Ukraine returned eight children from the occupied territories

Ukraine returned eight children from the occupied territories of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson regions and Crimea.

This was reported by Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets.

Returned children are from 6 to 16 years old. Some of them have diseases, so they were met in Ukraine together with ambulances. Among the returned children is a boy who, at the time of the Russian invasion, lived in the Oleshkiv Childrenʼs Boarding Home. The Russians took the children from it to occupied Skadovsk and Russia.

"Family circumstances and the lack of prospects for a good future for the children prompted the adults with whom the young Ukrainians were staying to take decisive action to return the children to Ukraine," Lubinets said.

Seven children were returned through the mediation of Qatar. Another boy was returned through the humanitarian corridor.

• Deportation of Ukrainian children is one of Russiaʼs war crimes, for which the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin and the Childrenʼs Ombudsman of the Russian Federation Maria Lvova-Belova. At least 19,546 Ukrainian children are currently known to have been forcibly deported to Russia, less than 400 of them have been returned. Ukraine also has evidence that Belarus participates in the deportation of Ukrainian children.

For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.