III 118th CONGRESS 1st Session S. RES. 158 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES April 17, 2023 Mr. Peters (for himself, Mrs. Blackburn , Mr. Cassidy , Mr. Grassley , Mr. Barrasso , Mr. Cardin , Mrs. Shaheen , and Mr. Scott of Florida ) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations RESOLUTION Condemning the deportation of children from Ukraine to the Russian Federation and the forcible transfer of children within territories of Ukraine that are temporarily occupied by Russian forces.

Whereas, on January 12, 1951, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (commonly known as the Genocide Convention ), of which the Russian Federation is a signatory, came into effect; Whereas, on February 24, 2022, the Russian Federation launched an illegal and unprovoked further invasion of Ukraine; Whereas, on March 22, 2022, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry announced that the Russian military had forcefully and illegally kidnapped 2,389 Ukrainian children from temporarily occupied areas of Ukraine; Whereas forcibly transferring children of one group to another group is a violation of Article II(e) of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted and opened for signature in 1948 and entered into force in 1951 (commonly known as the Genocide Convention ); Whereas the unlawful deportation or transfer of people constitutes a breach of Article 147 of the Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, done at Geneva August 12, 1949 (commonly referred to as the Fourth Geneva Convention ); Whereas, Maria Lvova-Belova, Children’s Rights Commissioner for the President of Russia, admitted to kidnapping Ukrainian children and facilitating forced adoptions to Russian families; Whereas Ukrainian authorities have stated that a number of the kidnapped Ukrainian children have families who remain in Ukraine, but have been separated due to the Russian invasion; Whereas, on May 30, 2022, the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, signed a decree simplifying the procedure of obtaining Russian citizenship for Ukrainian orphans and children without parental care, thereby expediting the process of illegal adoption of deported Ukrainian children by Russian families; Whereas, on June 2, 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that 200,000 children are among the Ukrainians who have been forcefully resettled in Russia; Whereas, on June 16, 2022, Russian authorities announced that children born in occupied Ukrainian territories after the February 24, 2022, invasion will be deemed Russian citizens; Whereas, on July 11, 2022, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres ordered an investigation into the deaths and injuries of Ukrainian children; Whereas, on July 13, 2022, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken issued a statement calling upon Russia to immediately halt its systemic filtration operations in Ukraine , which have caused the disappearance, detention, or forcible deportation of between 900,000 and 1,600,000 Ukrainians (approximately 260,000 of whom are children); Whereas, on December 5, 2022, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, announced that at least 2,800,000 Ukrainians have been deported to Russia; Whereas, on March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court issued warrants of arrest, relating to the war crimes described in subsections (a)(vii) and (b)(viii) of section 2 of article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, for— (1) Vladimir Putin, for— (A) the unlawful deportation of population (children); and (B) the unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation; and (2) Maria Lvova-Belova, Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights in Russia, for— (A) the unlawful deportation of population (children); and (B) the unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation; and Whereas, as of March 27, 2023, the official platform Children of War , which was created by the Ministry of Reintegration and the National Information Bureau on behalf of the Office of the President of Ukraine reported that— (1) at least 465 Ukrainian children have been killed and 942 Ukrainian children have been wounded since Russia’s renewed invasion of Ukraine began; and (2) there has been 16,207 verified cases of Ukrainian children being deported to Russia out of a possible 744,000 cases: Now, therefore, be it

That the Senate— (1) holds the Government of the Russian Federation, under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, responsible for the wrongful and illegal kidnapping of children from Ukraine and officially condemns these actions in the strongest terms; (2) declares that the facilitation of illegal adoptions is contrary to Russia’s obligations under the Genocide Convention and amounts to genocide; (3) claims that the Russian Federation is attempting to wipe out a generation of Ukrainian children, thereby crippling Ukraine’s ability to nurture the next generation of Ukrainian citizens and leaders and to rebuild their country after Russia’s unprovoked war, with the purpose of demolishing Ukraine’s unique language, culture, history, and identity; and (4) asserts that the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation has significantly increased the risks of children being exposed to human trafficking and exploitation, child labor, gender-based violence, hunger, injury, trauma, deprivation of education and shelter, and death.