Ukraine’s authorities are seeking to bring home more than 20,000 minors who have been sent away or placed in care since the outbreak of full-scale war in February 2022.
They say that over 1,000 deported children have already been handed back so far.
Posting on the Telegram messaging app, senior Ukrainian advisor Daria Zarivna wrote that one of the five returned on Monday was reunited with his entire family, having fled to Russia with his mother at the start of the war.
Another returnee, a girl, had long sought to come home despite being influenced by Russia’s interpretation of the war, she said.
A third child sought help to find his way out of Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine while a family with two children endured searches and interrogations in their home before being taken to a safe area, Reuters reported.
Those returned on Monday included three young people who had turned 18 in the meantime.
“These stories are not just facts, but real tales of fate and rescue thanks to the efforts of the state, volunteers and our international partners,” Zarivna wrote.
Ukraine’s Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, told national television at the weekend that 1,029 children had been brought home since the outbreak of war.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights, in connection with the alleged systematic deportation of minors.
Russia denies these claims, saying children were moved to safer areas outside combat zones and dismisses the ICC’s warrants as meaningless.
The Gulf state of Qatar acted as an intermediary in securing the return of some of the children.
