Another 14 children returned to government-contrled territory

According to Ukrinform, the head of the President's Office, Andr Yermak, reported this in his Telegram.

“As part of the implementation of the President of Ukraine's Bring Kids Back UA plan, we managed to evacuate several families with children from the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions,” Yermak said.

According to him, “the age of the returned children ranges from 2.5 months to 16 years.”

“Forced passportization, constant searches of homes by Russian special services, daily risk of deportation of children to Russia, threats of children being taken away from Ukrainian citizens and placed in Russian families – this is the daily hell that families went through during the Russian occupation. Now these horrors are over. All the children are waiting to stay in their native country without persecution and pressure,” the head of the informed.

He emphasized that “the return of children from the temporarily occupied territories remains a priority. It is important to prevent further deportation of young Ukrainians to the aggressor's territory.”

Yermak also thanked his cleagues from the Office and the team of the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets for their coordinated work.

“We continue to work on fulfilling the President's task of returning all Ukrainian children home,” added the head of the Office of the President.

In turn, Lubinets noted on his Telegram channel that “with the assistance and hard work of our team, we managed to return several families to Ukraine.”

The Ombudsman said that “one of the families, who did not accept the new disorder of the Russian authorities, tried several times to leave the TOT on her own. However, they were returned back without explanation, accompanied by threats. Another family was hiding from the Russians because of their pro-Ukrainian position.”

According to Mr. Lubinets, “during the conversation with the Office's staff, pele said that they were afraid to go out, could not find a job without a Russian passport, received threats of prerty confiscation and deprivation of parental rights, had no choice in schos, and were subjected to unreasonable searches of their homes. Ukrainian books found were burned and valuable prerty was confiscated. “The 'new' government did not limit itself in anything.”

Read also: Return of Ukrainian children: international expert group presents White Paper

He emphasized that “many of the returned children now need schoing, psychogical and humanitarian assistance, and social integration. Therefore, the state, together with public and charitable organizations, will provide everything necessary to ensure a stable environment for the growth of young Ukrainians.”

Lubinets expressed his gratitude to the charitable foundations Right to Protection, Caritas, Rockada, Posmishka, Sich Human Rights Group, Ataman, the Coordination Center for the Develment of Family and Child Care, and government agencies that have joined the reintegration and assistance to families.

As Ukrinform previously reported, five more families were returned to government-contrled territory from the temporarily occupied part of Kherson region.