Four more children were rescued from the occupied territories
Ukraine has repatriated four more children, aged 6 to 15, from the temporarily occupied territories. Among them are a boy who had been separated from his parents for several years, a girl whose mother was unable to retrieve her for a long time due to the loss of her documents, and two teenagers who found themselves in the occupied territories without their families.
The operation was carried out as part of the presidential initiative “Bring Kids Back UA” with the participation of the Office of the Ombudsman. International partners, including U.S. First Lady Melania Trump, also contributed to the children’s return.
Ukraine has managed to bring back four more children from the temporarily occupied territories. They range in age from six to 15. Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, announced the successful completion of the humanitarian operation. The return took place as part of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s “Bring Kids Back UA” initiative, with the participation of the Ombudsman’s Office. According to Lubinets, this is already the fifth such operation carried out with the assistance of U.S. First Lady Melania Trump.
The Ombudsman also thanked the international company MHP and its founder and CEO, Yuriy Kosyuk, for supporting the humanitarian mission. Among those rescued was a six-year-old boy who, after the start of the full-scale war, remained in the temporarily occupied Luhansk region with his grandparents. His parents were forced to evacuate due to constant Russian shelling. After a long separation, the child was finally able to return to his family.
A nine-year-old girl also returned home; she had been staying with her great-grandmother in the temporarily occupied part of the Kherson region after losing her documents. Her mother had repeatedly tried to retrieve her daughter on her own, but was only able to do so now. Two more children who were successfully reunited are 15-year-old teenagers.
One of the boys was left alone in the temporarily occupied territory of Mariupol after his mother’s death. Despite all the difficulties, he never gave up on his desire to return to Ukraine and live with his sister. The other teenager was separated from his parents because of the war. His mother was even barred from entering Russia, which is why she was unable to bring her son home for a long time. “Every such return is the result of long, complex, and very painstaking work,” emphasized Dmytro Lubinets.
According to him, Ukraine continues to work to bring back every child who has been illegally taken or is being held in the temporarily occupied territories. The presidential initiative “Bring Kids Back UA” brings together government agencies and international partners to locate and return Ukrainian children who, as a result of Russian aggression, have found themselves under occupation or have been illegally taken away. Each such operation takes months and requires complex coordination, as these are often children who have been cut off from their families for years. This was reported by Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets.
As a reminder, Russian drones attacked the Chernihiv region, damaging a gas station and a resort.
The WOG gas station chain in Kyiv and the Kyiv region will temporarily suspend nighttime operations due to the increased risk of enemy shelling.
