Ukraine returns 9 children from occupied territories

On September 27, nine children aged 13 to 17, along with a 20-year-old young man, returned to Ukrainian-controlled territory through the mediation of Qatar. The children are from the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk regions, and Crimea.

This was reported by the Human Rights Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Dmytro Lubinets, and the head of the President's Office, Andriy Yermak, according to Rubryka.

Some of the children have disabilities and serious illnesses, Lubinets added.

The return of the children and the 20-year-old, along with his brother, was carried out as part of President Volodymyr Zelensky's initiative, Bring Kids Back UA.

The returned children are from five regions of Ukraine: Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Crimea. At the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, some of the children were residing at the Oleshkiv Children's Boarding School. The occupation authorities deported the institution's children, either to Skadovsk in the Kherson region or to Russia.

The children have now been reunited with their families and are receiving all necessary medical care.

"One of the boys who returned today lost his father, who was defending Ukraine during the Russian invasion," Lubinets shared.