Today, on 5 August 2025, the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children issued a statement with a clear call to the Russian Federation: to immediately and unconditionally return Ukrainian children whose names were officially transmitted by Ukraine during bilateral negotiations held in Istanbul on 2 June 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The submission of an initial list of 339 children during the Istanbul meeting was a humanitarian gesture of trust, aimed at launching the process of returning children who had been unlawfully deported and forcibly transferred back to Ukraine. Eight weeks have passed since that meeting, yet the Russian Federation has neither responded nor proposed any effective mechanism for the return of the children, nor demonstrated any willingness to engage in constructive dialogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The unlawful transfer of Ukrainian children constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law, including the Geneva Conventions and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The return of these children is not a political concession but a legally binding obligation of the occupying power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Coalition calls on Russia to return all Ukrainian children, provide comprehensive and verified information about their whereabouts, condition, and legal status, ensure unimpeded access for international humanitarian organizations, and cease all efforts to alter their identities, arrange illegal adoptions, place them in Russian families or institutions, or subject them to ideological indoctrination and militarization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The statement by the Coalition has been endorsed by Ukraine, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, the Council of Europe, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the European Union (as observer), and Switzerland (as observer).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":75502,"template":"","publication-type":[43],"class_list":["post-75505","press-center","type-press-center","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","publication-type-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n