Abducted Ukrainian Children

Baroness Tyler of Enfield Excerpts

Wednesday 18th June 2025 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Tyler of Enfield]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to support the safe return of abducted Ukrainian children forcibly removed to Russia and Belarus.

[The Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Baroness Chapman of Darlington) (Lab)]

My Lords, the UK continually raises the issue in multilateral fora, alongside our allies, and is an active member of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children. We contribute to the Partnership Fund for a Resilient Ukraine, a multi-donor initiative through which we support the Government of Ukraine to facilitate the return and reintegration of children. Through PFRU, we have supported the NGO Save Ukraine and the Ukrainian Government’s Bring Kids Back initiative.

[Baroness Tyler of Enfield (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister. While figures vary, Save the Children has estimated that over 20,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly transferred to Russia or Russian occupied territories, separated from their families and subjected to systematic efforts to erase their identity, including re-education camps, forced adoptions and conscription. The sheer number and ferocity of other international conflicts has resulted in relatively little attention being given to these abhorrent violations of international law, so what urgent steps are the Government considering to ramp up their economic sanctions and travel bans on those involved—to date, they have applied sanctions to 19 individuals and three entities—and to ensure that those responsible for these war crimes are brought to justice?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I am very pleased that this Question was selected, because the noble Baroness is right to remind the House what has been happening. It is a dreadful thing for any family to find that their child has been removed from their country, and to not know where they are, how they are and how they can be returned. As she said, we have been using our sanctions regime to hold those responsible to account and to try to encourage the return of the children. As she also said, we are talking about estimated numbers, but only around 900 have been returned so far out of 20,000. We do not have a huge amount of confidence even in those numbers, which are the Ukrainian Government’s, so there is clearly a lot more that needs to be done.

The noble Baroness knows that we do not comment on future sanctions designations, but we will continue to use every tool at our disposal to locate these children and to support those who are negotiating their return.