H.E. Ms Larysa Gerasko:

I will continue. On the issue of deported children, we have a preliminary number of between 16,207, which I mentioned in my statement earlier, but we presume that this number is higher. Most of these children were deported from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia, including children whose parents died as a result of Russia’s military aggression. Some of the children have been adopted already, if one can imagine. We are aware that it is prohibited to use the Ukrainian language with those Ukrainian children, unfortunately, in those families, or to contact Ukrainian relatives. Unfortunately too, neither we nor international observers have any access to the territory of Russia.

I refer to the ombudsman of Russia on the issue of children. She adopted a 15-year-old teenager from Mariupol. She said she saw it on TV, that she had a meeting with Putin and she said that now she would know how to be a mother of an adopted child from Donbas. That is unbelievable. We raised this issue in all international forums, including in Geneva. We tried to get our children back and that is one of the elements of the peace formula of our President.

I was asked if additional arms would be effective. To defeat the Russian army we need weapons. We have to strengthen our capabilities, but I would like to underline that we are not going to conduct any offensive attacks outside of our territory. We just need what we need to liberate our territory, to renew and restore our territorial integrity and to liberate our people. We need offensive arms for that. This issue was discussed in Ramstein and at the Munich Security Conference. Our President stated that our partners should accelerate and ensure the sustainability of arms deliveries. There is no alternative because Ukrainian lives are at stake. Ukraine managed to unlock six of the big seven weapons up until today. These include anti-tank arms, artillery, multiple launch rocket system, MLRS, air defence, tanks, and long-range missiles. We are convinced we will be able to unlock the seventh type, aircraft, which is crucial to protect Ukraine's sky and to prevent further missile attacks and shelling of civilian infrastructure.

I visited Kyiv last December and I cannot even explain how scary it was to be on the street when air raid sirens were yelling. You do not know what to do, whether to run to the subway or do something else. Ukrainians live in such conditions and under such circumstances every day. I reiterate that the sooner we get security means and assistance, the sooner we will win. We will save more lives in that way.

The EU anti-corruption-----