Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets announced the return of three more Ukrainian children.
The Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights did not provide details on where the children had returned from.
He noted that this return was made possible thanks to cooperation with the Orphans Feeding Foundation, in particular the organization’s co-founder Mariam Lambert. Lubinets also thanked the NGO Heroiam Slava and the charity foundation “Smile UA” for their involvement, SUSPILNE reports.
“This was done as part of the Bring Kids Back UA action plan initiated by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy. We also involve public organizations and international partners in this process,” the ombudsman wrote.
Lubinets also explained that if a child goes missing and their legal representative does not know their whereabouts, they should inform the National Police of Ukraine by calling 102. If there is a belief that the child has been deported to Russia or is in the temporarily occupied territory, then in addition to the police, the Ombudsman’s Office should be notified.
“Our children are returning home to their families. As I wrote earlier, we managed to return four more Ukrainian children as part of the implementation of the President’s action plan Bring Kids Back UA,” Yermak wrote.
According to him, they are a 17-year-old girl and three boys – six, three and nine years old. They are already at home with their families.
“Just imagine, the mother and son have not seen each other since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The family lived in the Kherson region, and when the war started, the woman soldier joined the military unit and went to defend Ukraine. Her minor son stayed at home with his grandparents. Russia occupied a part of Kherson region. The mother could not evacuate her son and was taken prisoner. Later, the woman was released, she started looking for her son, and we managed to find him and return him with his relatives,” Yermak told the story of one of the families.
Another boy, who had congenital health problems, was in an institution in Kherson region before the war, where he was being prepared for surgery at Okhmatdyt. Due to the Russian invasion, the child’s parents had to evacuate, and the boy was captured. Together with other children, he was forcibly taken to Crimea. And now, after a long separation, the family is together.
“Another boy ended up in the Bryansk region, in an orphanage. His grandmother did not give up, she was looking for her child with us, who is now with her,” the official wrote.
What is known about the abduction of Ukrainian children by Russia
The Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Daria Gerasymchuk, previously informed that as of the end of March, the Ukrainian authorities knew about more than 19,500 children taken from the TOT to Russia, but it was difficult to accurately count them due to the occupation of part of Ukraine’s territory.
On April 5, 49 countries condemned Russia in a joint statement for organizing a Security Council meeting on the alleged legal basis for the abduction of Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied territories. The United Kingdom blocks the broadcast of the speech of Russian Children’s Commissioner Lvova-Belova on UN resources, calling on her to be held accountable for her actions in The Hague.
The Office of the Prosecutor General stated that there is no single transparent algorithm or mechanism that allows for the return of Ukrainian children deported to Russia.
On March 17, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin and Lvova-Belova. They are suspected of illegal deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children.
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