Liev Schreiber on Ukraine’s abducted children: ‘Being a new father is a reminder of how important it is’
At a recent UN Security Council meeting, Liev Schreiber listened as three young Ukrainian children recounted the unimaginable horrors of being abducted by Russian soldiers. He describes them as three of the bravest people he has ever met.
Since the start of the war, about 20,000 children have been taken without the consent of family or guardians, according to Ukrainian officials. They say fewer than 400 have returned home.
“There are horrendous war crimes occurring in Ukraine but I don’t think there’s anything quite so awful as a child’s right to a childhood, more than anything to not be separated from their parents, being taken away,” says Schreiber, speaking to Sky News on the phone from New York.
Schreiber addressed the UN meeting in February. Pic: Gina LeVay Photography/Builders Ukraine
“Ukrainian children are being abducted into Russia and Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories and [being put] in these indoctrination programmes, where they are trying to convince them their parents don’t love them, their parents are in many cases dead or gone, and that Ukraine is not their home, Russia is their home.”
In December 2022, Sky News obtained and broadcast CCTV footage of Russian soldiers actively searching for children in an orphanage in Kherson, southern Ukraine. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russia’s president Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.
The Russians have claimed they are saving children from war for humanitarian reasons.
Best known for his on screen portrayal of LA fixer Ray Donovan, as well his performances in the X-Men and Scream film series, and the Oscar-winning Spotlight, some might wonder what Schreiber’s role in this fight is. But since the start of the war, the star, whose grandfather was a Polish-Ukrainian immigrant, has been doing everything in his power to help Ukraine.
He is the co-founder of BlueCheck, a crisis response organisation set up just weeks after Russia’s invasion to raise funds for humanitarian aid, and is also an ambassador for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s United24, and the chair of Builders Ukraine.
The actor visited the town of Borodianka in the Kyiv region in August 2022. Pic: Reuters
Such is his involvement, he was asked to make the opening remarks at last month’s UN meeting, ahead of the three children; Sasha, 13, Kira, 14, and 11-year-old Ilya. According to Builders Ukraine, the three were abducted by Russian forces during the siege on Mariupol in the early days of the war. Their parents were killed or captured.
Hearing them speak was “incredibly moving”, says Schreiber.
“At one point, one of the boys, Sasha, was asked, ‘If the whole world were listening, is there anything you would like to say?’ I felt like that was going to be a set-up for something political that Sasha had been told to say. And he just knocked the wind out of me and everybody else in the room by saying, ‘Well, if the whole world was listening, I would like to ask them to help me find my mom’. His mom has been missing for two years.
“I don’t know how to say it, but certainly as a father that brought it home for me, the situation.”
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Dec 2022: Liev Schreiber on his fundraising for Ukraine
Ilya’s mother was killed and the little boy’s leg was injured by shrapnel, the meeting heard, while Sasha almost lost one of his eyes during an attack. “Horrible, horrible stories,” says Schreiber. “And yet the pragmatism, of a kid just wanting to find his mom.
“People do go on and they gather themselves and they rally, and that’s what’s happening in Ukraine. And they’ve been doing that for two years, for the most part on their own.”
The actor, who welcomed his third child, a baby girl called Hazel, last year, is talking to me in between rehearsals and showtime for Doubt, which he is currently performing in on Broadway.
Schreiber is known for portraying the titular character in Ray Donovan. Pic: Showtime/ Sky UK
His recent on-screen performances include playing Anne Frank’s father Otto Frank in the mini-series A Small Light, and Henry Kissinger in the Helen Mirren film Golda, about the first female prime minister of Israel. He says he is thinking about his acting roles more now as he concentrates on raising a baby and his work for Ukraine.
“I think I have been taking a little bit of time off because there are so many other things that I want to do and to be able to do what I can for BlueCheck, United24 and Builders Ukraine, I think for me, it’s the right thing to do now,” he says. “Being a new father is hard work, but it’s also just confirmation of how important all of this stuff is. It’s just a reminder of how important it is that we leave the world a better place than when we came into it, for our children, our children’s children.
