On April 27, in Strasbourg, the Parliamentary Assembly of Europe adopted a decision to recognise the forced genocide of the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russian-controlled territories and Russia. PACE called on those responsible for this action to stop the forced displacement of minors and return them home.
Voting participants noted that the deportation of children began at the very beginning of the war — in 2014. Many children in the occupied Donetsk/Luhansk regions and Crimea were taken out of orphanages, hospitals, boarding schools and even official families. We remind you that Russia, in turn, legalised the "adoptions" of Ukrainian children in the families of Russians and enslaved republics. Important to know that a huge number of Ukrainian orphans, who were kidnapped and taken away by Russia, became orphans precisely because of the war that the Kremlin unleashed against Ukraine.
"The deportation of Ukrainian children is one of the well-thought-out elements of Russia's attempt to erase the identity of our people, to destroy the very essence of Ukrainians. This is a deliberate crime of genocide committed by Russian officials — this is exactly how it should be qualified both politically and legally," Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
According to the ombudsman of Ukraine, more than 19.384 children were forcibly taken out of Ukraine. So far, only 361 of them have managed to return home.
