Daria Herasymchuk, an advisor to the President of Ukraine for Children's Rights and Children's Rehabilitation, informed about the deportation and forced relocation of Ukrainian children by Russia since the beginning of the full-scale invasion at an Arria-formula meeting of the UN Security Council via video link.
"After the beginning of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, no one anywhere can feel safe until the aggressor is defeated. The whole world knows this," Herasymchuk said.
According to her, the most terrible part of this war and the biggest proof of the Russian crime of genocide are the ruined lives and destinies of Ukrainian children.
"Russians kill, rape, and kidnap our children and show all this as salvation! Even those girls and boys who escaped physical harm from the shelling suffered deep losses. Their homes and families, schools and kindergartens, playgrounds, and stadiums were damaged or destroyed. Their childhood is destroyed. Each of the 7.5 million Ukrainian children who lived in Ukraine before February 24, 2022, suffered from this terrible war," she said.
During the online session, the advisor to the President of Ukraine for children's rights and children's rehabilitation told the participants of the event about the terrible situation in which Ukrainian children found themselves due to the fault of the Russian occupiers, about the murders and injuries of children, about the violence against them. Separately, she focused on the abduction of young Ukrainian citizens by invaders, which is part of the crime of genocide against Ukrainians. Herasymchuk informed the meeting participants about the steps Ukraine is taking to stop and prevent gross violations of children's rights during Russia's armed aggression, about cooperation with the International Criminal Court, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, the OSCE human dimension mechanism, the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Children and Armed Conflict and the relevant working group of the United Nations in our country. Ukraine has developed a preliminary draft preventive plan to stop and prevent gross violations of children's rights during armed conflict.
Herasymchuk showed video testimonies of children who stayed in so-called "health camps." The children talked about how they were treated, about the forced study of the Russian national anthem, and Russian songs, about the punishment for speaking in Ukrainian and about Ukraine, and about the terrible conditions of their stay.
The advisor to the President called on the international community to join forces to rescue Ukrainian children abducted by Russia and to develop international mechanisms to ensure the safety of all children in the world: "Let's protect the children of Ukraine together today because tomorrow it could be any child from any country in the world!"