On the return of Ukrainian children forcibly transferred and deported by Russia

B100250/2025

Motion for a European Parliament resolution on the return of Ukrainian children forcibly transferred and deported by Russia

(2025/2691(RSP))

The European Parliament,

having regard to its numerous previous resolutions on Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, in particular the one of 15 September 2022 on the human rights violations in the context of forced deportation of Ukrainian civilians to and forced adoption of Ukrainian children in Russia,

– having regard to Article II (e) of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,

–having regard to Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention,

–having regard to the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child of 20 November 1989 and the additional protocols thereto,

– having regard to Rule 150(5) of its Rules of Procedure.

whereas reportedly hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children have been forcibly transferred to the temporarily occupied territories or deported to Russian territory, without information about their whereabouts and in many cases to remote regions;

whereas only about 1.200 among the documented 20.000 deported children have returned to Ukraine so far;

whereas international law unequivocally prohibits transfer to an occupied territory or deportation from an occupied territory to the territory of the occupying power, which constitutes a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions and a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC);

whereas on 17 March 2023 the ICC issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova for their responsibility for the war crime of unlawful transfer and deportation of Ukrainian children since February 2022;

1.Demands that Russia inform about the names, whereabouts and wellbeing of all transferred and deported Ukrainian children and enable their immediate and safe return;

2.Urges the Russian federal and local authorities to grant international organisations such as the ICRC, OHCHR and UNICEF access to all Ukrainian children deported to occupied territory or to the Russian territory;

3.Reiterates that the deportation of Ukrainian children is a grave violation of international humanitarian law, in particular of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and constitutes a war crime;

4.Calls on the EU and its Member States to closely cooperate with and support Ukrainian authorities and other international organisations such as ICRC in their efforts to document all missing and deported Ukrainian children, determine their whereabouts and repatriate them in order to promptly reunite them with their parents or legal custodians;

5.Urges the US Government to maintain its crucial financial support to initiatives documenting and tracking deported Ukrainian children such as the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, and the EU to urgently enable such operations to continue unabated;

6.Emphasizes that any genuine peace deal must entail the return of the children as well as accountability for their deportation to Russia;

7.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Vice-President of the Commission/ High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the Council, the Commission, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the Council of Europe, the OSCE and to the President, Government and Parliament of Ukraine, the United States and the Russian Federation.