32. The Assembly recommends initiating programmes to help the Ukrainian diaspora support or maintainconnections with Ukraine in host countries by establishing Ukrainian cultural centres, promoting languagelearning, culture, history, and fostering co-operation within the Ukrainian community to enable future returns.The provisions of the Assembly Resolution 2388 (2021) and Recommendation 2207 (2021) “For a Europeanpolicy on diasporas” can guide these efforts.

33. The Assembly is highly concerned about the fate of the Ukrainians who are now on the territory of theRussian Federation and Belarus, as a result of forcible displacement or deportation. It reiterates its call to takeurgent measures to liberate these persons, as stressed in its Resolution 2495 (2023) and Recommendation2253 (2023) “Deportations and forcible transfers of Ukrainian children and other civilians to the RussianFederation or to temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories: create conditions for their safe return, stop thesecrimes and punish the perpetrators”. The Assembly calls once more on the Russian Federation to releaseimmediately all persons taken by force to the Russian Federation or elsewhere.

34. The Assembly takes note of the Committee of Ministers’ reply to Recommendation 2253 (2023),highlighting the importance of the work of the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights and theneed to ensure co-operation with the relevant United Nations bodies, notably the Committee on the Rights ofthe Child. It is also important to involve the United Nations Human Rights Council and seek answers regardingthe whereabouts of the missing Ukrainian persons, including those who have been forcibly displaced.

35. As regards the forcibly displaced children of Ukraine, the Assembly notes that the children of Ukrainehave suffered incredible hardship since the beginning of the Russian Federation’s aggression. Specificmeasures must be put in place to help children retained in the Russian Federation to be reunited with theirfamily in Ukraine or elsewhere in Europe, as underscored by the Assembly in its Resolution 2529 (2024) andRecommendation 2265 (2024) “Situation of the children of Ukraine”. Children without parental care must bereturned to Ukraine or, with Ukraine’s agreement, to another Council of Europe member State. The return ofchildren without parental care needs to be based on the best interests of these children, assessed on anindividual basis.

36. In its Resolution 2529 (2024), the Assembly reiterated its call on the Russian Federation and Belarus to“provide the Ukrainian authorities or a third party (a State or an international organisation) with comprehensiveand reliable information about the number and the whereabouts of Ukrainian children in this situation, theirnames and surnames, their origin and the destination of the deportation, in order to ensure their safe return toUkraine”; and to “provide representatives of the relevant United Nations bodies and other internationalhumanitarian intervention and human rights protection organisations, such as the United Nations Children’sFund (UNICEF), the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Office of the HighCommissioner for Human Rights (UN Human Rights) and other competent United Nations agencies, and theInternational Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) with unhindered, immediate and safe access to thechildren”.

37. The Assembly underscores the need to enhance co-operation between various parties andmechanisms to help return forcibly displaced children. Third-party interventions can offer guarantees ofimpartiality and effectiveness. It is crucial to have access to the territories of the Russian Federation, Belarus,and occupied territories of Ukraine, to speed up the process of identification, location and repatriation ofdeported and forcibly transferred Ukrainian children.

38. The Assembly stands ready to continuing its role as a facilitator in communicating with differentinternational actors and organisations that operate for an effective search for children, based on access toinformation about their identity and the conditions of their deportation or forcible transfer. The Assemblywould, therefore, support the possible creation of a parliamentary network on the situation of the children ofUkraine, which would help strengthen co-operation for protecting the rights of these children.

39. As regards the Ukrainian prisoners of war, the Assembly should address this issue and the effortsdeployed to negotiate their release as a matter of urgency. The bogus trials opened by the occupying forcesof the Russian Federation against Ukrainian prisoners of war should be halted, as they are unlawful underinternational humanitarian and human rights law, not meeting the minimum international standards of fairness.The Assembly calls for the immediate release and return to Ukraine of the 33 Ukrainian soldiers sentenced tolong term sentences in penal colony after unlawful trials on 8 February 2024 by the so-called “supreme court”of the “Luhansk People’s Republic” in Russian-occupied Luhansk.

40. The Assembly calls upon the Russian Federation to refrain from taking measures that run counter tothe Geneva Conventions I-IV and their Additional Protocols. The Assembly strongly supports measures takento allow for the exchange of prisoners of war to prevent further violence. The killings by the RussianFederation’s military of unarmed Ukrainian prisoners of war in Avdiivka and the village of Vesele

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