Two more children were returned to Ukraine

Two more children were returned from the temporarily occupied part of Ukraine. Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets announced this on March 23.

An appeal about the need to return these children from the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine came from a woman who was in Russian captivity. Currently, a 9-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy are in Ukraine with their family.

Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets emphasized that this return was achieved in cooperation with the Russian Ombudsman Tetyana Moskalkova.

• On March 22, 17 Ukrainian children were returned to Ukraine from Russia and Crimea. Most of them are from Kherson and those who were sent to Crimea. The occupiers told the parents that the children were being taken on vacation for two weeks but then refused to return them, citing the threat of shelling.
• On March 21, 15 Ukrainian children who were taken by the Russians from the Kharkiv and Kherson regions were returned to Ukraine.
• On March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian Presidentʼs Commissioner for Childrenʼs Rights. They are accused of directing the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, which is a war crime. Children were taken out without the permission of relatives and Ukraine, in Russia they were granted citizenship. For this purpose, Putin passed a number of decrees that simplified these procedures, and Lviva-Belova carried out his instructions. Together with their parents, up to 150,000 children could be deported to Russia. This is the fifth time in its history that the International Court of Justice has issued such a warrant against a sitting president.