Ukraine returns 12 children after years of pressure and persecution in Russian-occupied territories
Ukraine brings back 12 more children from occupation (illustrative photo: Getty Images)
Another 12 children who had lived for years under Russian occupation and suffered pressure and persecution have been returned to Ukraine, said Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak.
According to him, Russian forces broke into families' homes with searches, forced children to attend Russian schools and obtain Russian passports, and threatened them with forced conscription or separation from their parents.
Some of the children witnessed brutal torture of their relatives or faced daily humiliation and fear.
Currently, all 12 children are safe in territory controlled by Ukraine. They are being provided with rehabilitation, psychological assistance, help in restoring documents, and support to return to education and normal life.
Deportation of Ukrainian children
According to Ukraine's Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion Russia has forcibly taken more than 19,500 children from Ukraine.
At the same time, more than one thousand young Ukrainians have already been returned home, and this work continues.
It was precisely the deportation of children that became the basis for International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants in The Hague against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia's Commissioner for Children's Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova.
In addition, in April the Verkhovna Rada supported in the first reading a draft law establishing liability for the illegal transfer of children and their use for military purposes by representatives of a foreign state.
