Mr. Chairperson,

The Delegation of Ukraine wishes to express its full support to the important initiative, presented in the joint statement of 45 participating States, on the invocation of the OSCE Moscow Mechanism to address the deportation of children amidst the human rights violations and humanitarian impacts of russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.

As we informed the Permanent Council on several occasions, thousands of Ukrainian children are forcibly deported by the aggressor state from the invaded territories to russia, as well as forcibly transferred within Ukraine’s territory under russia’s illegal occupation.

In russia, Ukrainian children are also exposed to numerous human rights violations and abuses, in particular those relating to a change of the child’s personal status, including citizenship, separation from parents or guardians, adoption, and other violations or abuses leading to their forced assimilation and erasing their Ukrainian identity.

We stress that the relocation of Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to russia and their subsequent adoption by russian citizens grossly violate the Ukrainian legislation and international law, including the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 1949. It also violates the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989.

We wish to emphasize that under international law russia's actions can also be qualified as the forcible transfer of children from one human group to another, which falls under the UN Convention on the crime of genocide.

The extreme gravity of situation was also clearly testified by the International Criminal Court arrest warrants of 17 March 2023 on the war crime of unlawful deportation of children and that of unlawful transfer of children from the temporarily occupied areas of Ukraine to the russian federation.

Mr. Chairperson,  

We sincerely appreciate that following the consultations with Ukraine the overwhelming majority of participating States agreed on the need to continue the documentation of russia’s gross violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and decided to invoke the Moscow Mechanism in order to establish the facts and circumstances related to the forcible transfer of children within parts of Ukraine’s territory temporarily occupied by russia and their deportation to the russian federation.

We believe that the invocation of the OSCE Human Dimension Moscow Mechanism would significantly contribute to the international efforts and accountability mechanisms to ensure justice and hold to account the masterminds and perpetrators of russia’s crimes.

The Delegation of Ukraine expresses its readiness to invite a mission of experts in accordance with the procedures of the OSCE Moscow Mechanism.

I kindly ask that this Statement be attached to the Journal of the Day.

Thank you, Mr. Chairperson.