Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the ambassador. In the Chamber we previously had the opportunity to address her but this is the first time in the committee that we have done so. I spoke in the Chamber about the resilience of the Ukrainian people and the ambassador has articulated very well here for the Irish public the resilience and courage of the Ukrainian people. Their ingenuity and resourcefulness have been entirely inspirational as well. I take this opportunity to again condemn Vladimir Putin's war of aggression. The attacks on civilians in places such as Bucha and Kherson have been horrendous. It is truly appalling.

It is appropriate that previous contributions have focused on the issue of the abducted children. I am not sure it gets the attention that it ought to in this country. It is a crime that is difficult to comprehend. It does not bear thinking about. I want to get a sense from the ambassador of the scaleof the abduction of children. Different numbers have been put out by different experts and so on.

Some have said it might be 20,000. I want to get a sense of the scale of abducted children. Do some of these go back to 2019 or 2020 or is it all since the most recent phase of the war that these abductions have taken place?