Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe to investigate abduction of Ukrainian children by Russia

(read well in Vienna in §1)

PARIS (Reuters) – Forty-five member states of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) have asked the Vienna-based organization to investigate allegations of serious violations against the Ukrainian civilian population, the French foreign ministry announced on Thursday.

“Due to the extremely serious consequences of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine on the Ukrainian civilian population, and in particular on children, the 45 OSCE participating states, including France, invoked the OSCE’s Moscow Mechanism on 30 March 2023,” Quai d’ wrote. Orsay in a statement.

“The purpose of this mechanism is to investigate allegations of serious violations of commitments made by States within the framework of the OSCE and to identify actions to address them,” he said.

Thousands of children have been separated from their families in areas of eastern Ukraine occupied by Russian forces and transferred to Russia for adoption there, according to Ukrainian officials.

Seizing on these allegations of crimes against humanity, the International Criminal Court (ICC) two weeks ago issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin and against Maria Alekseevna Lvova-Belova, the Russian Commissioner for the Rights of the Child, who is Ukrainian. oversees the Child Transfer Program.

(Writing by Tangi Salon, edited by Jean Terzien)