Ombudsman: 12-year-old boy returned after nearly 2 years under Russian control

A 12-year-old Ukrainian boy was returned after 22 months under Russian occupation and control, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets reported on Dec. 22.

The boy initially went to visit his father in Luhansk Oblast just days before the beginning of the full-scale invasion and then was stuck under Russian occupation in the oblast for 18 months. He then spent another four months on Russian territory and was forced to attend Russian school.

Lubinets said that the boy's mother was unable to retrieve her son because she is a soldier in Ukraine's military.

The Ombudsman's office was able to arrange a way for the boy to finally come home 22 months later.

The Ukrainian government has identified over 19,500 children who have been deported or forcibly displaced by Russia, less than 400 of whom have been returned to Ukraine.

Stolen generation. Russia systematically abducts children from Ukraine, gives them to Russian families

Editor’s Note: The story is based on the documentary Uprooted, published by the Kyiv Independent’s War Crimes Investigation Unit. Russia is systematically deporting Ukrainian children from the occupied part of Ukraine against their will – which constitutes genocide according to one of the five defi…

The Kyiv IndependentOlesia Bida