The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine paid its attention to the statement of the Commissioner for children's rights under the President of the Russian Federation Maria Lvova-Belova`s illegal adoption of a Ukrainian child, who was abducted in Mariupol by the Russian army.

The Russian Commissioner also admitted to facilitating the illegal adoption in the Russian Federation of about 350 more children from the occupied regions of Donbas.

Transfer of Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia and their subsequent adoption by Russian citizens grossly violate the legislation of Ukraine, as well as the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 1949, which provides for the obligation of the occupying state not to change the civil status of children, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989.

On behalf of the Minister for Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine initiates a case before the law enforcement agencies of Ukraine against the Russian citizen Lvova-Belova, whose actions are seen as signs of a criminal offense.

We call on the international community to strongly condemn the ongoing crimes committed by Russia and its officials against children in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories.

Ukraine will continue to make every effort to ensure that Ukrainian children who were illegally taken and adopted in Russia are returned to their parents or legal guardians.