Speech

Pathways to Peace Conference: UK statement to the OSCE

Ambassador Holland thanks Canada, Norway and Ukraine for convening the second Pathways to Peace Conference and calls for sustained international coordination to return Ukrainian children and secure the release of civilian detainees. The UK will host talks in London to advance practical pathways for release and return.

• From: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and Neil Holland
• Published: 2 October 2026

• Location: Vienna
• Delivered on: 1 October 2026 (Transcript of the speech, exactly as it was delivered)

Thank you, Mr Chair.

The United Kingdom thanks Canada, Norway and Ukraine for raising this item, for convening the Second International Conference in Toronto and for their continued leadership on these important issues.

The United Kingdom was represented at the Conference by the UK Foreign Office Minister, Lord Wood of Anfield. As he underlined in Toronto, the international community has shown what sustained solidarity and coordination can achieve in addressing the unlawful deportation and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children. We must maintain and strengthen that vital work, while bringing the same focus and determination to the plight of Ukrainian civilian detainees.

The United Kingdom will build on the Conference by soon bringing a small group of governments, international organisations, experts and civil society together in London to strengthen coordination and advance practical pathways towards release and return for civilian detainees.

In this Council, the plight of civilian detainees of course has a direct and personal resonance. Our Special Monitoring Mission colleagues, Vadym Golda, Maksym Petrov and Dmytro Shabanov, remain unlawfully detained by the Russian authorities. And We call on Russia to immediately release them, and all illegally detained Ukrainian civilians.

Finally, Mr Chair, I would like to draw colleagues’ attention to an announcement by the UK Government today to sanction some of those responsible for the arbitrary detention and mistreatment of Ukrainian civilians, and the deportation, indoctrination and militarisation of Ukrainian children. These measures demonstrate our determination to hold perpetrators to account.

Thank you, Mr Chair.