STRASBOURG, Nov 13 — The European Parliament has demanded that Russia immediately, safely and unconditionally return every Ukrainian child deported or forcibly transferred during the war, and has declared that Moscow's actions towards Ukrainian children meet the legal definition of genocide — a position MEPs urged EU member states to recognise. The resolution, adopted on Wednesday, November 12 by 536 votes to 8 with 37 abstentions, also demands that Russia and Belarus disclose full information about the children taken to their territories, Euronews reported.

Source: Euronews

The resolution condemns what Parliament calls Russia's systematic deportation and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children, their illegal adoption, forced Russification, ideological indoctrination and militarisation. Lawmakers stressed that returning the children is an obligation under international law that cannot be used as political bargaining — it must not be linked to territorial concessions, prisoner exchanges or other political agreements, and Parliament insists the return of all illegally removed children must be a central issue in any negotiations to end the war. The resolution is non-legislative: it states Parliament's position and makes demands, but does not itself order returns or impose sanctions.

What the resolution demands

MEPs called on Russia to immediately stop forcibly deporting children and stressed Moscow's full responsibility for safeguarding the rights of children living in the occupied territories. They demanded the immediate closure of online catalogues offering Ukrainian children for adoption and placement with foster families, called on EU member states to step up cooperation with Ukraine, international partners and specialist organisations to speed up identifying, documenting, tracing and returning missing and deported children, and proposed expanding EU sanctions against officials and organisations involved in the deportations. The resolution also cites a 2023 Yale University study finding that at least 2,442 Ukrainian children were transferred to 13 facilities in Belarus, and it records the involvement of Belarus and North Korea alongside Russia, Reform.news reported.

Source: Reform.news

The genocide argument — and its legal status

In the November 11 debate, Latvian MEP Rihards Kols and Lithuanian MEP Petras Auštrevičius described Russia's actions as "war crimes, crimes against humanity and an attempt to conceal genocide," with Auštrevičius adding: "Ukrainian children have only one homeland, Ukraine. That is where they belong." The European People's Party, Parliament's largest group, notes that under international law the forcible transfer of children from one group to another, committed with intent to destroy that group, constitutes genocide. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, who joined the debate, suggested Russia may already be sending abducted Ukrainian children to fight against their own country. Parliament's genocide characterisation is a political position, not a court verdict: a UN commission of inquiry concluded in March 2026 that the deportations amounted to crimes against humanity as well as war crimes, and the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in March 2023 for Russian President Vladimir Putin and children's rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova over the alleged war crime of unlawful deportation and transfer of children — warrants Parliament again said it fully supports, with responsibility extending beyond top leaders to the whole chain of those involved.

Parliament had already adopted a similar resolution in May 2025. The new vote lands as US-led talks on ending the war move to a further round — talks in which prisoner exchanges are on the table — while MEPs insist the children's return stands apart from any bargain. No immediate Russian response to the resolution was reported in the coverage reviewed for this report.