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Reintegration Ministry: 11-year-old boy returned home from Russian-occupied Donetsk Oblast

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Reintegration Ministry: 11-year-old boy returned home from Russian-occupied Donetsk Oblast
Cars drive past a "Donetsk Oblast" sign at the border between Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and Donetsk Oblast on March 16, 2024, in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine. (Arsen Dzodzaiev/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)

Ukraine returned home an 11-year-old boy who had been separated from his mother in Russian-occupied Donetsk Oblast for two years, the Reintegration Ministry reported on May 27.

The boy was living with an elderly relative in Russian-occupied territory near Mariupol. The city was besieged by Russia at the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022 and came under Russian occupation in May 2022.

As his mother serves in the Ukrainian military, she was unable to enter Russian-occupied territory, and the boy could not leave the area without being accompanied by an adult.

Representatives from the Reintegration Ministry and the Ukrainian Network for Children's Rights, a union of NGOs focused on children's rights, helped return the boy.

"Finally the boy is safe with his mother," the Reintegration Ministry said.

At least 19,500 Ukrainian children have been confirmed as abducted by Russia since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and less than 400 have been returned home, according to the Ukrainian government's Children of War database.

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Elsa Court

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The latest announcement comes as Kyiv experienced widespread power outages on Oct. 8 following a Russian attack on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Over 3 million residents in the capital lost power in what officials described as "an attack on one of the energy facilities important for the city of Kyiv."

The railway operator initially reported that the passenger train's driver suffered a leg injury and four passengers required medical attention. The crew of the electric locomotive was unharmed.

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"The government looks forward to the smooth resolution of all pending issues between the two countries and will continue consultations with the Ukrainian side to this end," the South Korean Foreign Ministry said in a press release.

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