Ukraine brings back 1,625 children deported to Russia, Zelenskyy reports
President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy (photo: Getty Images)
Ukraine managed to return 1,625 children from Russia. This was made possible thanks to the Bring Kids Back UA initiative, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during a speech at a meeting of the International Coalition for the Return of Children in New York.
"Each return is a success - a child saved. But also a challenge, because the child must be reintegrated and protected from the trauma they went through. The First Lady of Ukraine contributes to the reintegration projects for such children. And today you will hear from Olena (Zelenska - Ed.) about this work," Zelenskyy said.
Deportation of Ukrainian children
According to the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russia has taken more than 19,500 children from Ukraine. More than a thousand Ukrainian children have already been returned home, and the process is ongoing.
The fact of the deportation of children served as the basis for the International Criminal Court in The Hague to issue arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova.
In April of this year, the Ukrainian parliament adopted a draft law establishing liability for the illegal transfer and use of children for military purposes by representatives of a foreign state.
At the same time, a bipartisan group of US senators has called for recognizing Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism due to the mass deportation of Ukrainian children from temporarily occupied territories.
Recently, it became known that Ukraine also returned 16 children from the territory temporarily occupied by Russia. Earlier, another child was returned who, despite pressure, had studied in a Ukrainian school and wanted to continue education in Ukraine.
