Slovakia Rejects Global Pledge on Returning Ukrainian Children

Slovakia was the only EU member state that refused to sign an international declaration committing to the return of Ukrainian children forcibly transferred to Russia, drawing severe condemnation from domestic opposition lawmakers. According to Rapporteur, the “Toronto Pledge,” adopted on Sept. 29 during the multilateral Pathways to Peace conference, was endorsed by the EU and 26 of its 27 member states. Bratislava’s absence from the roster of signatories went largely unnoticed until the Slovak liberal opposition party Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) publicly disclosed the boycott on Friday, Oct. 9.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. SaS denounced the decision by Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico’s left-nationalist government as an “international disgrace” and an act of political “collaboration with the Kremlin.” “Whom did this decision serve? Certainly not Ukrainian children, nor Slovakia. Once again, they are helping a man who is subject to an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court,” the SaS leadership said in an official statement, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Fico’s pro-Moscow alignment The decision to break European solidarity on child abductions follows a consistent pattern of foreign policy recalibration by Fico since returning to office in late 2023. Under Fico’s leadership, Bratislava halted state-funded military aid shipments to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, repeatedly obstructed EU sanctions packages aimed at Russia’s fossil fuel sector, and called for the resumption of standard commercial and diplomatic ties with Moscow. Other Topics of Interest Finland Approves 35th Military Aid Package for Ukraine Finnish President Stubb approves the 35th package of aid containing an urgent defense item as total Finnish military aid reaches €3.6 billion. In May, Fico became one of the few European heads of government to travel to Moscow to attend official Victory Day commemorations alongside Putin. Opposition legislators and human rights advocates emphasized that by refusing to sign the declaration, Slovakia aligned itself against universal humanitarian principles. The International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin and Russian Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova in March 2023, charging them with the war crime of unlawful deportation and transfer of children from occupied regions of Ukraine to Russia. Slovak civil society organizations echoed the opposition’s criticism, warning that isolating the country from European human rights initiatives damages Bratislava’s credibility within both the EU and NATO. International accountability Slovakia’s refusal to sign the Toronto Pledge comes as international partners expand legal mechanisms to hold perpetrators of child deportations accountable. In Washington, US President Donald Trump signed into law the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 on Sept. 18. The statute formally established the forcible deportation, unlawful transfer, and unjust detention of Ukrainian children as statutory grounds for mandatory US sanctions, including asset freezes and travel bans against Russian state agencies, regional guardianship boards, and logistics intermediaries. Maksym Maksymov, head of the Ukrainian presidential initiative Bring Kids Back UA, observed that codifying child deportation penalties into binding law ensures that forced removals are treated with the same legal gravity as military offenses. Ukrainian officials have documented the unlawful transfer of nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children to Russia and Belarus, where minors are subjected to forced naturalization, ideological indoctrination, and illegal adoptions by Russian families. International human rights monitors have repeatedly warned that Russia’s institutionalized deportation apparatus seeks to systematically erase the national and cultural identity of displaced Ukrainian youth. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 90% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.