MEPs discuss with the Council and Commission how to address the urgent concerns surrounding Ukrainian children being forcibly deported to Russia. Since Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine began in February 2022, international organisations have documented a wide range of serious human rights violations affecting children. Reports of children forcibly deported or displaced by Russian authorities, combined in many cases with them being subjected to re-education programmes and forced adoption, have raised concern. According to the Children of War initiative of the Ukrainian National Information Bureau (NIB), more than 19 500 children have been deported or forcibly displaced, and only 388 have been returned. This news item shows extracts from the MEP's debate in plenary.

EU - Ukraine (T)

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

EU - Russia (T)

VAUTMANS, Hilde (Renew, BE)

CHARANZOVÁ, Dita (Renew, CZ)

children's rights (T)

ŠUICA, Dubravka (EPP, HR, EC)

ROPĖ, Bronis (Greens/EFA, LT)

JUKNEVIČIENĖ, Rasa (EPP, LT)

GUALMINI, Elisabetta (S&D, IT)

LAHBIB, Hadja (BE)

Ukrainian children deported to Russia: extracts from the debate

SOUNDBITE (English), Dita CHARANZOV&Aacute; (Renew, CZ), Before we start the debate, I would like to warmly welcome special guests today. They are in the gallery, Valeria Hardy, who was deported to Russia and thankfully returned to Ukraine. Her mother, Natalia Halik, as well as Andrey Chernus, off from Voices of Children. And Olga Bustard from the Centre for Civil Liberties in Ukraine and they are here with us as a testimony of Putin's brutal policy towards Ukrainian children.

SOUNDBITE (French), Hadja LAHBIB, Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs, I can assure you that the Council continues to be firmly committed to the fight against impunity for international crimes committed in the context of the Russian war, of aggression against Ukraine, in particular, crimes committed against the particularly vulnerable people that are children.

SOUNDBITE (French), Hadja LAHBIB, Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Thanks to legislation adopted in record time by the co-legislators, Eurojust has set up a database containing important evidence documenting these war crimes. For the first time, all it's the first time that such a database is set up to cover all sorts of crimes.

SOUNDBITE (English), Dubravka &Scaron;UICA, Vice-President of the European Commission, We warmly welcome and support the issuing of arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court. The fact that the Court singled out the acts of unlawful force, deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children as the war crimes, as a base for the first arrest warrant since the start of Russian invasion illustrates both the urgency and severity rightly attached to the issue. The European Union has so far supported the ICC with over &euro;10 million since the beginning of the invasion. The court is a key actor for consistency and enforcement of the International Criminal Justice system. The European Union has been and continues to support the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine to strengthen its capacities to invest and prosecute international crimes committed in Ukraine. 

SOUNDBITE (English), Rasa JUKNEVIČIENĖ (EPP, LT), The names of children are changed, their birth certificates are altered. They are bombarded with Russian propaganda and forced to attend Russian military processions. They are forcibly. Deportation is not merely a violation of international law. It is a calculated act of cultural and national genocide aiming to extinguish the very essence of Ukraine's future.

SOUNDBITE (Dutch), Hilde VAUTMANS (Renew, BE), These are war crimes and they have to be punished. As co-chair of the Intergroup for Children's Rights, there are three two points I want to stress as soon as possible. We have to get those children back where they belong, back home with their parents in Ukraine. Secondly, we have to do everything we can to go after those war criminals and thirdly, punish them.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Elisabetta GUALMINI (S&amp;D, IT), They are cancelling out the Ukrainian identity, denying their original culture, their history, their roots and that is the most hateful form of totalitarianism. 20,000 people deported by Moscow to Russia and Belarus. We have to condemn those committing these war crimes. Let's say it's Vladimir Putin. Let's say it straight. Vladimir Putin is the one that should appear before the International Criminal Court. 

SOUNDBITE (Lithuanian), Bronis ROPĖ (Greens/EFA, LT), Europe does not have the right to disappoint the children of Ukraine. For long years, we have bought Russia's resources and strengthened Putin's influence. We closed our eyes to his crimes when we reacted. Our response was short and weak. Therefore, Putin thought that he would be able not to reach an agreement and compromise with Ukraine.

Cutaways from Ukranian children deported to Russia debate (4 shots)