Mr. President,

Ukraine appreciates the fruitful work of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry. We attach great importance to the findings reflected in the Commission’s comprehensive report and conference room paper, both of which were presented to the Council today.

These findings once again indicate a grim reality: Russia continues to commit grave violations of international law as part of its ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine.

One of Russia’s most shocking crimes documented by the Commission is deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children.

The Commission has verified and confirmed the deportation or transfer of at least 1,205 Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine.

These children were taken to the Russian Federation, placed in institutions or, in some cases, in adoption families across various regions, and given Russian citizenship.

Four years on, more than 80 percent of these children have not been returned to Ukraine.

The Commission’s findings are clear: these deportations were not so-called “evacuations”, the term Russia has used, but organised transfers carried out as part of a coordinated plan.

The Commission concludes that Russian authorities perpetrated these actions under a widespread and systematic policy orchestrated at the highest levels of the Russian state, including personally by President Putin.

Therefore, Russia’s deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children constitute both war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The victims of these crimes cannot be seen as mere collateral damage of the war. Instead, we are dealing with one of Russia’s deliberate strategies aimed at destroying families and the very fabric of the Ukrainian society, erasing Ukrainian identity. Russian authorities have been tasked with assimilating and indoctrinating Ukrainian children.

The international community must treat these crimes with the seriousness they command.

Russia must provide full information about the deportees’ whereabouts and immediately return every stolen child.

Mr. President,

The Commission’s report also exposes systematic abuse of the Russian justice system as a tool of repression.

The Commission examined dozens of trials conducted by Russian courts against Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war. The conclusion is unequivocal: these are not judicial trials, but staged proceedings.

Confessions are extracted through torture. Evidence is fabricated. Verdicts are predetermined.

Russia deports Ukrainian civilians to be prosecuted in a foreign jurisdiction. Ukrainian prisoners of war are denied their protected status under international humanitarian law.

These practices constitute grave violations of the Geneva Conventions, and are war crimes.

The Commission has also documented continued sexual and gender-based violence committed by Russian forces. This includes rape and sexual torture against civilians and detainees.

These crimes are part of a broader pattern of brutality that Russia uses to terrorise civilians and assert control over the Ukrainian areas it temporarily occupies.

Mr. President,

While unthinkable in the 21st century, the Russian state has always, throughout its entire existence, relied on this pattern of behaviour to subdue the nations it set out to conquer - or should I say, “integrate”.

The Commission’s findings presented today demonstrate once again that Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is accompanied by systematic and widespread violations of international law.

These crimes must lead to accountability.

To ensure accountability for those who launched this war, Ukraine continues to work with its partners to establish a Special Tribunal for the crime of aggression against my country.

Concurrently, we are advancing international efforts to ensure compensation for the victims, including by way of establishment of an international claims commission.

Russia must be brought to comprehensive justice: for the crime of aggression, for war crimes, and for crimes against humanity.

Accountability is essential not only for Ukraine, but for the credibility of the entire international legal order.

Ukraine therefore calls on members of this Council to continue supporting the work of the Commission and to ensure the renewal of its mandate.

Justice for the victims must prevail.

Multiple lessons drawn not only from history but also from today’s events show that impunity always encourages further crimes.

Everyone present here knows this very well. And I am sure everyone here would like to see the vicious circle of crime broken.

Thank you.