Ukraine brings back 5 more children deported to Russia

This was announced by Mykola Kuleba, the founder of the Save Ukraine NGO, on May 31. 

“After the start of the full-scale war, the children spent the first three months on the front line, hiding from bombs and missiles in the basement without food or water. In mid-July 2022, they were kidnapped at gunpoint by Russian forces and taken to occupied territory,” he wrote. 

According to Kuleba, the military checked on the children daily, making sure none had escaped, forbidding them from communicating with their families, and threatening them.

“In October 2022, Russians moved them to Crimea and then to Anapa in Russia's Krasnodar Krai. From there, we managed to rescue the children and bring them to a safer place in Georgia,” said Kuleba.

The children are now safe and have been reunited with their legal guardians.

Deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia and Belarus

Amid full-scale war, Russia is deporting Ukrainian children en masse from the occupied territories of Ukraine. They are taken to the occupied Crimea, Russia or Belarus, allegedly for rehabilitation or to rest in camps.

On March 17, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova. They are suspected of forcibly deporting Ukrainian children.

On December 7, 2023, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said that the deportation of 19,540 Ukrainian children by Russia has been officially confirmed.

Maria Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, has publicly said that more than 700,000 children from Ukraine are now in Russia.

Russia spreads disinformation and propaganda, aiming to portray its atrocities as "humanitarian" gestures. Russia also engages in disinformation and propaganda tactics targeted at brainwashing youngsters in Russia-occupied territories of Ukraine or children deported to Russia into believing that the Kremlin is protecting them from a "Nazi regime in Kyiv."