Today, the European Parliament discussed the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children from occupied Ukraine to Russia.

ECR Group Co-Chairman Nicola Procaccini, who spoke on behalf of the Group, said that no one can remain indifferent toward the atrocities inflicted upon the Ukrainian people by Putin’s regime: “There is no more disgraceful and vile violence than that perpetrated against children, and that is why we have to shed light on the deportations of children from areas of Ukraine occupied by the Russian Federation”, Procaccini said.

Mr Procaccini’s speech reads in full:

“This debate was put on the agenda just a few days before the world heard the words uttered by some mercenaries of the Wagner Group and I quote ‘I carried out the order with this hand and killed children, including five-year-olds’. It was probably not necessary to add these words to the horrors unleashed by Vladimir Putin, but these words can help us understand the terrifying events unfolding in Ukraine.

There is no more disgraceful and vile violence than that perpetrated against children, and that is why we have to shed light on the deportations of children from areas of Ukraine occupied by the Russian Federation.

We all know that the international arrest warrants issued against Putin and Belova are political instruments to exert pressure and nothing more, but we know that if we look at the history of humankind this has happened in the past and will probably happen again.

What has always made a difference is whether we remain indifferent or not and, to conclude, let me quote Edmund Burke ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’”