Statement by H.E. Ms. Mariana Betsa,

Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine, 

at the 11^th emergency special session of the UNGA

presenting the Draft Resolution “Return of Ukrainian Children”

 (3 December 2025)

Madam President,

Your Excellencies,

Distinguished delegates,

It’s a great honor for me to present here today on behalf of Ukraine the draft UNGA resolution on the return of Ukrainian children.

This resolution is not about politics. This resolution is about humanity. This resolution is about upholding the UN Charter. This resolution is about our moral imperative to return each and every Ukrainian child back home.

There can be no doubt – every child deserves a home where he feels loved, supported and taken care of.

This is a universal truth. For all the countries. For all the regions. For all the children.

With the war of aggression unleashed by Russia against Ukraine, our children became immediate – and the most vulnerable target of the Russian aggression.

Some were killed and wounded. Many more were forced to flee. Almost all have learned to live under the constant threat of shelling and air strikes.

And many were deported and forcibly transferred.

I am standing at this rostrum today to call for action.

Action to bring Ukrainian kids home. Not conditionally. Not partially. Not “later someday”. Now!

A child belongs with family, with safety, with love – not in camps, institutions, or far-away places under the control of those who abducted them.

Not under false names, foreign flags, or aggressive propaganda.

It is unimaginable that anyone could perceive children as war trophies. And yet, this is precisely how the aggressor treats Ukrainian children.

As future cannon fodder for new aggressive wars. As political instruments to promote aggressive narratives. These cynical plans are disguised as “rescue operations”. Indeed, Russia dares to claim it saves Ukrainian children while invading their Motherland, bombing their homes and schools, and burying their parents beneath the rubble of destroyed apartments.

Our draft is to remind – children are not trophies.

They are boys and girls, with the right to grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding.

A right violently destroyed by Russian tanks and missiles.

There are thousands of stories of pain, crime, tears, and courage. Including children’s courage reminding us that we must fight for each and every Ukrainian child taken by Russia.

  Let me share with you just one story among thousands.

A Ukrainian girl Veronika, now 16, at the age of 13 unexpectedly found herself in Russia, where she was forced to spend 14 months separated from her mother. She was bullied in a children’s rehabilitation center and at school. Police interrogations pressured her to confirm false testimony. She underwent forced gynecological and psychiatric examinations. Several times, Veronika tried to escape and return to Ukraine, but her attempts were blocked. After being held in isolation, she finally managed to reach Ukraine. Today, Veronika lives in Kyiv and attends the 11th grade.

These are not isolated tragedies. As of today, we have more than 1,850 Ukrainian children have been returned from Russia and the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine. Each one carries trauma. Each one returns with memories no child should hold.

And many thousands more are still out there – waiting in fear, hoping to be found, counting days without knowing if rescue will come.

Verified by Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice as of October 2025 are 6,395 deported and forcibly transferred children. In total, over 20,000 cases of deportation and forcible transfer are being investigated.

Meanwhile, Russian officials, including Maria Lvova-Belova – Commissioner for Children’s Rights – publicly confirmed that over 744,000 Ukrainian children have “arrived” in Russia since the beginning of the invasion. They claim these deportations were humanitarian, although the only humanitarian act Russia is able to perform is humanitarian disaster.

And only Russia knows the real number of deported Ukrainian children. And Russia continues to hide it.

I would like to recall that on 17 March 2023 the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for above-mentioned Lvova-Belova and her patron Vladimir Putin for the war crime of unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children. Ukraine continues to demand international justice and full accountability for these crimes and for all acts committed against children and all victims of Russia’s aggression.

International law leaves no space for doubt. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the occupying power bears full responsibility for tracing, facilitating return, and ceasing unlawful transfers. It is not for families to negotiate for their own children. It is Russia’s obligation to return them – without precondition.

Madam President,

I would like to emphasize that the Russian Federation is the only state in the modern times that abducts children from another sovereign country un mass. Russia’s policy toward Ukrainian children is a deliberate strategy. In the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and across Russia, Ukrainian children face systematic attempts to indoctrinate them by erasing their identity and replace it with a hostile narrative.

Ukrainian language, literature, and history have been removed from classrooms and replaced with Russian curriculum that glorify the invasion and the Russian army.

Ukrainian books are banned or burned.

Teachers are coerced or dismissed. Parents face interrogation, intimidation, and even the threat of losing custody of their own children.

These children are taught that their Motherland is now the enemy. They are told that Ukraine does not exist as a nation – and if it does, it is a “Nazi state.”

Russia labels an entire Ukrainian nation as Nazis, and children are forced to absorb and repeat this lie. In schools, camps, and temporary facilities, Ukrainian children are taught to hate country they were born to love. The goal is not just to re-educate them, but, as Russians have publicly stated, “to make them Russians again.” 

Militarization is central to this process. Children are placed into “youth armies,” drilled with propaganda, and instructed to celebrate the same military machine that destroyed their homes and killed their parents or loved ones.

Beyond occupied classrooms, the machinery of abduction expands further. Thousands of Ukrainian children have been taken deep into Russia, into camps, foster systems, and adoptive families – often with their names and documents changed so they may never be traced. At least 210 known facilities hold Ukrainian children, including monasteries, military boarding schools, and orphanages. Investigations confirm a state-run chain of abduction – re-education – militarization.

This is not a rescue – it is a genocide.

To mobilize strong international solidarity and ensure a resolute response by the international community, Ukraine, together with Canada and the European Union, introduces the draft resolution “Return of Ukrainian Children.”

This text stands firmly on the UN Charter, on international humanitarian law, and on the universal truth that the best interests of the child are paramount.

It condemns forced transfers, illegal adoptions, erased identities.
It demands immediate, safe, unconditional return. It urges accountability for all responsible.

It tasks the UN system to assist in locating, verifying, and ensuring access to every missing child.

And it welcomes the tireless work of those Member States and international organizations – who bring our children home.

Excellencies,

This resolution is about humanity. Not a single child should be separated from the family. Not a single child should endure what Ukrainian children are enduring for the entire 12 years into the war.

Many children wait to be rescued – suffering, hidden, silenced. Their voices cannot reach this hall.

However, they still hope. Because they believe that our voices are strong enough.

Let this guide us during the vote on the draft resolution “Return of Ukrainian children”.

I urge every Member State: Let this Assembly speak for them. Let this Assembly demand their unconditional return. Let this Assembly act.

Our children are non-negotiable. Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are not negotiable. The UN Charter and justice are not negotiable.

Ukraine calls on the UN General Assembly to help our children and to advance peace – the peace process – because there will be no just peace in Ukraine without the immediate, unconditional return of our children back home.

My delegation also moves that the debate on agenda item 5 be suspended at 4.00 p.m. today, in order for the Assembly to proceed to the consideration of draft resolution A/ES-11/L.16/Revision.1, on the understanding that the debate would resume immediately after action on the draft resolution and that the eleventh emergency session would only be temporarily adjourned after the conclusion of the debate.

Thank you.