Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what diplomatic steps his Department is taking with international counterparts to highlight the issue of forced deportations of Ukrainian children.

The UK continually raises the forced deportation of Ukrainian children with international counterparts. We are an active member of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian children, and continue to raise this issue in multilateral fora, including the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the UN and the Human Rights Council. The UK has funded 'Save Ukraine', a non-governmental organisation which helps to return Ukrainian children, and 'Bring Kids Back UA' through The Partnership Fund for a Resilient Ukraine. In March, I met with representatives from both organisations, alongside Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Mariana Betsa and senior officials from the Ministry of Justice, to discuss child deportation.