The return of each Ukrainian child kidnapped by Russia is an urgent issue to be resolved without delay. We must be relentless and continue our fight to return each child back to their homeland, underlined Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica, Deputy Speaker of the Saeima and Head of the Latvian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), on Friday, 15 December, at the meeting of the PACE Bureau ad hoc Committee on the situation with Ukrainian children.
Currently, we can and we are helping restore the mental and physical health of Ukrainian children who are in Ukraine or who have found refuge in various European countries. However, thinking of justice in the long term, the suffering and damage caused to all Ukrainian children must also be registered in the recently established Register of Damage, so that they could later receive compensations from the confiscated Russian state assets, which the international community will direct for the benefit of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people who have suffered from Russia’s aggression, said Kalniņa-Lukaševica.
The Deputy Speaker of the Saeima reminded that weaponising these children against the brave people of Ukraine is the most atrocious act of all the war crimes committed by Russia. According to the official report, almost 20 thousand Ukrainian children are deported to Russia, but there can be no doubt that the actual count is several times greater, while only a few hundred have returned home. Kalniņa-Lukaševica expressed hope that representatives of the Red Cross would take more active steps to tackle this issue already in the coming months.
Earlier, at the PACE October session in Strasbourg, we met a father whose three children were deported from Mariupol to Moscow to enjoy the so-called Russian care. It was a miracle that the family found their way back. This family has found safe haven with us in Latvia, reminded Kalniņa-Lukaševica.
The Deputy Speaker of the Saeima mentioned that the next international conference dedicated to the deported Ukrainian children is set to take place already on 1 February in Riga with the aim of raising awareness and engagement of the international community, rescuing the children, and bringing them back home to safety.
The Deputy Speaker of the Saeima, Head of the Latvian delegation to PACE, is visiting Paris, the capital of France, until 16 December, to participate in various PACE meetings, including the meeting of the PACE Bureau ad hoc Committee on the situation with Ukrainian children.
Liene Dambiņa, Chair of the Board of the Children’s Hospital Foundation, also spoke at the meeting, discussing the war trauma, suffering, and rehabilitation of Ukrainian children.
Saeima Press Service