Ukrainian Ambassador to Korea Dmytro Ponomarenk

Two weeks ago, to commemorate the start of the third year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, together with our British colleagues we presented in Seoul the documentary “After the Rain: Putin’s Stolen Children Come Home” by Sarah McCarthy. It follows the story of several Ukrainian children, once illegally deported to Russia but later repatriated, finding healing at an animal therapy retreat in Estonia. As the children laugh, play and heal with the help of golden retrievers and horses, we watch their painful memories and trauma of being forcefully removed from their loved ones unravel with the help of skilled and sensitive counsellors.

These children are but the few lucky ones who made it back to their families in Ukraine. Nearly 20,000 abducted children remain in Russian institutions.

Few crimes in human history provoke as much revulsion and moral outrage as the deliberate targeting of children in wartime. Yet, the brutal reality of Russia’s decade-long aggression against Ukraine confronts the civilized world with an extraordinary concentration of such atrocities.

Russia’s war of conquest and genocide has had catastrophic consequences for children. Moscow continues the criminal practice of forcible transfer and deportation of Ukrainian children and in every possible way, impeding their repatriation and reunification with families in Ukraine. Russian Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova openly declared the intention of ''settling'' over 700,000 Ukrainian........

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