Ukraine returns 16 more children from occupied territories: Office of President shares details
Photo: Ukraine has returned 16 more children from the occupied territories (Getty Images)
Ukraine has managed to return 16 more children from territories temporarily occupied by Russia. This took place as part of the Bring Kids Back UA initiative, according to a Telegram post by Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
"As part of the Ukrainian president’s Bring Kids Back UA initiative, 16 children have been rescued from temporarily occupied territories. They spent years under the pressure of the occupying authorities, living in fear and humiliation, but today they are safe on free Ukrainian soil," Yermak said.
According to him, among them is a girl who was constantly afraid for her mother. The woman was held in a basement for three days without food or water simply because the child’s father serves in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Another teenager, without the knowledge of their parents, was taken to a military enlistment office instead of attending school and was registered for military service.
A two-year-old girl with a high fever was not allowed by Russian soldiers to enter a hospital, and her mother was forced to carry her across a pontoon bridge in the dark.
As the head of the Office of the President noted, today these children, together with their families, are receiving assistance and support: they are restoring documents, undergoing psychological rehabilitation, and have been given the opportunity to start a new life.
"Thanks to the Save Ukraine team and all the partners who help rescue our children. We are fulfilling the president’s mission — to return all Ukrainian children," Yermak added.
Deportation of Ukrainian children
According to Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, since the start of the full-scale war, Russia has deported over 19,500 children from Ukraine.
At the same time, more than a thousand young Ukrainians have been returned home, and the process is ongoing.
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.
Additionally, in April, the Verkhovna Rada approved in principle a draft law establishing liability for the illegal transfer and use of children for military purposes by a representative of a foreign state.
Furthermore, a bipartisan group of US senators is calling for Russia to be recognized as a state sponsor of terrorism due to the mass deportation of Ukrainian children from temporarily occupied territories.
