PACE Calls Ukrainian Children's Transfer to Russia Genocide

The practice of forcibly transferring Ukrainian children to Russia meets the international definition of genocide. This is stated in a resolution adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on April 27.

According to the document, there is evidence that the deported children are threatened by a process of "Russification," specifically, they are being retrained in Russian or are prohibited from speaking Ukrainian.

The PACE resolution notes that the transfer of Ukrainian children is evidently part of the state policy of the Russian Federation. The authors of the document believe that the aim of these actions is to "obliterate all ties and characteristics of their Ukrainian identity."

The resolution also welcomes the International Criminal Court's decision to issue arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Children's Ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova.

As noted by РБК-Украина, this is the first international document since the beginning of the war that directly describes the forced removal of Ukrainian children from occupied territories as genocide.