The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine welcomes the publication of the thematic report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the impact of the Russian armed aggression against Ukraine on the rights of children.

This is the first document devoted entirely to highlighting the numerous grave violations of the rights of Ukrainian children stemming from Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, particularly in the territories of our country temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation.

The report contains numerous documented cases of children killed and injured because of Russian shelling and the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects. It states that at least 669 children have been killed and 1,833 injured as a result of Russian aggression. The use of artillery, air strikes, rocket attacks and landmines pose a constant threat to children’s lives and health, destroying homes, schools, hospitals and other civilian infrastructure.

It also recorded a widespread and systematic violation of children’s right to education, manifested in Russia's destruction of educational institutions throughout Ukraine, as well as the forced introduction of Russian educational programmes, the banning of the Ukrainian language in educational institutions, the repression of parents trying to ensure that their children study according to the Ukrainian curriculum, and the forced militarization of children in the Ukrainian territories controlled by the Russian occupying authorities.

Of particular concern are the facts of the forcible transfer of Ukrainian children by Russia to the Ukrainian territories temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation, their deportation to the Russian Federation and Belarus, the illegal change of their citizenship and the attempts to destroy their Ukrainian identity.

The facts documented by the OHCHR are further evidence of the systematic nature of violations of international humanitarian law by the Russian Federation and its disregard for its international legal obligations, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The report also highlights for the first time the increase in psychological disorders among children, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression and problems with social adjustment, because of all the horrors of war.

We call on OHCHR to continue monitoring the situation of children's rights in the context of war and Russian occupation, and to provide the international community with objective and verified data, and not to equate the aggressor and the state defending itself against aggression.

The MFA underlines the need for systematic international pressure on Russia to stop the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children and their return to Ukraine, in particular within the framework of the Bring Kids Back UA platform and the International Coalition for the Return of Children.