On 8 June, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Mariana Betsa met with an OSCE Moscow Mechanism mission of independent international experts, which was invocated by OSCE participating states to examine the issue of Russia’s militarization and indoctrination of Ukrainian children.
Mariana Betsa expressed her gratitude to the experts - Elina Steinerte, Stefan Wolff and Herve Ascensio – for their important work aimed at establishing the facts and circumstances of Russia’s violations of human rights and international humanitarian law related to the militarization and indoctrination of Ukrainian children by the aggressor state in the course of its war against Ukraine. The Deputy Minister emphasized that these are not individual cases, but Russia’s coordinated state policy aimed at destroying the Ukrainian identity of children.
“We see the work of the OSCE Moscow Mechanism expert mission as an important element of the overall coordinated response of the international community to the crimes of the Russian Federation against Ukrainian children. The mission’s work involves proper documentation of such crimes and will contribute to holding Russia and its war criminals accountable” Mariana Betsa underlined.
The Ukrainian side expects that the upcoming report of the expert mission, following its work in Ukraine, will be an important contribution by the OSCE to the broader international efforts aimed at documenting Russia’s crimes in Ukraine, as well as supporting the restoration of justice for Ukrainian children.
During its visit to Ukraine, the expert mission is going to have a series of meetings with representatives of state institutions, international organizations, and civil society, as well as with witnesses and victims of Russian war crimes.
For reference: the OSCE Moscow Mechanism on the militarization and indoctrination of Ukrainian children by Russia was invoked on 14 May 2026 due to the joint efforts of Ukraine and 41 OSCE participating States, in response to Russia’s systematic and grave violations of international law concerning Ukrainian children in the course of its ongoing full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine. A report will be published following the work of the independent experts.