Thank you, Chair. 

Mr. President, dear Volodymyr, Madam First Lady, Olena, Diana, friends, it's an honour to be here. It's a tragedy that we must gather together. And it's a tragedy that we're all committed to reverse.

Mr. President, when I joined you a few weeks ago on Independence Day in Sophia Square, I emphasised that your struggle is our struggle. Your cause of freedom, democracy, sovereignty, and the human rights and dignity of every person, particularly children, is our cause – the cause of the 42 nations and more organisations gathered here today. 

I want to be clear at the outset of who's responsible for these horrors. 

Putin has caused this terrible tragedy that has claimed the lives of millions. 

He menaces the skies of Ukraine, threatens the cities, destroys the field. 

Putin has stolen Ukrainian children. 

Thousands of children have been abducted by Russia. Russia has repeatedly targeted the most vulnerable groups of children, including orphans, children with disabilities, children from poor families. 

Russian soldiers have entered classrooms and forcibly rounded up children, taking them to Russian schools and orphanages. 

To lose a child is every parent's nightmare. For the people of Ukraine, it's a horrifying reality.

After bombing a city, they took the children. After bombing Mariupol, the Russian soldiers announced evacuations and took civilians and children to Russian-occupied cities.

The UN Human Rights Office reported on these tactics – the tactics, including to indoctrinate Ukrainian children. 

Children are being falsely labelled with Russian citizenship and passports. A decree to fast-track the citizenship process for abducted children has been signed by Putin himself. 

In the Russian school system, abducted Ukrainian children are exposed to war propaganda and given military patriotic training. 

Secondary schools are required to send lists of students aged 18 or older for conscription in the Russian Armed Forces. 

Each of these inhumane acts are violations of international law. 

And the 42 members of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children are united in our mission. We're committed to the safe return of Ukrainian children that this must be part of any negotiated settlement.

As you mentioned, Mr. President, the coalition has provided Russia and Türkiye with an initial list of 339 children to be brought home today. 

This is just the beginning. 

There are thousands more children who've been illegally abducted, who've endured these horrors, who must return home. And as co-chair, Canada will intensify our work with Ukraine, with our European partners, and the United States to secure the immediate, unconditional return of Ukrainian children. 

We're investing millions in Hala Systems to support the use of AI in locating and identifying Ukrainian children who've been unlawfully deported. 

We welcome the recent, powerful appeal to President Putin by the First Lady of the United States to consider the plight of children in ending this war.

Decades ago, the US president led a peace effort with Russia through nuclear disarmament and adopted the slogan, Reagan adopted the slogan ‘Trust but verify’. 

It couldn't be more different – Vladimir Putin and Mikhail Gorbachev. 

When peace comes, we can't trust but verify. We must deter and fortify. 

We must start to drive that peace with the sanctions you mentioned. Canada has sanctioned over 300 enablers of the Russian regime over 3,000 individuals. We stand ready to reinforce those sanctions further with our European partners. And I welcome the President of the United States’ call today, repeated today for secondary sanctions on Russia.

Russia must be deterred from ever thinking that they can threaten Ukraine's or Europe's freedom again. 

We have to fortify Ukraine's forces that have fought so valiantly and for so long. 

And by marshalling the strength of the Coalition of the Willing, President Stubb, I salute your leadership in that, dear Alex, we can help secure a durable peace, but that peace is only truly peace with the reunification of children with their family, with their homeland.

 And we will not rest until that happens. Slava Ukraini.