Sec. 103. Condemning the kidnapping of Ukrainian children
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Congress finds the following: On January 12, 1951, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (commonly known as the Genocide Convention ) entered into force. The Russian Federation is a party to the Convention and is therefore bound by its obligations. On February 24, 2022, the Russian Federation escalated its 8-year occupation of sovereign Ukrainian territory by launching a full-scale, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Russian armed forces have committed widespread and systematic atrocities against Ukrainian civilians, including the targeting of civilian infrastructure and protected sites.
On March 9, 2022, Russian forces attacked a maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, resulting in the deaths of 5 individuals and injuries to 17 others, in violation of international humanitarian law. On March 22, 2022, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the Russian military had illegally abducted and forcibly transferred 2,389 Ukrainian children from temporarily occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation. On June 2, 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that an estimated 200,000 Ukrainian children had been forcibly transferred to Russia.
Article II(e) of the Genocide Convention defines forcibly transferring children of the group to another group as an act of genocide. Maria Lvova-Belova, Children’s Rights Commissioner for the President of Russia, publicly admitted to overseeing the abduction and forced transfer of Ukrainian children and their adoption by Russian families. Ukrainian authorities have stated that many abducted children have living family members in Ukraine but have been separated due to Russia’s renewed invasion.
On June 16, 2022, Russian authorities announced that children born in occupied Ukrainian territories after the February 24, 2022, invasion would automatically be deemed Russian citizens, contributing to the erasure of Ukrainian identity. On June 22, 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner verified that at least 320 children had been killed as a result of Russia’s renewed invasion of Ukraine. On July 11, 2022, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres ordered an investigation into the deaths and injuries of Ukrainian children in the context of the conflict.
On July 13, 2022, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken called on the Russian Federation to immediately halt its systemic filtration operations in Ukraine , which have resulted in the disappearance, detention, or forcible deportation of between 900,000 and 1,600,000 Ukrainians, including approximately 260,000 children. It is the sense of Congress that— the abduction and forcible transfer of children and facilitation of illegal adoptions of Ukrainian children by the Russian Federation is contrary to Russia’s obligations under the Genocide Convention and constitute acts of genocide; the Russian Federation is deliberately seeking to wipe out a generation of Ukrainian children, thereby crippling Ukraine’s ability to nurture the next generation of Ukrainian citizens and leaders and to rebuild their country after Russia’s unprovoked war, with the purpose of demolishing Ukraine’s unique language, culture, history, and identity; the Russian Federation’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has significantly increased the risks of children being exposed to human trafficking and exploitation, child labor, gender-based violence, hunger, injury, trauma, deprivation of education and shelter, and death; and the Government of the Russian Federation, under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, bears full responsibility for the wrongful and illegal abduction and forcible transfer of children from Ukraine, and Congress condemns these actions in the strongest terms.