Ukraine returned 14 children from the occupied part of Kherson region

According to Prokudin, among those returned was a 16-year-old teenager whom Russian military personnel forced to register for military service, Radio Svoboda reports.

Since the beginning of the year, 204 children have been returned from the occupied part of Kherson region, he added.

According to official data from the Ukrainian authorities, more than 200,000 children have been deported from Ukraine’s territories to Russia since February 24, 2022. As part of the Bring Kids Back UA initiative, Ukraine has managed to bring more than 2,600 children back home.

The Russian side, in turn, claims there are 700,000 Ukrainian children “registered in Russia”; in some cases, they were given up for adoption to Russian families.

The UN International Commission independently confirmed the transfer of 1,205 children, 995 of them being pupils of 11 institutions in the so-called “DPR” and “LPR”. In March, the commission recognized as a crime against humanity the deportation, illegal transfer, and forcible disappearance of children by Russia from territories of Ukraine not controlled by Kyiv, and also recognized as a war crime the delay in repatriating these children to Ukraine.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova on March 17, 2023. They are accused of responsibility for the illegal deportation of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia.

Sources

• Radio Svoboda