Ukraine returns 11 children from occupied Kherson region

Ukrainian authorities returned 11 more deported children from the occupied left bank of the Kherson region.

The youngest girl is only three years old, local authorities report.

Of all the rescued children, there are two deprived of parental care, and the other nine have parents. The return was successful with the efforts of the Save Ukraine rescue team, the Office of the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian Child Rights Network, guardianship and child welfare agencies, and child services.

Since the beginning of 2023, around 112 young residents of the Kherson region have been returned to the government-controlled territory.

Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, during the conference dedicated to the International Children's Day "UA: War. The Unsung Lullaby", said that no one knows how many children were actually abducted by Russians from Ukraine.

Previously, Rubryka reported that 13 more Ukrainian children from the occupied parts of Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions were brought back to Ukraine-controlled territory.

On September 13, three more Ukrainian children, abducted to Russia, and the occupied territories, were returned home.

The Kremlin-appointed commissioner for children's rights Maria Lvova-Belova claims that Russia has "evacuated" about 4,8 million Ukrainians since the start of the all-out war. Among them were more than 700 thousand children who allegedly had no parents.

According to official data of the Ukrainian authorities, from February 24, 2022 Russia has deported 19,546 children. Currently, only 386 children are back home.

President Volodymyr Zelensky and Bartholomew I, the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, discussed the implementation of Ukraine's peace formula and the return of the children kidnapped by Russian troops.

Ukraine's Representative to the UN Serhii Kyslytsia said that Russia's invasion has affected all 7,5 million children. Authorities located all deported children in 57 regions of Russia.

After the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Russian ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian authorities changed their tactics of deporting Ukrainian children.

Russian authorities began to use new definitions in official documents so that no one could accuse them of kidnapping. Rubryka found out which ones.