![Reuters: Posterchild of Russia's Ukrainian children deportation program says he was threatened](https://assets.kyivindependent.com/content/images/2023/11/GettyImages-1258482295.jpg)
Reuters: Posterchild of Russia's Ukrainian children deportation program says he was threatened
Denys Kostev, a teenage orphan, was taken from Kherson to occupied Crimea by Russian authorities in fall 2022.
Denys Kostev, a teenage orphan, was taken from Kherson to occupied Crimea by Russian authorities in fall 2022.
Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said that 35 children have been returned from Russian captivity in occupied parts of Kherson Oblast since the beginning of 2024.
The NGO Save Ukraine has returned five children and an 18-year-old orphan from Russian-occupied territories, Kherson Oblast Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported on March 11.
The captives are spread across Russia and the occupied territories, according to Ukraine’s Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets. Many are religious figures, journalists, NGO workers, and representatives from local governments, he said.
Ukraine managed to return 11 more children deported or illegally held by Russia, including in the occupied territories, Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets announced on Feb. 20.
Ukraine's First Lady Olena Zelenska arrived in Latvia on Jan. 31 for a two-day visit to meet top Latvian officials and participate in the conference "Russia's war on children" in Riga.
One thought helped Yevhen Mezhevyi overcome the ordeal of Russian captivity – the thought of his three young children. Single father Mezhevyi, 40, was captured by Russian troops at a checkpoint when he and his children were fleeing their war-torn hometown of Mariupol last spring. For 45 days, Mezhevyi was kept
Episode #13 of our weekly video podcast “This Week in Ukraine” is dedicated to a massive Russian scheme to kidnap tens of thousands of Ukrainian children, place them in re-education camps, and give them up for adoption to Russian families.
On Oct. 8, Tetiana Bodak was busy organizing a funeral for her mother, who was killed by a Russian attack in then-occupied Kherson Oblast, when she got an unexpected and very emotional phone call from her son. "Mom, I'm in Oleshky (a Russian-occupied settlement in Kherson Oblast). On the way