that calls itself “investigative journalism”.