A communication filed by For Ukraine, for their Freedom and Ours! 's lawyers calls on the ICC to prosecute those responsible and to reclassify the crimes as genocide.

The first civil society organisation to alert public opinion and the French government to the deportation and adoption of Ukrainian children in Russia, For Ukraine, for Their Freedom and Ours! filed a communication with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in December 2022. It contributed to the issuance of arrest warrants against Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, his "Children's Rights Commissioner", for acts then described as "war crimes".

For Ukraine's lawyers, Emmanuel Daoud and Gabriel Sebbah, filed a second communication on 13 September 2024, documenting the scale of the crimes committed against Ukrainian minors. It reveals the extent of the network of complicity that largely involves the United Russia party, and asks the ICC to extend its warrants to other senior officials and to reclassify these crimes in order to increase judicial pressure on the Russian authorities.

Introduced by Oleksandra Matviychuk, head of the NGO Center for Civil Liberties (Nobel Peace Prize 2022), the press conference will present the content of the communication to the ICC and the investigation on which it is based. It will also offer an analysis of the role of United Russia within the Russian state apparatus by Galia Ackerman, historian and specialist in the Russian and ex-Soviet world, and a presentation by Vira Yastrebova, lawyer and head of the Ukrainian NGO Eastern Human Rights Group, on the militarisation of Ukrainian children.

It will notably address the following points:

- The elements of the investigation. Conducted for more than a year by the teams of For Ukraine, for their freedom and ours! with the support of Russia-Liberties, it is based on the examination of a thousand pieces of evidence, mainly from the perpetrators' Telegram accounts and from Russian and Western media. This investigation establishes the planned and systematic nature of the process of deportation and forced adoption of Ukrainian minors in Russia, and the genocidal intent of their perpetrators.

- The nature of the organisation set up by the United Russia party, which is based on:

• Planning at its headquarters by a “humanitarian HQ” in conjunction with the presidential administration and ministries

• Coordination and relay in occupied territories by “humanitarian missions”, led by its parliamentarians and composed of members of its party youth organizations, in liaison with the occupation administration and the armed forces

• Relay in the Russian Federation by governors, their administration and the party

• Monitoring by Duma committees, the presidential administration and the “Special Military Operation Working Group” which directly informs Putin.

- The genocidal intent to eradicate the Ukrainian identity of minors in the occupied territories. This concerns about a million Ukrainian minors, the vast majority of whom were unable to escape occupation or transfer to the Russian Federation.

- The role of United Russia within the Russian state apparatus.

- The development of the situation in the occupied territories and the militarization of Ukrainian children.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Presented by Bertrand Lambolez, coordinator of the file for the association For Ukraine, for their freedom and ours!

When: Wednesday, September 25, 2024 at 1:30 p.m. Duration: 2 hours

• After the conference, it will be possible to conduct interviews with the speakers: lawyers from the Vigo law firm, heads of For Ukraine, for their freedom and ours! and Russia-Freedoms, Galia Ackerman, Vira Yastrebova. Journalists who wish to do so are requested to send us their request in advance in order to organize the meetings. We would be grateful if you could inform us as soon as possible about your participation in the conference and your wish for an interview by responding to this invitation via the contact below:

contact.presse@pourlukraine.com