This online discourse has been energised by recent news events. The release of a new batch of Jeffrey Epstein–related documents on 2 February 2026 by the US Department of Justice has sparked a fresh wave of claims that Putin was ‘saving Ukrainian children’, this time from an Epstein-linked pedophile network. Over 15,000 posts making this allegation appeared on X within just 48 hours of the latest ‘Epstein files’ being published.
Key findings
- ISD analysed more than 150,000 English-language X posts that referred to the deportation, evacuation and/or trafficking of Ukrainian children posted between 1 September 2024 and 10 August 2025. The most popular narrative, found in over 70 percent of these posts, was that Ukraine is a “global hub for child trafficking,” which appeared in more than two-thirds of posts.
- High-profile international figures amplified unsubstantiated claims accusing Ukrainian officials of child trafficking. These figures include former British Member of Parliament (MP) Andrew Bridgen, far-right activist Tommy Robinson and both former and current members of the European Parliament (MEPs).
- Links to two heavily biased documentaries were mentioned almost 900 times in the dataset. One was produced by sanctioned Russian state media outlet RT; the other was produced by Urban Scoop (a UK media platform founded by Robinson) and received more than 53,000 YouTube views.
- These findings suggest an effort to downplay or refute Russia’s illegal deportation of Ukrainian children by shifting attention toward unsubstantiated claims that the Ukrainian state itself is involved in child trafficking.
- The recent release of more than three million ‘Epstein files’ by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) has sparked new claims that Russia was allegedly ‘saving Ukrainian children’ from an Epstein-linked paedophile network. ISD identified over 15,000 posts making this claim, published within just 48 hours of the documents’ release
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