As part of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Bring Kids Back UA initiative, Ukraine has managed to return 11 Ukrainian children aged 10 to 17 from the temporarily occupied territories and the Russian Federation.
This was reported by the head of the President’s Office, Andriy Yermak.
“I was particularly struck by the story of a family from which we returned five siblings. The children were taken to Russia, and for a long time there was no information about them. Only later did they themselves contact their adult sister in Ukraine and ask: take us home,” Yermak said in a statement.
However, even after that, the path out of Russian occupation was extremely difficult. Russian child welfare authorities put pressure on the children, delayed the process, and forced them to change their minds. The return was only possible after more than a year of persistent and painstaking work.
“This story is another reminder: Ukraine will not stop until its children are home. I am grateful to our partners – the State of Qatar for its mediation, as well as the team of the Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine for their coordinated and principled work. We are fulfilling the President’s task – to bring everyone back,” Yermak emphasises.
- According to estimates by Ukrainian human rights activists, since the start of the full-scale invasion by the Russian Federation, about 1.6 million Ukrainian children have been under Russian control – deported or forced to live under occupation.