Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

It is. When I attended the Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland I attended a number of meetings on this with the then Prime Minister Trudeau. It is horrific. When I visited Ukraine, I visited Kyiv and I met with the International Red Cross and UNICEF and visited a centre that was working with children and families where there had been forced displacement. It is an absolute horror. I note that the First Lady of the United States has taken an active interest in this. That is a welcome development. I was encouraged that yesterday the Foreign Affairs Council of the European Commission talked about wanting to host its own summit on this in early 2026. Surely if we are moving towards, or can get to any moment of, peace, a ceasefire, or a cessation of hostilities, one of the first areas in which there could be progress is the return of children who effectively have been kidnapped and abducted from their families and from their nation.

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