{"id":471090,"date":"2026-11-12T16:43:53","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T15:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/11\/12\/leurocamera-la-russia-restituisca-i-bambini-ucraini-rapiti-la-loro-deportazione-e-un-genocidio\/"},"modified":"2026-11-12T17:39:36","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T16:39:36","slug":"the-european-parliament-russia-must-return-the-abducted-ukrainian-children-their-deportation-constitutes-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/11\/12\/the-european-parliament-russia-must-return-the-abducted-ukrainian-children-their-deportation-constitutes-genocide\/","title":{"rendered":"The European Parliament: Russia must return the abducted Ukrainian children. Their deportation constitutes genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 \u201cThose responsible for the deportation and forced transfer of Ukrainian children must be held to account.\u201d This is what the European Parliament called on the Russian Federation to do today (12 November) in a resolution<\/a> adopted by an overwhelming majority, with 536 votes in favour, 8 against, and 37 abstentions. In the text, the European Parliament strongly condemned \u201cRussia\u2019s systematic deportation, forcible transfer, illegal adoption, forced Russification, indoctrination and militarisation of Ukrainian children<\/a> by Russia.\u201d<\/strong> According to MEPs, these actions fall within the legal definition of genocide, and they therefore called on Member States \u201cto officially recognise them as such,\u201d reiterating \u201cRussia\u2019s responsibility to ensure respect for the rights of children under its control.\u201d<\/p>\n

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MEPs have called for \u201cthe immediate, safe and unconditional return of all Ukrainian children who have been deported or forcibly transferred,\u201d emphasising that \u201cthe return of children is an obligation under international law and must never be used as a bargaining instrument or made conditional upon territorial concessions, prisoner exchanges, or other political agreements.\u201d According to estimates provided by the European Parliament, by September 2026, 20,651 cases of the deportation and forced transfer of Ukrainian children by Russia had been verified<\/strong>, while approximately 1.6 million Ukrainian children remain under Russian occupation. The text also specifies that, up to 28 October 2026, 2,752 Ukrainian children who had been \u201cdeported, forcibly transferred, or rescued from the territories occupied\u201d by Moscow had been repatriated.<\/p>\n

MEPs have made it clear that \u201cthe safe and unconditional return of all unlawfully deported and forcibly transferred Ukrainian children constitutes not only an urgent humanitarian necessity but also remains a centrepiece of international efforts to establish accountability for Russian crimes committed during the war.\u201d For this reason, MEPs insist on regarding repatriation as \u201ca central priority of all diplomatic initiatives and negotiations concerning a possible peace agreement to end Russia\u2019s war of aggression\u201d<\/strong>. \u201cNo lasting peace can disregard the rights of these children or the accountability of those responsible for violating their rights,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n

The European Parliament then urged Member States to \u201cstrengthen their practical cooperation with Ukraine, international partners, and organisations to accelerate the identification, documentation, tracing and return of all missing and deported Ukrainian children.\u201d In addition, a call was made for greater pressure through EU sanctions \u201cagainst officials and entities identified as responsible for child deportations.\u201d<\/strong> In this context, Parliament also expressed its \u201cfull support for the International Criminal Court, the court\u2019s unhindered activity, and its arrest warrants issued\u201d against the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin<\/strong>, and the Commissioner for Children\u2019s Rights at the Russian Presidency, Maria Lvova-Belova<\/strong>, \u201cfor the war crime of the deportation and unlawful transfer of Ukrainian children.\u201d MEPs believe that “responsibility accountability must extend beyond Russia\u2019s upper leadership to encompass the entire chain of perpetrators and enablers responsible for the execution of these crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, the resolution calls for close cooperation between the various stakeholders, including the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation<\/strong>, Europol, the EU Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation<\/strong>, Eurojust, and the Ukrainian Ombudsman<\/strong> \u2013 an independent oversight authority appointed by the Verkhovna Rada<\/span><\/span>, the Ukrainian Parliament \u2013 to gather information and locate children who have been unlawfully transferred. The resolution was adopted following a debate on the matter held yesterday (11 November). Also present in the Chamber was the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas<\/strong>, who, at the conclusion of her speech, stated<\/a>: \u201cThe treatment of Ukrainian children over the last four years is the clearest example of Russia\u2019s total disregard for life.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The European Parliament has adopted a resolution strongly condemning \u201cthe forced relocation, illegal adoption, \u2018forced Russification\u2019, indoctrination and militarisation of Ukrainian children\u201d by Moscow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7908,"featured_media":471069,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[29788],"tags":[36645,26339,25755,35438,33830,31897,29842],"class_list":["post-471090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diritti-en","tag-bambini-ucraini","tag-eurocamera-en","tag-news-parliament-en","tag-federazione-russa","tag-kaja-kallas","tag-mosca-en-2","tag-war-in-ucraine-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471090"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":471091,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471090\/revisions\/471091"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}