With this public decision, to which we are proud to have contributed in our own way by filing a report in December with the Office of Prosecutor Karim Khan, along with our lawyers, Daoud and Sebbah, the ICC recognizes the crime of child abduction and identifies the primary perpetrators at the highest levels of the Russian state. The ICC also refutes the obscene claims of Russian propaganda that dare to cloak its crimes in humanitarian pretexts. It offers immense hope for the return of all deported children and signifies that the rule of law must prevail and that there will be no peace without justice.

Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova are now pariahs in the eyes of the world! A line has been crossed despite the denials of Russian Federation officials, who claim to be safe because their state is not a party to the ICC; Vladimir Putin will no longer be able to travel without fear to the 120 countries that recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC.

The judges will decide on the legal classification of the crimes of abducting Ukrainian children, but the genocidal intent is established in particular by the public decisions taken by Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova Belova and in particular the presidential decree of March 30, 2022.

Behind Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova Belova, hundreds of officials in the Russian Federation—including defense and justice ministers, regional governors, and regional child rights officials, as well as the military hierarchy involved in the deportations—will also have to answer to international justice. Russian families who have illegally "adopted" Ukrainian children must now return the children or refuse to adopt them, as they are complicit in their abduction.

Following the ICC decision, the UN and international institutions must be allowed to locate and visit the children to arrange their return.

Emmanuel Macron and the European Council on March 23 and 24 must demand the return of the children. As Prosecutor Karim Khan stated, children, protected in times of war by the Geneva Convention, must not become spoils of war or the subject of negotiations. Demanding their return is one of the conditions—the fourth—of the peace plan outlined by Volodymyr Zelensky in November at the G20 summit. This red line drawn by Ukraine must be the same for Europe and all European diplomatic efforts.

This is a moral and humanitarian imperative as much as a legal and political one, and it is widely shared. Moved by the plight of these children, nearly a million Europeans have signed one or the other of the two petitions calling on European leaders to intervene.

However, since the alert about child abductions issued by President Volodymyr Zelensky in the spring of 2022, and in France, the op-ed published by our association and several prominent figures in Le Monde on August 1, 2022, the heads of state and government of the European Union have remained silent on the deportations of children. On March 23 and 24, at the European Council, they must break their silence and solemnly demand the return of all deported children. The safety of suffering children and the honor of Europe are at stake.