The United States Congress has introduced a resolution that strongly condemns the forcible removal of Ukrainian children from temporarily occupied territories. The document also demands that russia immediately return all illegally deported minors.
This was reported by the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.
The resolution was introduced by Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks and Republican Michael McCaul. "Putin is a war criminal, and under his leadership, the russian military has brutally abducted and illegally deported tens of thousands of Ukrainian children from their homeland. These crimes are not isolated cases, they are a direct consequence of the war that putin unleashed on his own choosing," Meeks said.
He stressed that the United States must clearly condemn these actions by russia and seek the return of every abducted child.
McCaul emphasized that, according to official data, at least 19,500 Ukrainian children were forcibly transferred to the russian federation. According to unofficial estimates, this figure could reach 200,000. "These children were deprived of their national identity, adopted into russian families, and are subject to the ideological influence of the Kremlin. The mass abduction of children by russia is a blatant crime. The United States must show moral leadership and demand the return of every child to their family in Ukraine until peace is achieved," he said.
A similar initiative was introduced in the Senate by Chuck Grassley (Republican) and Amy Klobuchar (Democrat).
As a reminder, as of April 2024, at least 19,546 cases of illegal removal of children to russia, Belarus, or deeper into the occupied territories were documented in Ukraine. Only 1,274 children were returned home with the support of international partners and within the framework of the Bring Kids Back UA initiative launched by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on June 25, Ukraine returned a boy who had not seen his mother and sister since 2022.
On May 28, 11 children were returned to the territory controlled by Ukraine.
On May 22, nine more children who were in the territories occupied by the aggressor country of russia were returned to Ukraine.
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