1.5 million Ukrainian children live in Russian-occupied territories

This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister - Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk at the All-Ukrainian Forum "Culture in Time of War. Human Capital", Ukrinform reports.

"These are 6 million Ukrainian citizens in the temporarily occupied territories. These are one and a half million children who are now in Russian-occupied territories. At the same time, we are talking about almost 5 million internally displaced persons. Some of them have been left without anything, but they do not change their Donetsk or Luhansk registration, waiting for an opportunity to return," she said.

Vereshchuk also stressed that Ukrainian citizens are ready to return to the liberated regions and participate in the restoration of infrastructure after the end of active hostilities.

"During my business trips abroad, I always meet with our diaspora, as well as citizens who left after February 24, 2022. 90% of them say with tears in their eyes that they want to return as soon as the security situation allows," she added.

• On June 17, it was reported that almost 130,000 internally displaced persons were forced to return home - to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine or to the war zones - due to problems at their new places of residence.