Statement by the Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at a UNSC Briefing on Children in Armed Conflict
Mr. President,
We appreciate the organization of today's debate and thank the speakers for their contributions to the discussion.
Year after year, the Secretary-General's reports on children's issues point out an increase in the number of grave violations against children: in 2024, this figure rose yet again by 25%.
Over the past two years, the key factor in this negative trend has been the growing number of child casualties resulting from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas reached at the beginning of the year gave us a faint hope for a possible peaceful resolution to the conflict. However, shortly after that, the region began descending into chaos again, and the humanitarian crisis reached staggering heights. Today, more than 93% of children in Gaza are on the brink of starvation. That is about 930,000 people. Ninety-five percent of schools have been damaged or destroyed, and there are almost no hospitals left.
On the West Bank, the situation is not much better. This is evidenced by the data provided in the report: in 2024, there were documented 3,688 violations in this territory, including instances of murder and maiming, attacks on schools and hospitals, and denial of humanitarian access. And these are only the instances that have been verified according to the established methodology.
Against this backdrop, in early June, the Council once again failed to adopt a resolution that was supposed to facilitate an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, and to ensure the release of all hostages and the lifting of the humanitarian blockade of Gaza. Such developments make us doubt that all Security Council members are genuinely committed to establishing peace in the Middle East.
Since the beginning of the year, the situation has deteriorated in other regions as well. As is often the case, the culprit lies not in an insufficient number of mechanisms or declarative statements, but in the implementation of practical decisions with States playing a leading role in this. That is why the issue of children in armed conflict, more than any other problems, requires intergovernmental cooperation and must under no circumstances be politicized.
However, the practices of the Council, as well as actions by the structures assisting the Council on children's issue, can hardly be deemed as paragons of impartiality.
Thus, we continue to see unverified figures for the number of children affected in Ukraine in the report, the source of which is the same notorious mission under the control of Kiev, namely the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights – the mission accepts the figures provided by the Ukrainian side at face value. Moreover, this information is portrayed in such a way that it is simply impossible to verify it. It is not enough to simply convey anonymous statistical data to the States. The handover of such information per se does not in any way help to determine whether a violation has occurred, nor can it provide for a proper investigation into all the circumstances around this.
The Council itself had an opportunity to redress this situation, when we proposed that the Council become part of the process of reuniting children with their relatives with whom they lost ties as a result of the Ukrainian crisis. However, the European delegations obstructed the adoption of the relevant statement by the President. They could not summon the strength to admit that for a number of years they had been shamelessly deceiving the international community by claiming that there were tens of thousands of abducted children. We proposed that a simple fact be established in the statement: Ukraine provided Russia with a list of 339 children allegedly held on our territory, and we expressed our willingness to examine it and cooperate with Kiev on this matter. This action-oriented step offered a real opportunity for substantive dialogue, but it was blocked. We continue to hear about the same 20,000 allegedly abducted Ukrainian children both from the media outlets and from a number of delegations. It seems that for certain Council members, these statements are much more important than the real fates of children, about whom they appear to be absolutely indifferent.
Nevertheless, we will continue to take practical measures to reunite children with their families, regardless of the circumstances. Work in this area started long before that and has been carried out by the Children's Rights Commissioner for the President of the Russian Federation, which resulted in 101 children returning to Ukraine and 22 children – to Russia. A new list is already under consideration by the relevant Russian bodies.
Madam President,
We observe a consistent underestimation of the number of Russian child victims in the Secretary-General's report. As a result, the Security Council receives a distorted depiction of what is going on. Among the serious violations against children, the report identifies murder and maiming as the most common, and the lion's share of children are killed or maimed as a result of the use of explosive munitions. However, you will not find any information in the report that Ukraine regularly resorts to this practice.
In 2024, Russia cleared approximately 3,200 hectares of territory and discovered 179,655 explosive devices. These vast areas were literally littered with mines, which Kiev had been supposed to destroy in line with its obligations under the Ottawa Convention. Moreover, many kinds of mines discovered are prohibited by the Convention on Inhumane Weapons and the Amended Protocol II thereof (AP-II CCW).
In order to reduce the risks associated with mine contamination for children, Russian educational institutions hold educational discussions telling them about the dangers of mines. At the same time, programs are being developed and introduced to raise awareness among children of the mine threat and reduce the risk linked to explosive devices. The special emphasis here is placed on the danger posed by booby traps, which can be indistinguishable from children's toys. Despite the ban on their use under Article 2 of the AP-II CCW, we regularly witness the use of such devices by Ukraine.
In implementing our approaches to countering the mine threat, Russia is guided by the Convention on Inhumane Weapons and the Amended Protocol II and Protocol V thereof. We believe it is necessary to take steps to universalize these documents in order to ensure the safety of the civilian population and normalize life in the post-conflict period.
However, mine contamination is just one of many threats to Russian children posed by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Grave violations are being perpetrated by Ukraine on a virtually daily basis. Every week, we receive reports of new shockingly brutal cases. For example, from June 9 through 15 alone, we documented the following violations: in Borisovka, Belgorod Oblast, a two-year-old child was killed and his grandmother and another civilian were injured as a result of a drone strike on an apartment building; in Donetsk, six teenagers were injured as a result of a drone detonation in the courtyard of a residential building; a drone raid on the village of Marino in Kursk Oblast injured three more children; as result a drone falling in Belgorod an 8-year-old boy was gravely injured; as a result of a drone attack on Kremennaya (LPR), a 17-year-old teenager was wounded.
In 2024 – which is the period covered by today's report – 347 children were killed or maimed as a result of the actions of the Ukrainian armed forces: 296 minors were wounded and 51 children were killed. The youngest of those killed was four months old. Fifty-five children were affected by drone strikes: 44 were wounded and 11 were killed. Drones target them when they were in cars traveling with their parents, in residential buildings, and on playgrounds. Ukrainian drone operators are hunting civilians and vehicles.
But you won't find these figures in the Secretary-General's report, in which only four child deaths are attributed to Ukraine. For several years in a row, we have not found the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the “blacklist” of violators. And this is despite the fact that even with obviously underestimated statistics, it is clear that violations against children are neither sporadic nor accidental.
They are committed under similar circumstances and in violation of international humanitarian law, namely during the shelling of Russian territories which have no legitimate military targets. The killing and maiming are the result of attacks that directly target civilians and civilian objects, and in the most egregious cases, it is precisely children that are being targeted. The attacks are planned, regular, and approved by the command structure.
So what – if I may ask – is preventing the Secretary-General from drawing the conclusion that Ukraine’s actions constitute a recurring pattern of behavior and listing the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the appendix to his report?
The process of listing and delisting in annexes to the report needs to be independent and impartial, it also needs to be based on verifiable evidence, and depoliticized. This is a precondition for the maintenance of trust in this international mechanism. So far, we have not seen this happening.
At the same time, we pay tribute to the rank-and-file UN staff, namely those people who are working to alleviate the plight of children “on the ground” by delivering assistance to them or engaging in negotiations with members of armed groups, thereby facilitating the reintegration of victims of violations into society.
Thank you.
