Ukraine returns 6 children from Russian occupation

This information was shared on Telegram by Daria Zarivna, Communications Advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.

"Among them are a brother and sister, aged 6 and 10, who have not attended school or kindergarten for three years. Due to their pro-Ukrainian stance, their parents refused to send them to Russian institutions filled with propaganda. The 10-year-old Nastya lived in a village that had been cut off from the outside world since the war began, with no humanitarian aid — such as food, medicine, and clothing — allowed in by Russian forces," Zarivna wrote.

Additionally, the advisor mentioned that Russia intended to send two other children — boys aged 15 and 17— to serve in the Russian army.

"Minors Ihor, 15, and Denys, 17, were coerced by the Russians into military training and received calls to join the Russian army. For these boys, returning to Ukrainian-controlled territory became a matter of life and death," Zarivna wrote.

Later, the head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, Oleksandr Prokudin, said that among the returned children there was also a 9-month-old baby. All returned children were in the temporarily occupied territories of Kherson region. 

Prokudin added that since the beginning of 2024, 242 children from the still occupied Kherson region have been returned to the territory controlled by Ukraine.

• Earlier, the National Resistance Center reported that Russians are agitating children from boarding schools in the occupied territories of Ukraine to enter military schools.
• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a law creating a register of information about children who were deported or forcibly displaced due to Russia's armed aggression.