“Part of me is, you know, giving a lot of gratitude towards my grandparents and that generation for everything they did so that I could have the opportunities, the freedoms that I enjoy. I just would like to make sure that my children, and children like Kira, Ilya and Sasha, can experience that as well in their lifetimes.”
Towards the end of 2023, during an expedition trip to Antarctica he had been planning for several years, Schreiber had a serendipitous encounter; in the harbour of King George Island, thousands of miles from home and even further from Ukraine, he noticed a ship bearing the country’s blue shield and yellow trident coat of arms.
It was the Ukrainian research ship Noosfera, which had set off from the city of Odesa in January 2022, just weeks before the war broke out. Schreiber was invited on board. “I just told them how lovely it was to see the Ukrainian colours flying in Antarctica,” he says. “A reminder of how strong we are together.”
On board Noosfera with Captain Oleksandr Gryshko. Pic: National Antarctic Scientific Centre of Ukraine
Two years on from Russia’s invasion, Schreiber hopes to keep Ukraine in people’s minds.
“I feel just as human beings, we should be responding; as freedom-loving people, I think absolutely we should be responding. If not for their sake, for our sake as well. Because I do believe that in many respects, the Ukrainians are holding our line. In other words, the line of democracy and freedom and sovereignty is something that we share as nations with them, and if it falls in Ukraine, it can fall anywhere.”
It “cuts my heart” and is a “betrayal”.
This was the response of a Ukrainian soldier in a frontline combat regiment directly affected by Donald Trump’s decision to pause US military support to Ukraine.
Serhii, 45, maintains a unit of US-supplied Bradley infantry fighting vehicles that are defending an area of eastern Ukraine from attacking Russian forces.
The halt to American military aid – if sustained – means there will be no new ammunition and no ability to repair any of the vehicles when they are damaged – a constant risk.
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On a recent mission by the 425th Storming Regiment “Skala”, three Bradleys went into battle towards the direction of the city of Pokrovsk, an area of heavy clashes.
Only two returned after the other was hit by the Russian side.
Troops said it would be for Ukraine to defend their land without US military support
“It’s going to be very hard,” Serhii said, standing next to a large Bradley, covered by a camouflage net and tucked under a line of trees in the Donetsk region.
“These vehicles are really good. You can fight back with them. And not just defend, you can even advance. It’s a shame we didn’t have this equipment two or three years ago.”
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Trump pauses military aid to Ukraine – what now?
The regiment has been using Bradleys for a number of months. Serhii is the lead mechanic.
The tracked vehicles, armed with a chain gun that can fire 200 rounds per minute, were first developed in the 1980s but have been fitted with modern reactive armour that means they can survive drone strikes, rocket attacks and the shrapnel from artillery rounds.
“The vehicle’s protection… is fantastic,” Serhii said, with clear admiration for the equipment compared with Soviet-era fighting vehicles that many Ukrainian troops have to use.
Soliders said the Bradley infantry vehicles are good for advancing, not just defence
He said the crew of one of his Bradleys was hit by two rocket-propelled grenades but was able to continue driving and was unharmed.
Serhii, who comes from the Donetsk region, said he felt betrayed by Mr Trump’s decision to halt such crucial support.
The US president ordered the move as he attempts to put pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to negotiate a ceasefire deal with Russia.
“Although I’m not a politician, it’s a betrayal for us, for the guys who are defending Ukraine,” the soldier said.
Inside a US-supplied Bradley vehicle
Asked how he felt when he heard the news about the US president’s decision, Serhii said: “The latest news cuts my heart, I can answer you that way. It cuts my heart… If politicians solve issues this way, just by halting weapons supply in one move, that’s criminal.”
He signalled it would be harder for Ukrainian troops to defend their land without the US military support – but they would still fight.
“Even without this weapon, we believe we will move forward,” he said.
“They [the Russians] have to retreat, no matter what. The guys didn’t take up arms here for nothing, and they stand together. Together, all of us, as one, will defeat this enemy.”
As for whether he had a message for Mr Trump, the soldier said: “Don’t stop military aid. Politics is politics, but the people, I believe, are the most important.
“It will be very hard for us without such equipment. This equipment is good; it allows us to show results. And we will keep showing them. We’ve shown them before and we will keep showing them. That’s how it is. Thank you.”
