Ukraine was able to return three more children from the occupied part of the Kherson region, said the head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration Oleksandr Prokudin.
Prokudin said that it was possible to return the 11-year-old girl — she was left without adult supervision and risked ending up in an occupation orphanage. Two more boys aged 9 and 13 left with the girl. They were cared for by an older adult brother, who risked being sent to the occupation army.
All children are safe now. Doctors and psychologists work with them.
The organization Save Ukraine, the Public Union "Ukrainian Network for Childrenʼs Rights", the Ministry of Reintegration, guardianship and guardianship authorities, services for children worked on the return. Since the beginning of 2024, 66 children from the occupied Kherson region have been returned to the territory controlled by Ukraine.
Deportation of Ukrainian children
In the face of a full-scale invasion, Russia is mass-deporting Ukrainian children from the occupied territories of Ukraine. They are taken to the occupied Crimea, Russia or Belarus, allegedly for rehabilitation or rest in camps. Volodymyr Zelensky stated that it is known for certain that more than 19 300 children were deported by the Russians.
The 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. Currently, it is known about the forced deportation of at least 19 546 Ukrainian children to Russia, less than 400 of them were returned. Ukraine also has evidence that Belarus participates in the deportation of Ukrainian children.
- In January 2024, Putin issued an order granting Ukrainian children Russian citizenship. The order states that orphans and children left without parental care, with Ukrainian citizenship, may receive Russian citizenship by Putinʼs personal decision, regardless of all or individual requirements of federal legislation. This can be used so that deported Ukrainian children do not "legally" remain on the territory of Russia — accordingly, it will be more difficult to prove this war crime.