U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) led several Republican colleagues in calling for the United Nations to investigate reports that thousands of Ukrainian children have gone missing since Russia invaded their country in February.
According to the Ukrainian Permanent Representative to the UN Sergiy Kyslytsya, 234,000 children are among the one million Ukrainians forcibly displaced into Russia, many thousands of which are being placed into adoptive homes, according to a June 23 letter the senators sent to the Secretary-General of the UN António Guterres.
Additionally, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on June 1 announced that children are being taken to remote areas of Russia to prevent them from returning home, wrote Sen. Blackburn, Sen. Cassidy, and four of their colleagues, including U.S. Sens. Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Tim Scott (R-SC).
“Moscow appears to be using the abduction of Ukrainian children to put extra pressure on Kyiv to surrender,” the senators wrote. “These types of practices terrorize communities and demoralize civilian resistance.”
While these claims have yet to be verified and locating specific children and families has proved difficult in wartime, the senators wrote that if accurate, the reports prove that Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to add to the war crimes he already has committed during this unprovoked war, according to their letter.
Sens. Blackburn, Cassidy, and their colleagues also pointed out that the kidnapping of minors violates the UN Genocide Convention, while the abduction of children is directly listed in a 1999 UN Security Council resolution that condemns six grave violations affecting children the most in times of war, their letter states.
“We urge the UN to investigate the validity of these reports,” wrote the senators. “Additionally, we write to request a congressional briefing on this information and the United Nations’ findings.
“We stand with the Ukrainian people and in any nation across the globe where an illiberal regime is threatening defenseless children during armed conflict,” they added.