At least 31 children sent to Russia from breakaway Ukrainian areas have been returned to their families, the humanitarian organization Save Ukraine said on Saturday.
“Children abducted by the Russians from the Kherson and Kharkiv regions were finally able to cross the border and return to their families and are now safe,” the group said in a statement.
According to the organization, the children “will be reunited with their families after a long separation of several months”, and will now begin their psychological and physical recovery.
“We will continue to take care of them until their families are home,” Save Ukraine said.
Children reported being forced to stay in summer camps for four to six months and transferred from one place to another. “They treated us like animals. They locked them in separate building houses,” said Vitaly, quoted by Reuters, a boy from the Kherson region whose age has not been disclosed, who also confessed that the Russians had told them that their parents did not want to know about them.
“There were children who changed locations five times in five months, some say they lived among rats and cockroaches,” said Mykola Kuleba, founder of the humanitarian organization Save Ukraine.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accused of committing the war crime of forcibly forcibly transferring Ukrainian minors from areas to Russian territory during the war that began more than a year ago. to deport, to deport.
Russia has confirmed the withdrawal of about 2,000 children from Ukrainian orphanages in the area under Russian military control.oh, but the Russian Commissioner for the Rights of the Child, Maria Lvova-Belova, said this Saturday that they have not received any request from Kiev for the return of these children.
About 1,300 have been placed in Russian orphanages and 358 in foster homes.
Source: DN
