Ukraine returns nine children to their parents after being kidnapped by Russia
Lubinets told the stories of some children who managed to be returned from the Russian Federation (Photo:Дмитро Лубінець/Telegram)
Ukraine successfully repatriated nine Ukrainian
children kidnapped by Russian occupiers following their full-scale
invasion, announced Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets on Sept. 8.
He shared heartwarming photos of parents reuniting with their children shared on his Telegram channel.
Each child’s return was a special operation, and he went on to recount a few stories of successful repatriations. Remarkably, two of the children had resided for an extended period in temporarily occupied territories.
Additionally, Ukraine successfully brought back a young boy who had been accused by the Russians of attempting to sabotage a bridge. He endured a month in detention and underwent rigorous interrogation. Lubinets summarized the ordeal, stating, “He endured all the circles of hell, including filtration. But now, he is back with his mother in Ukraine.”
Deportation of Ukrainian children — what is known
The International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant on March 17 for Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova for war crimes in connection with the deportation of Ukrainian children to the Russian Federation.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution on April 27 recognizing the forced transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia as genocide.
According to the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, the Russians have taken almost 20,000 children from the territories of Ukraine they occupy, and approximately 6,000 are being held in re-education camps.
The number of Ukrainian children illegally deported to Russia may have reached as many as 300,000, said the European Parliament. MEPs believe that the Russians started abducting Ukrainian children in 2014, ever since the occupation of Crimea and parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
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