Zelenskyy's 'Bring Kids Back' initiative successfully repatriates 12 youngsters

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said late Monday that Ukraine brought back 12 children who had been forcibly abducted by Russia.

“As part of the initiative of the President of Ukraine Bring Kids Back UA, it was possible to return home 12 children who were under the pressure of the Russian occupation,” Yermak said in a message on his Telegram account

According to the initiative’s mission, Zelenskyy’s Bring Kids Back UA effort aims to repatriate all children who were forcibly removed from Ukraine.

A 16-year-old girl who lost her mother, a 17-year-old adolescent who received a summons to the Russian army, and an 8-year-old girl are among the youngsters who have been brought back, according to Yermak.

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Russia did not immediately comment. A request for comment from Reuters outside of work hours was not immediately answered by the office of Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow and Kyiv have exchanged children on many occasions so that they might be reunited with their families.

Since the start of the conflict, Ukraine claims that around 19,500 children have been abducted and brought to Russia or Russian-occupied territory without the permission of their guardians or families. Ukraine describes these kidnappings as a war crime that satisfies the criteria of genocide in the United Nations convention.

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Russia has said it has been evacuating people voluntarily and to protect vulnerable children from the war zone.

Kyiv has been able so far to bring back 388 children, according to data published by Ukraine’s Ministry of Reintegration.

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued warrants for the arrest of Russia’s commissioner for children Maria Lvova-Belova and President Vladimir Putin related to the abduction of Ukrainian children. Russia denounced the warrants as “outrageous and unacceptable”.