Ukraine: Forcibly Deported Children

Stephen Doughty Excerpts

Wednesday 21st May 2025 Westminster Hall

[The Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Stephen Doughty)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairpersonship, Mr Stuart. I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire South (Johanna Baxter) for securing this debate. I also thank hon. Members for their extraordinarily powerful and united contributions that send a strong message of support to Ukraine and Ukrainians from this House, and a strong message to Vladimir Putin, who is ultimately responsible for these wicked and heinous crimes.

I also welcome the delegation of Ukrainian officials who have been with us today—I do not think they are all still here—including Olena Kondratiuk, the Deputy Chair of the Verkhovna Rada. I hope that the contributions of right hon. and hon. Members have reassured our Ukrainian friends that this whole House stands with them, and will remain with them until Ukraine prevails. The raw emotion we have heard demonstrates that, when it comes to children, this House is united. Whether it is seeing the scenes in Gaza, Sudan or Ukraine—seeing the reality of what, in that case, Vladimir Putin has done—the plight of children unites us all, and should unite parliamentarians and legislatures around the world.

The forcible deportation of Ukrainian children is one of the most appalling aspects of Russia’s brutal invasion. As we have heard, approaching 20,000 children have been torn from their homes. Families and communities have been torn apart in this barbaric conflict, and the forcible removal of children to Russian areas along with the indoctrination and attempts to wipe out Ukrainian identity have shocked the world.

We believe that 6,000 children have been sent to so-called “re-education camps” to indoctrinate them with pro-Russian sentiment. It is very clear that this is an attempt not only to hurt Ukraine and its people now, but to hurt its future, as has rightly been reflected on. Let me be clear: Russia must end the deportation, exploitation and manipulation of Ukrainian children. They must be reunited with their families. We will do everything in our power as a Government to make that happen, and to ensure that those responsible for these crimes face justice.

Let me say again, as I have in a number of these debates, that this is personal for me. I have visited Ukraine three times since the start of Russia’s illegal invasion, including just a few months ago, and I also grew up studying alongside Ukrainians as a teenager in Canada and taught young Ukrainians in Lviv when I was younger. To think of those fellow schoolmates or the young people I taught being torn away from their families, culture, identity and language fills me with absolute horror. Going to places such as Bucha and not only seeing the reality of the atrocities faced at the start of the war, but the fact that children and other people are still missing, with no idea where they are, should be brought to all of our attention.

I have also heard at first hand from the different delegations that have come here of the trauma inflicted on Ukrainian children. In March, I met Deputy Foreign Minister Betsa, alongside Bring Kids Back Ukraine and Save Ukraine, and made it clear to them—I do so again now—that our support for returning children is unwavering. We discussed many ways we could expand and deepen our work together. Bring Kids Back gave me a painting by a child who was forcibly deported but, thankfully, has now returned. However, he is going through that trauma and is in art therapy. His painting hangs in my office and is a daily reminder of why this work matters.

Children must never be used as pawns of war, and those who do so must be held accountable. That is why we have given £11.3 million to help Ukraine document, investigate and prosecute war crimes. We have contributed £2 million to the International Criminal Court to gather evidence and support survivors more effectively. Going back to 2022, the UK led the way in bringing together allies to speed up an ICC investigation into alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine. With 41 other countries now backing the UK, it is the largest referral in the ICC’s history. We welcome the progress the ICC is making with its independent investigations, which includes the arrest warrants issued for President Putin and the so-called children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, for the illegal deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children.

[Mr James Frith (Bury North) (Lab)]

The Minister is giving a typically humane account of what we are debating and of what I have been able to see today. It shows real strength of feeling to see the House so united on such an appalling issue. I have one question for the Minister. Can he confirm whether, as we saw yesterday with the change in the muscularity of our engagement on the Israel-Gaza issue, the UK will formally recognise those mass abductions as a violation of international law? Will he also confirm that the return of those children must be a precondition to any final lifting of sanctions and the completion of a peace process?

[Stephen Doughty]

I have been very clear, as the Foreign Secretary was yesterday, that we respect the independence of international courts and judicial processes, including the ICC, as I mentioned. However, I am also happy to be clear that this must be resolved: Russia must return those children. We are clear that we will not lift our sanctions, and we reserve the right to take further measures, as we have done in the last 24 hours—and we will continue to do so.

I was asked many times about the UK’s specific efforts. We are working closely as a member of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children, and with the Ukrainian Government. That includes initiatives to identify, locate and return children to their families, as well as collaboration on diplomatic efforts and the provision of financial and logistical support. Our overseas missions are hosting events to raise the issue locally in capitals around the world. To support the work to get the children returned, we are bringing together experts from a range of backgrounds, including from academia and industry, and from other countries that have also suffered from conflict. I discussed that with the Deputy Minister when she was here.

I have already mentioned Save Ukraine and the Bring Kids Back initiative. We are providing practical and political support to both. The Foreign Secretary has also been working with Mrs Zelensky to support Ukraine’s children. He met her in Kyiv in February to discuss her campaign to end the Soviet legacy of institutionalised care and instead promote family-based care and provide support to foster families.

