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The uncertain future of the children abducted by Russia from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine is one of the many reasons why this war cannot end with mere silence on the front lines.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated this in his speech at the 76th session of the Nordic Council, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
“Forcing children from one nation into another and erasing their identities is clearly a genocidal practice. Russia has been doing this since the very beginning of the invasion. The International Criminal Court has already issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest based on these actions… While we have managed to bring some of these children back, each child who spends a year or two in such conditions loses far more than just time. This is, in many ways, a loss of their own future… This is one of the many reasons why this war cannot simply end with mere silence on the front lines,” Zelenskyy said.
He stressed the need to return the adducted children to Ukraine.
“For some of these children, we know where they are, what condition they’re in, and the ways they are being taught to forget Ukraine, even being lied to – that they have no families. But for most of them, we don’t yet know their whereabouts. These are children from orphanages in Russian-occupied areas, children who lost their parents to Russian bombs, and those separated from their families during Russia’s ‘filtration’ processes. They are infants, teenagers, and so many young lives that should not be scattered across Russia, taught to hate Ukraine, but instead should be with their loved ones, in their own country,” he said.
