On 28 March 2024, the Speaker of the National Assembly of the French Republic, Yaël Braun-Pivet, delivered a powerful speech in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, which testified to France's unwavering support for Ukraine.
“The war has united Europeans even more. We have realised that danger is at our doors and that we must make efforts to guarantee our collective security,” said Ms Yaël Braun-Pivet, “Our goals are the same – to guarantee respect for international law, restore Ukraine's territorial integrity and punish war criminals.”
In her speech, the Head of the delegation of the National Assembly of the French Republic, among other things, condemned the forced displacement of Ukrainian children by the russian federation.
As a reminder, on 17 April 2023, the French Senate adopted a resolution that, in particular, calls on the European Union and its Member States to use all technical and human resources at their disposal and, in cooperation with the Ukrainian authorities, to identify and document all cases of forced displacement and deportation of children committed by the russian federation since the beginning of the (military – author’s note) conflict, as well as to identify those responsible for these actions in order to impose immediate sanctions and pave the way for further legal proceedings.
“All Ukrainian citizens held in russia and in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, in particular in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, including prisoners of war, internees, civilians, forcibly displaced and deported persons, including children, must be released through a full exchange,” states paragraph 4 of the Ukrainian Peace Formula of the President of Ukraine.
More than 80 countries are already working on the implementation of the Peace Formula proposed by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi.
According to the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine has managed to return 518 children, including 388 who were deported to its territory by russia. In total, russia has abducted almost 20,000 children.