The mother and her young son were returned to Ukraine. They were deported to the Voronezh region of Russia from the village of Liptsy in the Kharkiv region on March 16, 2022.
This was announced by the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets.
The woman turned to the ombudsman in May with a request for help to return to Ukraine. The Commissionerʼs Office then contacted the State Migration Service to get the family a return certificate. The support was provided jointly with the organization that deals with the return of deportees.
However, the Russians several times without explanation, did not allow a woman with a child on the road, despite the fact that they had all the necessary documents.
It was possible to cross the border on June 18. Mother and child were placed in Kharkiv.
- The deportation of Ukrainian children is one of Russiaʼs war crimes, for which the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Putin and the childrenʼs ombudsman of the Russian Federation Maria Lvova-Belova. Currently, at least 19,453 Ukrainian children are known to have been forcibly deported to Russia. Ukraine also has evidence that Belarus participates in the deportation of Ukrainian children. Russia is also illegally holding approximately 27,000 Ukrainian civilian hostages.
- According to Ukrainian ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, deported Ukrainian children are in 57 regions of Russia.
- The Center of National Resistance compiled a map of the camps where the occupiers sent deported Ukrainian children.
- On April 27, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe recognized the deportation and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to the territory of Russia as genocide. PACE called on the International Criminal Court to consider the possibility of criminal prosecution for this crime.