Ukraine brings home 31 children who were taken to Russia during the war
Published 2:10 pm Sunday, April 9, 2023
- A refugee child fleeing the conflict from neighbouring Ukraine sits in a bus at the Romanian-Ukrainian border, in Siret, Romania on Monday. The European Union's commissioner for home affairs Ylva Johansson visited Romania's northern border crossing in Siret Monday where thousands of refugees are entering from neighboring Ukraine as they flee the conflict with Russia. (Associated Press)
The head of a Ukrainian rescue organization said Saturday that the organization has brought back 31 children from Russia, where they had been taken during the war.
Mykola Kuleba said at a news conference in Kyiv that the children were expected to arrive in the capital later in the day. Kuleba is the executive director of the Save Ukraine organization and is the presidential commissioner for children’s rights.
Deportations of Ukrainian children have been a concern since Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine. The International Criminal Court increased pressure on Russia when it issued arrest warrants on March 17 for President Vladimir Putin and Russian children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova–Belova, accusing them of abducting children from Ukraine.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said this week it had been in contact with Lvova–Belova, the first confirmation of high–level international intervention to reunite families with children who were forcibly deported.
ICRC spokesman Jason Straziuso said the organization was in contact with Lvova–Belova “in line with its mandate to restore contact between separated families and facilitate reunification where feasible.”
