A Russian woman, Olga Dorokhina, took a 4-year-old girl from the occupied part of Kherson Oblast and plans to adopt her, according to an investigation by Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne published on March 10.
Through the President of Ukraine’s Bring Kids Back UA initiative, at least 1,233 children have been safely returned home from Russian-occupied areas.
"All the children were separated from their families due to the war and occupation, and some lost their parents," Dmytro Lubinets, Ukrainian Parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Feb. 14.
Presidential Office head Andriy Yermak said the children who returned home include a 16-year-old girl who lost her mother, a 17-year-old boy who had been issued a summons to join the Russian army, and an eight-year-old girl.
One of the children, a 17-year-old boy, faced persecution by Russian occupation authorities for his pro-Ukrainian stance and assistance to the Ukrainian army, according to Ukraine’s Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets.
Since the beginning of 2024, at least 246 children native to Kherson Oblast have been returned from Russian occupation, governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
Ukrainian-born Oleksandr Yakushchenko, 18, who was deported from the Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast in 2022, was found dead after allegedly committing suicide on Jan. 10, 2024 near his foster home in Russia.
Ukraine successfully returned five children from Russia and Russian-occupied territories as part of the "Bring Kids Back UA" initiative, Presidential Office head Andriy Yermak announced early on Dec. 10.
Since February 2022, at least 20,000 Ukrainian children have been abducted from Russian-occupied territories and sent to other Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine or to Russia itself.
Eight Ukrainian children have been successfully returned from temporarily occupied territories, the head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak said on Nov. 29.
In a statement released on Nov. 15, governor Oleksandr Prokudin said the children who returned home from Russian-occupied parts of Kherson Oblast include four boys, aged between 1.7 and 17. According to the Ukrainian government’s database, Russia has illegally abducted over 19,500 children since February 2022.
Russia has already abducted more than 20,000 children since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said.
One suspect was identified by the Kyiv Independent's War Crimes Investigations Unit in the documentary "Uprooted."
The funds will be directly transferred to UNICEF in Ukraine, Ukraine's Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on Aug. 21. Canada will also allocate funds to international organizations providing services to Ukrainian children.
Mexico has invited Russian leader Vladimir Putin to attend the Oct. 1 inauguration of President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, Russia's Izvestia newspaper reported on Aug. 7, citing the Mexican embassy in Russia.
In a statement released on Aug. 3, Kherson Oblast Governor Oleksandr Prokrudin said the eight children who returned home include five girls and three boys, aged between six and 17. The governor thanked the Ukrainian humanitarian NGO Save Ukraine for making the return of the children possible.
Most children were killed or injured in the eastern Donetsk and Kharkiv oblasts, where the fighting has been some of the heaviest of the war, with 567 and 407 cases documented by the Ukrainian authorities in each oblast respectively.
"We do not know the exact number of children who were taken away. We have managed to establish that it is about 20,000 children, of whom 800 have already been returned," Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
Over 19,500 children have been confirmed as abducted by Russia since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and fewer than 400 of them have been brought back home, according to the Children of War database.
Three families escaped from Russian-occupied territories with the help of Save Ukraine. Three out of the six rescued children are half-orphans.
All children were transported to the city of Simferopol in Russian-occupied Crimea by Russian authorities connected to the ruling Vladimir Putin's United Russia party.
Sixty members of parliament, including 59 from the ruling Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS), voted in favor of the declaration. Parties with close ties with Moscow refused to participate in the vote.
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.
Qatar acts as a mediator between Ukraine and Russia to bring back Ukrainian children illegally held by Russia.
Save Ukraine, a Ukrainian humanitarian NGO, rescued six more children from Russian-occupied territory, Kherson Oblast Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on May 14.
At least 19,500 children have been confirmed as abducted by Russia since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The wife of Russian politician Sergey Mironov forcibly took a Ukrainian girl and boy from occupied Kherson to adopt them, but abandoned the boy after it became clear he had ill health, Ukrainian news outlet TSN reported on April 28.
The list is already being processed by the Russian authorities, according to Ukraine's Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets.
Ukraine's human rights activist Mariia Sulialina has won the 2024 Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award, the organization announced on April 25. Sulialina, who heads the Ukrainian human rights organization Almenda, has been documenting Russia's war crimes against children.
Myroslava, a 17-year-old girl from Ukraine, returned home after she was illegally deported to Russia a year and a half ago, the Reintegration Ministry reported on April 19.
The Kyiv Independent's investigative documentary "Uprooted" on Russia's abduction of Ukrainian children has won the 2023 Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) award for the Video – Divison I category.
The four children returned included a 14-year-old girl with a disability, and three boys, one aged 12 and two 15-year-olds.
