Daria Herasymchuk, Advisor - Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights and Child Rehabilitation, took part in the high-level event "Gross Human Rights Violations Due to Aggression against Ukraine" held in the hall of the Trusteeship Council at the UN Headquarters in New York.
In her speech, Daria Herasymchuk called on the international community to join the rescue of Ukrainian children abducted by the aggressor and forcibly taken to Russia or the temporarily occupied territories, as such actions are one of the components of the crime of genocide against the Ukrainian people.
The Advisor - Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights said that, as of February this year, the Russian military had killed 461 children and wounded 927. 16,221 children who were illegally forcibly removed from the territory of Ukraine by the occupiers have been clearly identified. However, the actual number of Ukrainian children forcibly removed reaches hundreds of thousands.
According to Daria Herasymchuk, only 307 young Ukrainians were returned to their homeland. Their stories after their return made it possible to identify scenarios of abduction of Ukrainian minors and actions of representatives of the Russian Federation against them.
Using the stories of several children as examples, the Adviser - Presidential Commissioner informed about five scenarios of abduction. The first is when Russians forcibly move children after killing their parents. The second scenario is when children are taken directly from their families. The third is the separation of children and parents during filtration. The fourth scenario is the creation of uninhabitable conditions and the offer to transfer children for rehabilitation and recreation. And the fifth scenario is the removal of children's institutions in their entirety.
"We must do everything in our power to save Ukrainian children, because tomorrow this can happen to any child from any country in the world! And today, each of you can and should decide what you can personally do to help Ukrainian children, and thus children of the world," said Daria Herasymchuk.
The high-level event was convened and hosted by the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations jointly with the Permanent Missions of 36 UN Member States and the EU Mission on the eve of the anniversary of the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The meeting focused on the consequences of the war for human rights, in particular the rights of children.
The event was attended by representatives of the UN, human rights and non-governmental organizations, experts, analysts, and scholars.