Ukraine: Forcible Removal of Children

Clive Jones Excerpts

Thursday 20th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

My hon. Friend puts it very well, and I do agree. We will continue to stand with Ukraine for all the reasons that hon. Members have expressed this morning. We will continue to do so until talks have started, and a just and sovereign future for Ukraine is secured.

[Clive Jones (Wokingham) (LD)]

In Wokingham there is a Ukrainian refugee community that has made a positive difference to the area. I have worked with local groups to help supply aid to civilians in Ukraine, and many have shared their concerns about the war and the safety of their relatives back home. I fully support the hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire South (Johanna Baxter) on her comments about the 20,000 Ukrainian children stolen by the Russians. What are the Government doing to reassure the many Ukrainians in my constituency that UK support for Ukraine will remain steadfast against the Russian invasion, that Putin will be held to account for his war crimes, and that Trump will not be allowed to backtrack on his support for Ukraine and NATO?

[Mr Falconer]

I pay tribute to the hon. Member and his constituents for their work to support Ukrainians. I know that hon. Members right across the House and their constituents have been engaged in supporting Ukrainians in many different ways. I myself have met the Ukrainian community in Lincoln, and there are many people in Lincoln who have taken in Ukrainians or provided support. I would like to assure all of those people that we will continue to stand with the Ukrainians on these questions.

The hon. Member asks an important question about how we can continue to identify those children who have been seized by the Russians. There is work ongoing, often using Russian databases themselves, which are relatively freely available, to identify where Ukrainian children are likely to have been taken in Russia. I imagine that the Russian authorities think people are not sufficiently interested to track individual children. I can assure the House that we are, that we will and that we will continue to follow this to the end. Alongside our Ukrainian friends, we have identified 600 individual Ukrainian children by name. We will not forget the names of those children, and we will not forget the locations of those children. The Russian families who have sought to take in those children should know that such an effort is ongoing, and that it is supported right across the Government, right across the House and right across the country. We will continue, day in and day out, to ensure that those children are returned.