The Council notes the priority of directing the joint efforts of the Government, civil society, and the international community towards priority areas, specifically:
The return of prisoners of war, civilian hostages, illegally deported individuals, and children, forcibly transferred to the territory of the Russian Federation, is a high priority in the context of restoring comprehensive, just, and lasting peace in Ukraine and in the implementation of the Peace Formula of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
In light of the Peace Formula’s realization, the Council emphasizes that the rights of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians detained by Russia must be ensured in accordance with the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 for the protection of war victims and their Additional Protocols.
All Ukrainian citizens detained in Russia and in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine (prisoners of war, civilians, forcibly transferred and deported persons, including children) must be released, particularly through a full exchange.
The Council welcomes the establishment of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children, unlawfully deported, and forcibly displaced to the Russian Federation from temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and urges all countries to support Ukraine's efforts in achieving this important goal, particularly by joining the Declaration of the International Coalition, and facilitating the implementation of its tasks.
We call for the widest possible utilization of mechanisms that exist within international organizations (UN, OSCE, Council of Europe) to monitor and document Russian crimes and human rights violations in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, including reports of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, the Moscow Mechanism of the OSCE, which will contribute to accountability and the establishment of justice.
We also call on relevant international humanitarian organizations to take all possible measures to fulfill their functions under the Geneva Conventions, namely: to visit prisoners of war in all places of their detention, to monitor living and working conditions of Ukrainian defenders and civilians and proper treatment, to provide medical assistance (including measures to prevent possible disability), to ensure the delivery transportation of individual or collective parcels, correspondence, documents of Ukrainian prisoners, and to conduct proper awareness raising and trainings on the necessity of compliance with the provisions of international humanitarian law in the territory of the aggressor state.
We demand that Russia’s treatment of prisoners of war is in full accordance with the provisions of the Geneva Convention of 12 August 19492 and Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, 3.
In that regard, we also note the importance of further consideration to engage international mechanisms under which Russia continues to bear international legal obligations (particularly in the field of preventing and countering torture and conflict-related sexual violence) which potentially can be used to gain access for international monitors to illegally detained (deported, abducted, etc.) citizens of Ukraine in the territory of the Russian Federation.