The UN General Assembly has called on the Russian Federation to ensure the immediate, unconditional, and safe return of all Ukrainian children forcibly displaced or deported during its war against Ukraine. The resolution was supported by 91 countries.
The resolution was adopted during a meeting on December 3rd.
The document also urges Russia to immediately cease any further practices of forced displacement, deportation, separation of children from families and legal guardians, alteration of personal status, including citizenship, adoption, or placement in foster care.
In addition to Russia, Belarus, Iran, Nicaragua, Cuba, Eritrea, Mali, and several other states voted against the resolution. 57 countries abstained, including China and India.
The resolution concerning the return of Ukrainian children addresses not politics but the moral obligation of the international community to bring every child home, emphasized Ukraine's Deputy Foreign Minister Marianna Betza, who represented the document.
“Our children have been killed. Our children have been injured. Our children have been subjected to torture and rape. Our children have been kidnapped and deported by Russia, which is a gross violation of international law,” Betza stated.
She reminded that Russia has deported at least 20,000 Ukrainian children, of which Ukraine has managed to return over 1,850. Betza noted that the Russian authorities are trying to “erase the identity of Ukrainian children and replace it with hostile propaganda,” stripping away the Ukrainian language, literature, and history while banning books and persecuting teachers and parents. Children are forced to “repeat falsehoods about Ukraine as a Nazi state,” and the process of “military training and ideological indoctrination” is even taking place in so-called children’s armies.
During the discussion of the project, the President of the UN General Assembly Annalena Baerbock emphasized that the deportation of children constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law. She reminded that Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits the forced displacement of civilians from occupied territories, while the Convention on the Rights of the Child guarantees every child's right to identity, life in a family, citizenship, and protection from abduction.
What is known about the abduction of Ukrainian children by Russia
The President’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights Daria Gerasimchuk previously informed that as of the end of March 2023, the Ukrainian authorities are aware of over 19,500 children taken from temporarily occupied territories to Russia, but their exact number is difficult to determine due to the occupation.
On April 5, 2023, 49 countries issued a joint statement condemning Russia for organizing a Security Council meeting regarding the alleged legal grounds for the abduction of Ukrainian children from temporarily occupied territories. The United Kingdom blocked the broadcast of the speech by the Russian children's rights commissioner Lvova-Belova on UN resources, calling for her to be held accountable for her actions in court in The Hague.
The Office of the Prosecutor General indicated that there is currently no single transparent algorithm or mechanism that allows for the return of deported Ukrainian children to Russia.
On March 17, 2023, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Putin and Lvova-Belova. They are suspected of the illegal deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children.
On September 23, 2025, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that 1,625 Ukrainian children had been successfully returned to Ukraine.