I was asked by the shadow Minister, the right hon. Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Wendy Morton), about our wider diplomatic efforts. We are continuing to work at the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, where we are calling out Russia’s unacceptable actions and challenging their lies. We are also supporting the OSCE’s support programme for Ukraine and its fact-finding missions to expose human rights abuses, including deportation.

In December, our permanent representative was absolutely clear at the United Nations Security Council that Russia must stop these deportations and return Ukrainian children to their homes. We welcome the renewal of the UN’s independent international commission of inquiry on Ukraine, and we also note the significant role that Qatar is playing in mediating the return of Ukrainian children. We are grateful for its engagement. Those efforts are part of wider diplomatic initiatives involving others, including the Holy See and NGOs such as Save Ukraine. Around 900 children have returned thanks to those efforts.

[Sir Roger Gale (Herne Bay and Sandwich) (Con)]

I do not for one moment doubt the Minister’s sincerity or his determination to bring this to a satisfactory conclusion, but we all know that one of the keys to that is President Trump. Very little has been said, even in this debate, about the pressure that can and should be brought to bear on Trump and Putin together. The Minister does not have a magic wand, but will he make sure as far as he can that this issue does not come off the agenda and that it forms part of any settlement?

[Stephen Doughty]

The right hon. Gentleman can be assured that we raise a series of matters in our engagement with the United States, and we are working closely with President Trump and his Administration to find a just, lasting and sustainable ceasefire. We are working together with our European partners and the United States on that, as well as with President Zelensky and the Ukrainian Government. There have been many meetings in the last few days that the right hon. Gentleman and others will have seen. I can assure him that I raise the issue regularly. I met congressional delegations in the last few weeks, and I specifically raised this issue. There was broad bipartisan concern on it, and I will continue to raise it.

I again thank my hon. Friend the Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire South for her powerful and passionate exposé of this wicked and heinous action by Putin’s regime. I fully endorse her fantastic work on the issue. It should unite us all in this House. Like many Members, my hon. Friend spoke powerfully of her visit to Ukraine, and she also asked about the Yale research. I wrote to her on that, and I want to add a correction to that. The data has now been sent to Europol, and we will endeavour to ensure that it gets to the Ukrainian Government Office of the Prosecutor General as soon as possible. We will be following up on that and I will update my hon. Friend as soon as we have further information.

The hon. Member for Chester South and Eddisbury (Aphra Brandreth) spoke about the importance of retaining our ODA support and humanitarian assistance. She will note that Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan have been all highlighted as areas to which we will continue to pay special attention, despite the cuts that we have to make. I have been looking at our programmes to see what more we can do over the weeks and months ahead.

I return to the points made by my hon. Friend the Member for Glenrothes and Mid Fife (Richard Baker) about disabled children. I want to make clear that we have particularly focused on disability inclusion and rehabilitation services in the £5 million of support that we have provided. Indeed, we also supported that through the partnership fund for a resilient Ukraine. My hon. Friend made some important points and I will write to him just in case I have not got the figures exactly right to ensure that he has the exact numbers. I would not want inadvertently to mislead the House.

I know the hon. Member for Honiton and Sidmouth (Richard Foord) well, as we travelled to Ukraine together not long after the illegal invasion and saw the reality. He also spoke about the Yale research and raised the situation regarding Belarus, as other Members did. We are deeply concerned by the attendance of Ukrainian children at so-called “recreation camps” in Belarus, and we are following closely the investigations into those transfers. We call on Belarus to ensure that no Ukrainian children are forcibly transferred to, or via, its territory. I will continue to follow that very closely.

My hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow West (Patricia Ferguson) spoke passionately about the local support in her constituency, which is similar to that in my Cardiff South and Penarth constituency.

The hon. Member for Woking (Mr Forster) asked how we are engaging with the United States, and I hope that I have answered that question. He spoke about important research into trauma and the work that needs to be done on that. We are providing a lot of mental health and psychosocial support. That is a crucial issue, and it is important that he raised it.

My hon. Friend the Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire South mentioned the national day of action. I note her and other hon. Members’ request, and I have asked officials to consider the merits of supporting it. I hope to be able to update her soon.

My hon. Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (James Naish) asked important questions about our own programmes. I can assure him that our concern for children will remain at the heart of those.

Hon. Members asked many questions about sanctions. As well as our wider Russia sanctions regime, we have already issued a number of rounds of sanctions in relation to this issue specifically. I will not comment on future designations, but I assure the House that we keep all such matters under close review.

The hon. Member for Horsham (John Milne) spoke passionately about his experience of the resilience and ingenuity of Ukrainians, which I have seen again and again. The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) always speaks passionately about these issues. We must not stand idly by, as the hon. Member for Hazel Grove (Lisa Smart) also made clear.

I have updated the House many times on seized assets, Chelsea and so on, and I will continue to keep the House closely informed. I hope to be able to update the House in due course on those matters, on which we are working at pace with international and other partners.

I reiterate that the UK will not let up until Ukraine’s stolen children are returned. This is a heinous, wicked and unforgivable crime, and I want to see action taken on it. We will continue to work with our allies, the brilliant campaign organisations I have mentioned and, of course, the Government of Ukraine to trace and return those children and to hold Russia to account.