UN / UKRAINE CHILDREN

At the Security Council meeting on children of Ukraine, UNICEF's Catherine Russell called the 1,000-day war a devastating crisis, with "at least 2,406 children killed or injured since 2022—an average of two children every day." UNIFEED
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Description

STORY: UN / UKRAINE
TRT: 05:46
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / RUSSIAN / NATS

DATELINE: 04 DECEMBER 2024, NEW YORK CITY / FILE

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Shotlist

FILE – NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, United Nations headquarters

04 DECEMBER 2024, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Catherine Russell, Executive Director, UNICEF:
“Last month, the escalation of the war in Ukraine passed the 1,000-day mark. The UN has verified that at least 2,406 children have been killed or injured since February 2022 –an average of two children every day. Behind every number is a child with a name, a life story and loved ones, whose hopes and dreams have been shattered. These are the UN-verified numbers only – we know that the true figure is far higher.”
4. Wide shot, Security Council
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Catherine Russell, Executive Director, UNICEF:
“UNICEF remains deeply concerned about the number of children who have been separated from their families. We urge parties to prioritize family tracing and reunification, and refrain from taking any actions that would alter a child’s nationality or make it more difficult for them to be reunified. All parties and all stakeholders must focus on solutions that are in the best interest of the individual child.”
6. Wide shot, Security Council
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Nathaniel Raymond, Executive Director, Humanitarian Research Lab, Yale School of Public Health:
“The Humanitarian Research Lab’s inquiry identified 314 children from Ukraine that following Russia's February 2022 invasion of the country, have been placed in this systematic Kremlin directed program of coerced adoption and fostering. These identifications resulted from cross corroboration of multiple points of data to a high confidence standard, including, but not limited to photographs, travel itineraries, physical characteristics, official Russian documents and other specific details related to each child.”
8. Wide shot, Security Council
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Nathaniel Raymond, Executive Director, Humanitarian Research Lab, Yale School of Public Health:
“At the heart of this investigation is this discovery of three interconnected Russia affiliated child placement databases in which children from Ukraine were placed for adoption or fostering as if they were an orphan from Russia. In one case, the database involved was financially supported by President Putin's office itself.”
10. Wide shot, Security Council
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Kateryna Rashevska, Legal Expert, Regional Center for Human Rights:
“Ukrainian children still being raped, tortured and unlawfully detained by Russian soldiers. This is confirmed by the Secretary General's report on children and armed conflict. The Russian armed forces have been included twice in the so-called list of shame for committing grave violation against Ukrainian children.”
12. Wide shot, Security Council
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Kateryna Rashevska, Legal Expert, Regional Center for Human Rights:
“Most of these camps are involved in pro-Russian militaristic initiatives, for example, at the avant-garde camp in the Volgograd region, Ukrainian boys and girls were trained in fire tactical and engineering trainings, as well as in parachute jumping. When countries that disregard the basic principles of the international legal order build a system to raise children as soldiers, this is the threat, not only to Ukraine, but to a global peace and security.”
14. Wide shot, Security Council
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, United States:
“’Forcibly deported,’ what does that mean? In layman's terms, it means Russian forces have stolen children and sent them to Russian occupied parts of Ukraine sovereign territory, or deported them into Russia itself, where all trace of them is often obscured. As we heard, it underscores in excruciating detail, the atrocities orchestrated and overseen by the highest levels of the Russian government, by the man at the top, President Putin and by Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's so called presidential Commissioner for children's rights, as well as many others.”
16. Wide shot, Security Council
17. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Russian Federation:
“But-they-are-children” in one word has become a meme. In a normal Ukrainian township where everyone speaks Russian, where people go to Russia for work, two Bandera followers are being placed. Five years later, all of the young children of the township are Bandera followers and all march under Nazi flag.”
18. Wide shot, Security Council
19. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Russian Federation:
“Madam President, we observed that the American presidency has been consistently and knowingly politicizing the work of this Security Council since the very first days of its presidency, trying to help prioritize the values of the Democratic party that lost the election.”
20. Wide shot, Security Council
21. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Russian Federation:
“The Russian competent authorities evacuate people from the area of hostilities fully in line with international humanitarian law and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The absolute majority of children came into Russia together with their parents or relatives, and they were saving themselves from Ukrainian shelling in the hostel centers.”
22. Wide shot, Security Council
23. SOUNDBITE (English) Daria Zarivna, Advisor, the Office of the President of Ukraine:
“The largest kidnapping campaign in the modern history. Ukraine is searching for nearly 20,000 children who were subjected to illegal deportation and forced transfer. Yet the actual figure could be much higher.”
24. Wide shot, Security Council
25. SOUNDBITE (English) Daria Zarivna, Advisor, the Office of the President of Ukraine:
“Take a look at these two documents. Here's Margarita’s Prokopenko, real birth certificate, Ukrainian child born in Ukraine, and here's what Russia did to her, renamed her Marina Mironova, and falsely claimed that she was born in Russia.”
26. Wide shot, end of Security Council

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Storyline

At the UN Security Council meeting on children in Ukraine, UNICEF's Catherine Russell called the 1,000-day war a devastating crisis, with “at least 2,406 children killed or injured since 2022—an average of two children every day.”  

Russell said, “Behind every number is a child with a name, a life story, and loved ones." She added, "We know the true figure is far higher.”

The conflict has displaced nearly 3.6 million people within Ukraine, with an additional 6.7 million refugees, according to Russell. She described the dire conditions many children face, spending hours daily sheltering in basements under air raid sirens. “In cities like Kharkiv, classrooms and playgrounds have been replaced with makeshift underground schools, some in metro stations,” she said. Power outages lasting up to 18 hours a day have left many children without essentials like heating, safe water, and sanitation.

Russell expressed deep concern for children separated from their families. “We urge all parties to prioritize family tracing and reunification,” she said, emphasizing the importance of protecting children from actions that alter their nationality or impede reunification efforts.

Nathaniel Raymond, Executive Director of Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab, presented findings from an investigation into what he described as a Kremlin-directed program of coerced adoption and fostering of Ukrainian children. “We identified 314 children placed in this systematic program, using corroborated data such as photographs, travel itineraries, and official documents,” Raymond said. He detailed databases linked to these placements, some financially supported by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s office.

“This is not only an alleged war crime of deportation but also a higher-order crime – the transfer of people from one national group to another,” Raymond stated.

Legal expert Kateryna Rashevska underscored these findings, citing reports of Ukrainian children being raped, tortured, and detained by Russian forces. She described a network of re-education camps, with over 120 institutions in Russia, Belarus, and occupied territories, training children in militaristic initiatives. “This system poses a threat not only to Ukraine but to global peace and security,” Rashevska warned.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN, condemned what she called the “forcible deportation” of Ukrainian children. “Russian forces have stolen children, deporting them to occupied areas or into Russia itself, often erasing all trace of them,” she said. She named high-ranking Russian officials, including Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova (Russian Commissioner for children's rights) in regard to orchestrating these actions.

Daria Zarivna, an advisor to Ukraine’s president, described it as “the largest kidnapping campaign in modern history,” noting Ukraine is searching for nearly 20,000 children subjected to illegal deportation. “The real number could be far higher,” Zarivna said, displaying documents showing how children’s identities were falsified to claim they were born in Russia.

Russian representative said that “‘But-they-are-children’ in one word has become a meme.” The Russian delegation defended the country’s actions, claiming children were evacuated for their safety in line with international law. “The majority of children entered Russia with their families, fleeing Ukrainian shelling,” Nebenzya said. He also mentioned that the U.S. presidency of the Security Council is “politicizing” the Security Council’s work.

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