Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I would like to add to Mr. Raymond's statement about the character of the deportationists' propaganda operation. They are boasting about the adoption of children. The number they are providing on children deported to the Russian territories is much bigger. The Ukrainian authorities have established there were 20,000 children deported.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes. We would like to say that it's very important to investigate and talk publicly about the impact and the role of Belarusian authorities. There is not much information that is publicly available, or not much information that can be obtained about their role, but we know for sure that they used the territory of Belarus as a transport corridor and that some Ukrainian children were put into camps in the Belarusian territory.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  We may state now that the majority of children who were deported to the territory of the Russian Federation still remain in the territory of Russia and in the occupied territories of Ukraine within facilities where they were put. Of course, in some cases some children were returned, children who actually had parents and families and whose families put in their best efforts, addressed the authorities, addressed specialized NGOs and were lucky to establish contact and get their children back, but compared to the number of children who still remain there, this amount is just peanuts.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, exactly, but we also must understand that we should not focus only on the return of each particular child. It's essential to work out the general approach, the general international legal mechanism to demand from the perpetrator that they return the children. It is very important to do all these in combination.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I would like to take the floor on this question. Despite the push to facilitate the process of the return of children and the reuniting of families, I think it's very important to contribute to establish liability and bring all the perpetrators to justice. First of all, as my colleague Olga has already provided, it's essential for Canada and all other states to collect all these statements of crime from the victims who succeeded in fleeing from Ukraine and who appear, for instance, in Canada, and then transfer this information to Ukrainian law enforcement authorities.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'm sorry. I was just logged out. Could you please repeat the question?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Well, actually, we are not here as prosecutors and judges to establish that these are the particular crimes, but for me, these are obviously war crimes as established by article 8 of the Rome Statute. To be determined as crimes against humanity, the widespread and systematic nature of such actions should be established by the law enforcement authority and by the court.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  If I may, I would also like to note, regarding your previous statement, that I wouldn't say that Russian authorities threaten to kill children if their parents don't give them. It would not be fair. They just say that there is a high risk that they will die because of the war, because of missiles, if they are not relocated through the corridors.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'm sorry?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, thanks. They are trying to say that they are saving Ukrainian children and that their delegation is legitimate according to international law.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'm sorry. You mean they were coerced by the Russian occupants, right?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  When the children, together with their parents, were first deported to the territory of the Russian Federation, they were coerced by the argumentation that there was no other way. It's very important to understand that despite the fact that international organizations, including UN authorities, offered alternative corridors for Ukrainian children and their parents to pass, Russian-occupying authorities refused to let them go through these corridors and insisted that the only way for them to emigrate from the zone of military action was through the Russian territories, that it was the only way of saving them and their children from the war and from death.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  —and this is not a legitimate evacuation. Thank you.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes. Except for the one official, established case of a minor voluntarily joining the Russian forces and being killed in combat—he was 16 years old—there are a lot of established cases of teenagers who are, happily, still alive, but they are trained in military programs. Using children directly as soldiers is not the only way Russia is using children for war purposes.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  That's generally what's happening. Thank you.