Fighting ‘for my motherland’
Soldier Sedoi said he is ‘tired’ of the war
Sky News watched as two crews prepared their fighting vehicles for a potential mission on Thursday evening.
Sedoi, 41, commands one of the Bradleys and operates the gun.
He said the American-supplied vehicle gives him confidence when he goes into battle – and was also likely a scary prospect for Russian troops to have to encounter.
“We make a lot of noise. Everything catches fire and burns… It’s a good vehicle,” he said.
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Will Kyiv fall without US support?
Sedoi said he did not have a reaction to the news about the halt to American military support, saying: “I don’t get involved in their politics.”
However, he signalled he did want an end to the war – even if it meant Russia keeping some of the land it has seized.
“Let it end, so people stop dying. Because a lot of people have died,” he said.
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Recently recovered from a shrapnel wound, Sedoi said he volunteered to fight after Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale war more than three years ago because of Russia’s brutality.
“I’ve heard what they do when they enter villages, what they do with children and women… I don’t want them to go any further… That’s why I’m here.
“But, to be honest, I’m getting tired of it.”
Yet still he and his fellow soldiers battle on. Asked why he was fighting, the soldier said: “For my motherland.”
A warning by Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin to stop “pounding” Ukraine or else, appears to have fallen on deaf ears after another night of devastating Russian strikes.
The persistent pummelling of Ukrainian towns and cities also follows a decision by the US president to stop sharing American intelligence and weapons with Kyiv – a move that is directly hampering the Ukrainian military’s ability to defend their skies from the Russian onslaught.
In the deadliest attack overnight, at least 11 people were killed and 30 wounded, including five children, in the town of Dobropillia, about 15 miles from the frontline in the Donestsk region of eastern Ukraine.
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The Ukrainian police service said a Russian ballistic missile, rockets and attack drones hit eight multi-storey buildings as well as a shopping centre and dozens of cars.
Firefighters work at the site of the strike. Pic: Reuters/State Emergency Service of Ukraine
Pic: Reuters/State Emergency Service of Ukraine
“Some buildings were burnt down almost completely,” the national police of Ukraine said in a post on its Telegram social media channel.
Another three civilians were killed and seven injured in a drone attack on the Kharkiv region in the northeast of the country, according to a separate post by the interior ministry.
Just hours earlier, the US president posted a warning to the Kremlin on social media.
“Based on the fact that Russia is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now, I am strongly considering large-scale banking sanctions, sanctions, and tariffs on Russia until a cease fire and FINAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ON PEACE IS REACHED,” he wrote.
“To Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late. Thank you!!!”
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Trump: ‘Ukraine difficult to deal with’
Kyiv will be watching closely to see whether Moscow’s continuing attacks will prompt Mr Trump to carry out his threat.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been in crisis mode ever since Mr Trump returned to office and started attacking his record on the war, falsely calling him a dictator and even claiming – again erroneously – that Ukraine was to blame for Russia’s invasion.
Sky News on the ground in Dobropillia 24hrs before strike
A Sky News team was in Dobropillia 24 hours before the attack – stopping off to grab food at a pizza restaurant that was close to the site of at least two of the incoming strikes.
The restaurant is on a road of shops, including a clothes store and a small grocery outlet.
The town, which used to be home to 28,000 residents before Russia’s full-scale war, feels far more battle-hardened than areas further away from the frontline.
Fighting has been raging for months between invading Russian forces and Ukrainian troops, just over a dozen miles away, around the city of Pokrovsk.
Despite the closeness of the war, however, many civilians, including children, still live in Dobropillia.
In the most significant blow, Washington has paused the sharing on intelligence with its Ukrainian partners, instantly making it far harder for Ukraine to have a clear picture on the movement of Russian forces and weapons, while also hampering the ability of the Ukrainian armed forces to effectively conduct targeting attacks against Russian positions.
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A decision to stop the flow of military support to Ukraine will also have a huge impact on the country’s ability to keep defending itself.
The US has been Kyiv’s largest and most important supplier of arms, including the Patriot air defence system – the only piece of equipment in Ukraine’s arsenal that has the ability to take down ballistic missiles.
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