US Congress Introduces Resolution on Return of Ukrainian Children Abducted by Russia

In the United States, Congressmen Gregory Meeks and Michael McCaul introduced a bipartisan resolution in the House of Representatives condemning Russia's abduction and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children and calling for their immediate return.

The Gaze reports on this with reference to an official statement from the US House Foreign Affairs Committee.

On Monday, 30 June, Meeks and McCaul introduced a bipartisan resolution condemning Russia's abduction and forced relocation of Ukrainian children. In it, they called for their return before a peace agreement is reached.

‘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,’ Mix said.

He stressed that these atrocities are not isolated incidents, but are ‘a direct consequence of the war Putin started.’ 

‘The United States has a duty to condemn these inhumane actions by Russia and demand the immediate return of all children abducted by Russia, without exception,’ he added.

McCaul, in turn, stressed that since the beginning of the war, Russia has ‘abducted at least 19,500 Ukrainian children from their homeland, and according to some estimates, the actual number reaches 200,000.’ 

"These children have been stripped of their national identity, given to Russian families or indoctrinated as Kremlin soldiers. As a father, I cannot imagine the pain their families have endured. Russia's mass abduction of children is pure evil; the United States must demonstrate moral leadership by demanding that every child be returned to their family in Ukraine before true peace can be achieved," he added.

The statement notes that Senators Chuck Grassley (Republican) and Amy Klobuchar (Democrat) have submitted a resolution to the Senate.

In March, the US State Department announced short-term funding for an initiative to document abducted Ukrainian children before the initiative ceases operations entirely.

The decision to terminate the programme, called the Ukraine Conflict Observatory, was made after US President Donald Trump ordered a broad review to prevent what he said was a waste of American taxpayers' money on goals that did not serve American interests.

Earlier, a group of Democratic lawmakers said there were grounds to believe that after the US stopped funding, evidence of Russia's abduction of about 30,000 children from Ukraine had been lost.

However, on 19 March, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said that information collected under the auspices of a Yale University project on Russia's abduction of children from occupied Ukrainian territories had not been deleted despite the cessation of funding.

As The Gaze reported earlier, the United Nations has recorded an increase in crimes against Ukrainian children, according to the annual report by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, “Children and Armed Conflict.”