The head of Zelensky’s office announced the return of 371 children taken to Russia

Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said that since the beginning of the military conflict with Russia, Kyiv has managed to return 371 children to the country. The head of the office presented on his Telegram channel Ukraine’s plan to return to their homeland all the children who, allegedly, were illegally taken to their territory by Russia.

The plan to return children to Ukraine, called Bring Kids Back UA, was developed on behalf of President Volodymyr Zelensky, the head of the office said. Andriy Yermak said that he headed the Coordinating Council for the Protection and Safety of Children under the President of Ukraine, which will coordinate the implementation of the plan. It includes both the return of the children themselves and their “reintegration” after their stay in Russia. it is also planned to “fix crimes and bring the Russian Federation to justice.”

In mid-March, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian children’s rights ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova. The ICC accused them of facilitating the “illegal export of Ukrainian children to the territory of the Russian Federation.”

On April 6, an informal meeting was held at the UN Security Council site on the issue of evacuating children from the zone of the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict. Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said that it is not the Russian authorities, but Western countries that are taking children away from their parents. Russia explained the removal of children by the need to evacuate them from the zones of hostilities and shelling.

As Maria Lvova-Belova specified at the same time, 2,000 children from orphanages were evacuated to Russia due to hostilities. About 1.3 thousand of them returned to orphanages. The rest of the children, according to her, are now in Russia and in foster families “exclusively with the consent of the children themselves.”

Read about what happens after the entry of Russian troops into Ukraine in the online broadcast of Kommersant.

Erdni Kagaltynov