Abducted Ukrainian Children

Lord Touhig Excerpts

Wednesday 18th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[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.

[Lord Touhig (Lab)]

My Lords, now that there have been calls for the release of Ukrainian prisoners of war held by the Russians, those prisoners of war have hope of freedom and returning home. Not so the 1.5 million children living in Russian-occupied Ukraine. Already, thousands have been taken to Russia, deliberately re-educated, handed over to Russian families and forced to become Russians. For these children, there will be no freedom unless we help. Will the Government support the Council of Europe’s demand that any peace agreement ending this war must guarantee the return of these kidnapped children?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

My noble friend does a wonderful job with the Council of Europe, and we have supported the things that he describes. We also raise this at the OSCE and in every other fora in which we are able to do so. I agree with every word that he said, and I urge him to continue to make the case that he does.