On April 23, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Mariana Betsa opened a discussion at a roundtable on the project aimed at investigating particularly serious crimes of the Russian Federation related to Ukrainian children who went missing under special circumstances. The event has been organized by the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairpersonship-in-Office – OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine, Ambassador Petr Mareš.

“I express my sincere gratitude to the OSCE and donor States for launching the project “Enhancing co-ordinated and analytical approaches to investigating serious crimes, particularly related to missing children”, designed at the request of Ukraine. We highly appreciate the OSCE's readiness to make its direct contribution to overcoming the consequences of the Russian Federation’s war of aggression against Ukraine", Mariana Betsa stated.

Deputy Minister condemned the serious crimes committed by Russia in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, in particular those crimes related to the deportation of Ukrainian children, which constitute a blatant violation of international law. She also stressed the importance of holding all Russia’s war criminals to account.

Mariana Betsa also invited the OSCE to join the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children.

The abovementioned OSCE project became a practical continuation of the OSCE efforts initiated within the framework of the report of experts of the OSCE Moscow Mechanism “On Violations and Abuses of International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, related to the Forcible Transfer and/or Deportation of Ukrainian Children to the Russian Federation”.