Ukraine brings back 17-year-old boy after 3 years under Russian occupation
Photo: Ukraine returns another teenager (t.me/ermaka2022)
As part of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Bring Kids Back UA initiative, a 17-year-old boy has been successfully returned home, Andriy Yermak, Head of the Presidential Office of Ukraine, reports.
The boy ended up in occupation back in 2022 and was forced to leave for Russia.
"The return was made possible thanks to the efforts of the Ukrainian Child Rights Network," Yermak noted.
According to the Head of the Presidential Office, the 17-year-old is finally back in his homeland - he was reunited with his mother and sister, who had been waiting for him for several years.
This is already one of hundreds of successful evacuations of children who were sent to territories controlled by the aggressor or taken to Russia.
The Bring Kids Back UA initiative, launched at the directive of the President, is aimed at returning Ukrainian children who were illegally taken or deported during the war.
"We are fulfilling the President's task - to bring all Ukrainian children home," Yermak wrote.
Deportation of Ukrainian children
Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian troops have been massively deporting Ukrainian children. They are taken to Belarus, Russia, and the occupied territory of Crimea.
According to Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, since the start of the full-scale war, Russia has deported over 19,500 children from Ukraine. More than a thousand of them have been returned home.
The deportation of Ukrainian children was the reason the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia's Commissioner for Children's Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova.
