Five more Ukrainian kids abducted by Russia are returned to Ukraine

Five more Ukrainian children from the Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine have been returnedto government-controlled territory, the head of the Kherson Oblast Military Administration Oleksandr Prokudin said on Dec. 14.

Two of the returned children have families and were brought back with their parents.

The other three children were orphans or had no parental care.

All of them are now in a safe place and are being provided with the necessary assistance, the governor said.

Prokudin also thanked everyone who is working to bring Ukrainian children home, including the Save Ukraine NGO, child welfare authorities, and regional child services.

Read also: Lithuanian leader calls for more support to ensure return of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia

First Lady Olena Zelenska earlier said that Ukraine had so far managed to return 387 childrenabducted by Russia during the occupation.

Many of the abducted children were either orphans or lacked proper guardianship, having lost parental care. Entire orphanages and facilities housing such vulnerable children were forcibly relocated en masse to Russia, as occurred with Bohdan Yermokhin, who eventually left Russia.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe reported on Nov. 27 that it had set up a special committee on the violation of the rights of Ukrainian children by Russians.

The first meeting of the committee will be held on Dec. 15 in Paris. It will deal with issues of violations of children's rights by the Russian Federation, as well as the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague issued on March 17 an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on charges of committing war crimes in connection with the abduction of Ukrainian children to Russia.

Read also: Russia prepares new lists of Ukrainian children for deportation, says NRC

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted on April 27 a resolution recognizing the forced transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia as genocide.

According to the Ukrainian state platform Children of War, as of Sept. 27, at least 19,546 children have been deported or forcibly transferred by Russia.

In total, according to the European Parliament, the number of Ukrainian children illegally abducted to Russia may reach 300,000. MEPs believe that Russians started taking Ukrainian children back in 2014, after the occupation of Crimea and parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

The Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova admitted on Nov. 9 that 380 Ukrainian children are "under care and custody" across 15 regions of Russia.

Read also: Nearly 400 Ukrainian kids held in Russia, Kremlin children's official says – real total much higher

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine