Japan has joined the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children

Japan joined the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children. Now it includes all the countries of the "Big Seven" — Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, Great Britain and the United States.

This was announced by the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets.

The international coalition was launched in February in Kyiv on the joint initiative of Ukraine and Canada. It is currently supported by 36 countries.

Members of the coalition support a fair solution to the situation with illegally deported and forcibly displaced Ukrainian children. They also contribute to the provision of all necessary humanitarian, medical and psychological assistance to children and their families affected by deportation and forced displacement.

Deportation of Ukrainian children

In the face of a full-scale invasion, Russia is mass-deporting Ukrainian children from the occupied territories of Ukraine. They are taken to the occupied Crimea, Russia or Belarus, allegedly for rehabilitation or rest in camps. Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that it is known for certain that more than 19,300 children were deported by the Russians.

The deportation of Ukrainian children is one of Russiaʼs war crimes, for which the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin and the Childrenʼs Ombudsman of the Russian Federation Maria Lvova-Belova. Currently, it is known that at least 19,546 Ukrainian children were forcibly deported to Russia, less than 400 of them were returned. Ukraine also has evidence that Belarus participates in the deportation of Ukrainian children.

• In January 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued an order granting Ukrainian children Russian citizenship. The order states that orphans and children left without parental care, with Ukrainian citizenship, can receive Russian citizenship by Putinʼs personal decision, regardless of all or individual requirements of federal legislation. This can be used so that deported Ukrainian children do not "legally" remain on the territory of Russia — accordingly, it will be more difficult to prove this war crime.