Russia’s War on Children: Award-winning event PR with a cause

In December 2023, the Truesix team was approached to join in organizing a highly important event: the Russia’s War on Children conference. We immediately knew we would leverage our best international PR skills and connections for this cause, doing it pro bono. 

This was probably the most emotionally challenging event we’ve had to work on. But we are beyond glad that we could help these stories be heard.

Challenge

Since the start of the war in 2022, Russia has forcibly removed 19,546 children from Ukraine. As of January 2024, only 388 of them had been returned to Ukraine. This forced transfer and abduction of children in conflict zones constitutes a blatant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and is an appalling war crime.

The Russia’s War on Children conference, a two-day event, aimed to convene lawyers, journalists, NGO advocates, diplomats, and experts in defense, international law, and war crimes to support the return of children and family reunification, explore avenues of legal and political accountability, raise public awereness, and foster international support.

As the international PR and media lead for the event, our team sought to generate maximum media attention and coverage.

Solution

We began our work on the Russia’s War on Children conference roughly a month before it occurred. In that limited timeframe, effective media relations coordination was crucial. Our work included:

• Researching and monitoring media that have already covered or could cover the topic
• Sending out targeted media invitations
• Managing media accreditation, including clearance with the organizing embassies
• Organizing travels and arranging a stay in Riga for several journalists
• Managing interview requests, including numerous on-site ad hoc requests
• Arranging on-site interviews with Latvian government officials, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Defence, and the Member of the European Parliament for Latvia
• Organizing an interview session with the Ukrainian children a day before the conference
• Reaching out to media agencies about live coverage of the event
• Coordinating a last-minute press conference on day 1 of the conference
• Providing accredited media with a post-event information package, including event photos and video recordings

Results

Our work on the event’s international PR resulted in 100+ publications across top-tier media, including Associated Press, Euronews, La Stampa, The Guardian, Le Figaro, The Daily Telegraph, CBC, and many more, as well as the event’s livestream on Reuters.

In total, 59 accredited journalists attended the conference, with 25 of them being international media representatives from elite media outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, Le Figaro, The Daily Telegraph, Reuters, CBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, The World, Polska Agencja Prasowa SA, Postimees, and more.

During the two days of the Russia’s War on Children conference, we organized more than 30 interviews on-site and online with conference speakers. Additionally, we arranged 20 media interviews with the returned Ukrainian children attending the event in Riga.

During the conference, a large number of Ukrainian government officials visited Latvia, including the First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska.

Furthermore, our team arranged a press trip to the Latvian-Russian border for a reporter from The Daily Telegraph, securing extensive coverage of Russia's growing threat to Latvia.

In April 2025, our work for the Russia’s War on Children conference won first place in the International Communication category at the Mi:t&Links. Baltic Communication Awards. We proudly share this award with our event comms partners, McCann Riga and Komunikācijas Aģentūra.