European Parliament discusses return of deported Ukrainian children

The European Parliament once again discussed the issue of the return of Ukrainian children deported to Russia whose number can reach from 16,000 to 300,000.

"The European Parliament once again discussed the issue of the return of Ukrainian children illegally deported to the territory of the Russian Federation. It was noted that currently their number can reach from 16,000 to 300,000. The MEPs explained this figure by the fact that the Russians started taking out our children back in 2014 – when Crimea and parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions were occupied," the press service of the Ministry of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine informs.

As noted, the MEPs also emphasized that forced deportation became possible again, since similar crimes committed in the USSR were not convicted at the time and the guilty were never prosecuted at the international level. However, now the world community has taken this fact into account and the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova.

As the Ministry notes, the EU continues to support Ukraine in investigating war crimes and crimes against humanity. The European Commission has already allocated more than 10 million euros to the International Criminal Court in The Hague and also identified 16 Russian officials responsible for the forced transfer of children from the temporarily occupied territories. The next step of joint efforts will be a conference organized by the European Commission and Poland. It aims to unite international efforts to find children forcibly displaced from Ukraine, the Ministry said.

As reported, on April 20, the French Senate called on the EU institutions and Member States to collect evidence of the forcible deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia and to impose sanctions on Russian officials involved in these crimes.

During its spring session from April 24 to 28, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will hold an urgent debate on the deportation of Ukrainian children by the occupiers to Russia.