A Ukrainian rescue organization said on Saturday that 31 children were brought back from Russia, where they had been taken during the war.
Mykola Kuleba told a news conference in Kiev that the children were expected to arrive in the capital later. Kuleba is the executive director of the Save Ukraine organization and the President’s Commissioner for the Rights of the Child.
The deportation of Ukrainian children has been a concern since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The International Criminal Court stepped up pressure on Russia when it issued arrest warrants on March 17 for President Vladimir Putin and Russian Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of abducting children from Ukraine.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said this week it was in contact with Lvova-Belova, the first confirmation of a high-level international intervention to reunite families with children who had been forcibly deported.
ICRC Spokesman Jason Strazioso said the organization was in contact with Lvova-Belova “in line with its mandate to restore contact between separated families and facilitate reunification where possible.”
An Associated Press investigation revealed Lvova-Belova’s involvement in the kidnapping and an open attempt to adopt Ukrainian children to Russia. Lvova-Belova told an informal meeting of the UN Security Council on Wednesday that the children had been taken for their safety, not abducted – a claim widely rejected by the international community.
It is difficult to determine the exact number of Ukrainian children taken to Russia, and the number varies greatly between the warring countries. A statement posted on Twitter on Wednesday by Ukraine’s UN ambassador Sergiy Kislitsya said more than 19,500 children had been seized from their families or orphanages and forcibly deported.
(With inputs from PTI)
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