Zelensky: There will be sentences for genocide just as for all other Russian crimes against Ukraine

“Today, there was an important political result in Strasbourg at the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. A resolution was adopted recognizing that Russia's deportation of Ukrainian children has evidence of genocide. This is the first recognition of this fact at the level of such a high international organization uniting the states of our continent. Practically speaking, this decision will significantly help our global efforts to bring Russia and its officials, including the head of the terrorist state, to justice for genocide and genocidal policies against Ukraine,” President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address.

The President stressed that the deportation of Ukrainian children is one of the fully premeditated elements of Russia's attempt to erase the identity of the Ukrainians, a deliberate crime of genocide. He noted that Ukraine will continue to work on all levels – formal and informal, with leaders of states, at the parliamentary, governmental, law enforcement levels, in the legal community and in international and inter-parliamentary organizations – to return all deported Ukrainian children and hold Russia to account.

Zelensky noted that the number of children deported by the terrorist state could be higher: “We know for sure the data of almost 20 thousand children who were taken away and dispersed to different regions of the evil state. But it is obvious that this is only a part of much larger criminal actions. There may be many more such children,” Zelensky stressed.

The President expressed confidence that all Russian officials guilty of genocide will be brought to justice and punished: “There will be sentences for genocide. Just as for all other crimes committed by Russia against Ukraine and our people.”

As reported, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe today recognized the deportation and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to the territory of the Russian Federation as genocide and called on the ICC to consider the possibility of criminal prosecution for this crime.