Dear ladies and gentlemen, it is indeed an honour to be standing before you today.
I'm Mykola Kuleba, and my work in children's advocacy spans more than 25 years. I served as a presidential commissioner for children's rights under two presidents of Ukraine, and now I lead the Save Ukraine rescue network, a charitable organization that rescues Ukraine's most vulnerable from combat zones and helps them restore their lives through a suite of social services. I'm deeply grateful for the opportunity to speak before you.
I'm here to speak about Ukraine's children. My main message is simple: The Russian Federation is committing genocide of the Ukrainian nation by forcibly transferring our children to Russia and annihilating their Ukrainian identity.
Both words and actions of Russian officials indicate an intent to separate Ukrainian children permanently from their families and their national and ethnic groups, thereby annihilating their Ukrainian identity. Maria Lvova-Belova has bragged about 750,000 Ukrainian children being forcibly transferred. Russian officials openly expressed their intent to have the transferred Ukrainian children educated in the Russian language, adopted into Russian families and turned into Russian citizens.
Save Ukraine has rescued 200 forcibly transferred children. We not only returned these children to Ukraine but also provided both physical and psychological support to help them heal from their traumas. Though each child's story is unique, we have heard several common themes from the experiences that tell us about life for hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children living in Russian-controlled territories or Russia itself.
We don't know how many of these children are unaccompanied, but we know that unaccompanied children are the most vulnerable to total identity erasure. We have heard again and again about the clear and systematic extraction of Ukrainian identity. Children are forced to listen to Russian propaganda and false narratives about Ukraine. Children are not allowed to speak the Ukrainian language. They are forced to attend Russian language, literature and history classes. Children are forced to listen to the Russian anthem regularly. Teenagers are recruited into Russia's youth military movements, and we have evidence that thousands of these kids are now soldiers fighting against Ukraine.
We know that just wearing blue or yellow or even close to blue and yellow is grounds for punishment. One boy was punished for wearing purple and yellow socks. A girl in a Russian re-education camp was punished for wearing a t-shirt with a Ukrainian flag, just a Ukrainian flag. A camp director cut the t-shirt into pieces while making a propaganda film.
How I'd like to hear from the children themselves. You will hear them soon.
I am a father. I have four children and I know that many of you are fathers and mothers and that you have hopes and dreams for your children's future. I know how to work to foster your children's identity. Ukrainian parents have this same dream for their children. We dream of having a safe, peaceful, prosperous country governed by the rule of law, a country where our children can thrive. Russia launched their full-scale invasion, but we haven't lost this dream.
We have a war to win. We have to win—