Three more children were returned from the territories occupied by Russia – Yermak

Three more children and their mother were returned from the Russian-occupied part of the Donetsk region to the territory controlled by Ukraine within the framework of the initiative of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi Bring Kids Back UA, the head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak said on the social network Kh.

According to him, “for more than a year, the family lived in the occupation, where the children were forced to study in a Russian school. The mother received constant threats from the occupation authorities, she was threatened with being forced to send her children to a boarding school. This forced the family to dare to leave the temporarily occupied Donetsk region.”

“I am sincerely grateful to the team of the Office of the President and the Office of the Ombudsman for their coordinated work, as well as to our partners for their help. The president’s task will be fulfilled – every child will return home,” Yermak added.

According to Ukraine, more than 20 thousand Ukrainian children ended up in Russia and the occupied territories during the war.

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Putin and Lvova-Belova. They are suspected of committing war crimes – forcible deportations and displacement of the population, including children, from the occupied territories of Ukraine.

According to the authorities, about half a thousand children have so far managed to return to Ukraine.