On 4 December, the United States of America chaired a meeting of the UN Security Council, under the agenda item “Maintaining Peace and Security in Ukraine'” to discuss grave violations and war crimes committed against children during the Russian Federation's war against Ukraine.

Daria Zarivna, Advisor to the Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine and Chief Operating Officer of the Bring Kids Back UA platform, delivered a statement on behalf of Ukraine. She focused on the large-scale crimes committed by Russia against Ukrainian children during the war and highlighted the systematic violations of international law, including the deportation, forced assimilation and mobilization of children as part of the policy of destruction of Ukrainian identity.

Daria Zarivna underlined the inadmissibility of the aggressor's impunity and stressed that peace for Ukraine is possible only if the norms of international law and the UN Charter are respected.

Daria Zarivna called on the international community to take decisive action for the return of abducted children, in particular within the framework of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children and the Bring Kids Back UA initiative. It thanked the United Nations, governments and international organizations and invited them to join the Montreal Pledges.

Catherine Russell, Executive Director of the UNICEF, Nathaniel Raymond, Executive Director of the Humanitarian Research Laboratory at the Yale School of Public Health, and Kateryna Rashevska, a lawyer at the Regional Centre for Human Rights, were briefers at the meeting.

Representatives of UN Security Council member states, including France, Japan, Malta, the Republic of Korea, Slovenia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States and the United States, as well as other participants, including Latvia, Canada, Poland and the EU delegation, strongly condemned the large-scale crimes committed by the Russian Federation against children in Ukraine. They recalled that for the second consecutive year, the Russian Armed Forces have been listed by the UN Secretary-General as having committed grave violations. Russia was urged to conclude an agreement with the CAAC (Children in Armed Conflict) mandate and to implement an action plan to end violations, which is a prerequisite for being removal from the list.

Foreign partners stressed that Russia's systematic targeting of Ukraine's energy infrastructure critically threaten the lives of civilians, especially children, during winter. Such actions deprive millions of people of access to heating, water and other basic services, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis.

Particular attention was given to the recent report by the Humanitarian Research Laboratory of the Yale School of Public Health on "Russia's Systematic Programme of Forced Adoption and Guardianship of Ukrainian Children". The report indicates that since February 2022, 314 Ukrainian children have been part of Russia's forced adoption and guardianship programme, of whom 148 have been entered into Russian child placement databases, 42 have already been adopted or have a Russian guardian, and 166 have been placed with Russian families. The children have been taken to at least 21 regions of Russia, where they have been placed under Russian guardianship or in institutions and registered in the database. Most of the children come from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, but there are also reports of children being taken from the Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv regions. This is further evidence of Russia's deliberate policy of abducting Ukrainian children.

The session brought to the serious attention of UN Member States the continuing crimes committed by Russia against children in Ukraine. Of particular concern is illegal deportation, which is abducting children to change their status, indoctrinate and force Russification. These actions by Russia are part of a systematic policy to destroy Ukrainian identity and undermine the fundamental rights of children, including the right to family, education and cultural identity.

Participants stressed that these crimes grossly violated international law, particularly the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and other key international human rights instruments. Russia's narratives justifying its actions were not supported by UN Security Council members and other participants.

The international community has strongly condemned the crimes committed by the Russian Federation against Ukrainian children and called for further action to bring those responsible to justice and to ensure the return of the abducted children.