Foreign Affairs and International Development

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development met to study the abduction, indoctrination and militarization of Ukrainian children by Russia. Witnesses were Mykola Kuleba, Chief Executive Officer of Save Ukraine; Caitlin Howarth, Director of Conflict Analytics at the Yale School of Public Health Humanitarian Research Lab; Ihor Michalchyshyn, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress; and Orest Zakydalsky, Senior Policy Adviser of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.

Mykola Kuleba testified that Russia operates a state-run machine to abduct, indoctrinate and militarize Ukrainian children, with boys as young as eight sent to military camps to be trained to fight against Ukraine and NATO, and girls forced into early pregnancies as a demographic weapon. He stated that over 19,000 children are officially confirmed abducted, with U.S. intelligence estimating the real number may exceed 260,000, and that Save Ukraine has rescued over 1,000 children through an underground railroad. He asked Canada to continue and increase support for rescue missions and trauma-healing programs, warning that if not stopped, these children will become soldiers trained to fight the west.

Caitlin Howarth testified that the Yale HRL has documented a large-scale, state-organized program of forced transfer, coerced adoption, militarization and ideological re-education of Ukrainian children, identifying 314 children illegally listed for adoption on Russian government websites and 210 facilities involved in re-education across 56 regions of Russia. She stated that Russia is rapidly restricting access to information and that without continued funding, the lab will cease Ukraine operations within weeks, asking Canada to call for continued funding to maintain this essential mission. She disagreed with any suggestion that the program is ad hoc, calling it systematic and falling within definitions of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Ihor Michalchyshyn testified that Russia is committing genocide against Ukraine and that the only path to peace is Russian military defeat, as Russia has violated every agreement it has entered into. He encouraged Canada to focus on three policy pillars: strengthening defence ties to increase military assistance and joint production, strengthening commercial ties to increase Canadian investment in Ukraine, and defending shared values by seizing frozen Russian assets and increasing sanctions. He stated that the so-called U.S. peace plan would have amounted to Ukrainian capitulation and that appeasement will not lead to peace.

Orest Zakydalsky testified that the Ukrainian Canadian community encourages anyone with information on abducted children to reach out to the RCMP, which collects evidence on Russian war crimes. He recommended that Canada seize frozen Russian assets as a test case to set an example for other jurisdictions, noting that the vast majority of assets are held in Euroclear in Belgium and that there is urgency due to Ukraine's needs and the political situation in Europe. He also called for a full trade embargo with Russia and much stronger economic sanctions.