At the spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, there will be an urgent debate on the forced deportation of Ukrainian children by the Russian Federation.
This was announced by the head of the permanent delegation of the Verkhovna Rada to the PACE, Maria Mezentseva, on the air of the national telethon on Monday, Interfax-Ukraine reports.
"Already at the spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, there will be an urgent debate on this topic, which will lead to a resolution that will be adopted by 46 member states. And this will be the first international document that will establish all existing violations... We plan to work on this text of the document and it will be voted on at the end of April," said Mezentseva.
She also informed that the issue of deportation of Ukrainian children to the territory of the Russian Federation will also be discussed at the summit of the leaders of the member states of the Council of Europe at the end of May in Reykjavik (Iceland).
"Today and tomorrow we are working in London, speaking in the Parliament of Great Britain, and there we will raise this issue so that our partners not only know the numbers, but also act together with us," said the People's Deputy.
She emphasized that the Russian Federation does not give access to the UN structures or the International Red Cross to the so-called "summer camps" where Ukrainian children are kept.
Mezentseva cited data from her British colleagues that "there may be approximately 43" such camps on the territory of Russia.
The People's Deputy reminded that more than 16,000 appeals have been officially registered regarding Ukrainian children illegally taken to Russia, of which 307 children have already been returned home.
Earlier it was reported that the European Commission and Poland are launching an initiative to find Ukrainian children who were illegally taken by the Russian military from the occupied territories of Ukraine.
At the beginning of March, the Council of Europe announced the need for urgent action to reunite Ukrainian children displaced to Russia and the territories occupied by Russia with their families.
