At the invitation of the Speaker of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, Boris Kollar, the Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine delivered a speech in the Parliament of Slovakia.
“My special thanks to the National Council for the resolution on the return of forcibly deported Ukrainian children,” the Vice Speaker said.
Olena Kondratiuk noted that the current war had been prepared for a long time by the russian aggressor: “The abduction of children has a special place in his sick mind”. The Deputy Head informed that according to the latest updated official data, 19,514 Ukrainian children have been forcibly taken to russia. “Children taken away from their parents. Separated brothers and sisters. Orphans and special needs children, meanly deported from orphanages,” she emphasised.
“Volodymyr Sahaidak lives in the south of Ukraine, not far from the Chornobaivka military airfield, which you may have heard about in the news. He runs a rehabilitation centre for special children. In order to save his children from deportation, he forged their documents and placed them in the families of teachers, inventing legends,” the Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine shared the story in her speech in the Slovak Parliament. She noted that it sounds like a story about the rescue of Jewish children during World War II, “but no, this is the 21st century, the centre of Europe.”
According to the Vice-Speaker, the determination of the international coalition to document the facts of the forced deportation of Ukrainian children led to the only possible outcome.
“The International Criminal Court in The Hague has issued an arrest warrant for putin, the leader of the russian terrorist organisation. But this warrant will not automatically bring Ukrainian children home,” said Olena Kondratiuk, calling on all politicians in the world to join forces to free the little Ukrainians.
She informed that the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola and the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, both mothers of many children, have already become ambassadors for the return of Ukrainian children.
“I invite the mother of two daughters, the President of Slovakia Zuzana Caputova, as well as all female members of the Slovak Parliament to join this initiative!” said Olena Kondratiuk, Deputy Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, in her speech.