EU and Zelensky urge Russia to return kidnapped children

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday urged Russia to repatriate Ukrainian children it allegedly abducted and stop “fast-track adoptions.”

In a joint statement on the occasion of International Children’s Day, von der Leyen and Zelensky considered that “every child has the right to be free, to be protected.”

“However, Russia’s aggressive war deprives Ukrainian children of these rights,” they added in a statement.

The representative of the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) and the President of Ukraine “strongly condemned the illegal deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children, another crime on Russia’s list of war crimes.”

Therefore, Ursula von der Leyen and Volodymyr Zelensky called on the Kremlin to stop the deportation of children, “put an end to self-proclaimed ‘fast-track adoptions’ and return them.”

“The time will come to bring those responsible for these crimes to justice. […]“We welcome the establishment of the International Center for the Investigation of Crimes of Aggression against Ukraine,” they conclude.

The two leaders have warned that the invasion, launched by the Russian Federation more than a year ago, is having devastating physical and psychological consequences for millions of children, both those who fled the country seeking asylum from the conflict and those who remain in the country who face daily with bombings, and in some regions with Russian occupation.

To provide support for Ukrainian children, the European Union has pledged support in the amount of ten million euros.

To date, more than a million refugee children in the member countries of the community bloc are under the Temporary Protection Directive.