11 more children returned from occupied Kherson region. The youngest is just over one year old

Another 11 children from the occupied Kherson region have been returned to Ukrainian-controlled territory. These are seven boys and four girls, aged from 1 year and 4 months to 17 years.

This was reported by the head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration Oleksandr Prokudin.

He said that all the children are now safe and receiving the necessary assistance, but they had to endure pressure and threats from the occupiers. In particular, a 16-year-old boy was forcibly taught at school how to handle weapons and fly drones.

Another teenager was forced to attend a Russian school under threats and forcibly registered for military service, while his family endured regular searches by occupiers with weapons.

The occupiers also threatened the family of an 8-year-old girl that they would send her to an orphanage if she did not study at a Russian school. There, the children were forced to participate in propaganda events and draw postcards for the Russian military.

Prokudin added that since the beginning of the year, 219 Ukrainian children have already been returned from the temporarily occupied territory of the Kherson region.

• The deportation of Ukrainian children is one of Russiaʼs war crimes, for which the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Putin and the Russian Childrenʼs Ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova.
• Ukraine has officially confirmed that Russia has abducted 20 600 Ukrainian children. The Russian Federation itself says that it has taken away 744 000 children.

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