As part of the information campaign "Abducted Voices" of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Bring Kids Back UA action plan for the second anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian children who were successfully returned after being abducted by the Russians visited the UN headquarters, where they spoke about Russian crimes.
Ukrainian children's stories were heard at the UN headquarters
The Permanent Missions of Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Poland, Canada, Latvia, the Netherlands, Estonia and the EU Mission to the United Nations jointly held a closed meeting to discuss the critical issue of the fate of Ukrainian children abducted by the Russian Federation and their return.
The children's testimony was heard firsthand at a meeting with the participation of the Ukrainian MFA chief Dmytro Kuleba, his Canadian colleague Melanie Jolie, and the Dutch MFA chief Hanke Bruins Slot.
Ideas were also voiced regarding measures that would facilitate the speedy return of young Ukrainian citizens from Russian deportation, illegal displacement and forced detention, as well as the restoration of their rights.
Thanks to the joint work of various state institutions and non-governmental organisations, only 388 Ukrainian children have been returned from Russia to date.
During her speech at the closed meeting, Daria Gerasymchuk, the adviser to the President of Ukraine on children's rights and child rehabilitation, noted:
The successfully returned children tell us their stories and allow us to analyse specific scenarios or abduction techniques. The Russian Federation uses a whole arsenal of techniques to abduct Ukrainian children, which indicates a purposeful state policy. And no matter what it was: whether it was abduction simply from the biological family, or removal for so-called recovery, rehabilitation, recreation, or removal of children after the murder of their parents, divorce during filtering, or removal of institutional facilities in their entirety — it is not a coincidence. This is a targeted criminal genocidal policy.
Darya Gerasimchuk
Ukraine's President Commissioner on children's rights and child rehabilitation
Dmytro Kuleba added that Russia's illegal deportation and forced Russification of Ukrainian children is part of the Kremlin's genocidal policy against the Ukrainian people.
There is no global child safety system in the world
In a video message, the head of the President's Office, Andriy Yermak, noted that there is currently no global child safety system. That is why the Bring Kids Back UA plan was launched at the initiative of the President of Ukraine.
This is an action plan that covers all aspects of solving issues related to the abduction of Ukrainian children by the Russians and their return from deportation and/or forced transfer back to Ukraine: from finding and returning children to their reintegration, from advocacy to the development of family forms of education, from documentation crimes of Russia to inter-parliamentary cooperation, he emphasised.
The "Abducted Voices" information campaign is part of the Bring Kids Back UA action plan.
The purpose of the campaign is to inform the world community about the crimes of the Russian Federation against Ukrainian children to protect them and their rights, stop deportation and forced displacement, prevent the forced transfer of Ukrainian children to Russian families, as well as take all necessary measures for the safe return and reunification of families according to the interests of the child.
