The NGO Save Ukraine has arranged the return of 11 more Ukrainian children forcibly deported to Russia and occupied territories, the organization's head Mykola Kuleba said on Aug. 25.
This mission brings the total number of children rescued by the organization to 161, according to Kuleba.
Save Ukraine has helped people fleeing war zones since 2014. Over the past year, it launched a program to return children forcibly transferred by Russia back to Ukraine.
On Aug. 24, the U.S. State Department imposed sanctions against individuals and entities linked to Russia's forcible transfer and deportation of Ukrainian children.
Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova claimed on July 31 that 700,000 Ukrainian children had been brought to Russia since the start of the full-scale invasion in a mass deportation of Ukrainian children.
Daria Shulzhenko
She said about 4.8 million Ukrainians have been "accepted" into Russia and claimed most children arrived with relatives. The numbers include 1,500 children who lived in orphanages or state institutions.
More than 19,500 children have been identified by the Ukrainian government as having been deported. Almost 400 of them have been brought back to Ukraine.
A Yale School of Public Health study shows that Moscow has established a whole "network of re-education and adoption facilities" in Russia and occupied Crimea, with 43 camps where Ukrainian children have been held since Feb. 24, 2022, already identified.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova and Russian President Vladimir Putin for their involvement in the forced deportation of Ukrainian children during Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.
