The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has taken note of the UN Secretary-General’s 2025 report, ‘Children and Armed Conflict’, which once again documents large-scale war crimes and gross violations of children’s rights committed by the occupying forces of the Russian Federation on Ukrainian territory.
Among the key findings regarding Ukraine are the rise in the number of gross violations committed by the Russian armed forces, primarily the killing and maiming of children, attacks on schools and hospitals, and the obstruction of humanitarian access. The UN-verified facts regarding the killing, maiming and sexual violence against children, the use of minors as informants, as well as mass strikes on schools, hospitals and critical energy infrastructure, are a direct consequence of Russia’s strategy of long-range attacks on Ukrainian towns and villages.
Ukraine strongly condemns any attempts by the Russian Federation to alter the nationality, legal status or family ties of forcibly deported and displaced Ukrainian children, including infants born under temporary occupation, and emphasises that the whereabouts of many of them remain unknown.
We welcome the UN Secretary-General’s decision, for the fourth year running, to include the armed forces of the Russian Federation and the armed groups under their control on the list of persistent violators for the killing and maiming of children, as well as attacks on schools and hospitals in Ukraine.
Russia’s inclusion on the so-called ‘list of shame’ is a natural consequence of its systematic and deliberate terror against the most vulnerable - children.
Today, the Russian Federation is simultaneously listed as a violator under two key UN mechanisms - the mandate on children and armed conflict and the mandate on conflict-related sexual violence. This situation cannot remain without practical consequences. Ukraine consistently advocates for barring a state party to violations from participating in UN peacekeeping operations and expects concrete steps from all parties involved in this regard.
We would like to emphasise in particular the need for the strict implementation of UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/ES-11/9 ‘The Return of Ukrainian Children’, adopted on 3 December 2025. In this context, the Ukrainian side welcomes the steps taken by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, whose visit to Ukraine in April 2026 was an important step towards documenting the aggressor’s crimes and coordinating joint action. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has also taken note of the Special Representative’s visit to the Russian Federation.
We call on the UN Secretary-General to take further, consistent steps to implement this resolution and to utilise existing international instruments to protect the rights of Ukrainian children, establish their whereabouts and ensure their safe return to their homeland as soon as possible.
It is Russia that has launched and continues to wage an unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine. Ukraine is carrying out retaliatory strikes, including on the territory of the Russian Federation, in exercise of its inalienable right to self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter and in strict compliance with the norms of international humanitarian law.
Unlike the aggressor state, Ukraine demonstrates complete openness to international monitoring mechanisms, as clearly reflected in the report.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine calls on the international community to step up pressure on the Russian Federation to immediately cease the use of children in the conflict, ensure unhindered humanitarian access by the UN to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, and ensure the unconditional return of all abducted Ukrainian children to their families. No crime against Ukraine’s future will go unpunished, and all Russian war criminals will be held accountable under international law.