Ukraine children back home after alleged deportation by Russia

Kyiv [Ukraine], April 9 : More than 30 Ukrainian children who were allegedly deported to Russia during the war were reunited with their families on Saturday, reported Radio Free Europe/RadioLiberty.

The Save Ukraine charity said that 31 children illegally taken to Russia following the Russia-Ukraine war have been returned to their homeland.

"Children kidnapped by the Russians from the Kherson and Kharkiv regions have finally crossed the border with their relatives and now are safe. After a long separation of several months, they will meet their families," the orgzation said.

The group, which according to its website provides "evacuation, humtarian aid, and housing to families and children in war zones," posted a video of what it said showed the children returning to Ukraine.

Kuleba told a Kyiv briefing on Saturday that all 31 children brought home said no one in Russia was trying to find their parents.

"There were kids who changed their locations five times in five months, some children say that they were living with rats and cockroaches," he said.

Over 19,000 children were abducted to Russia, according to a Ukrainian national database, while thousands remain not accounted for, reported Kyiv Independent.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague last month issued arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Moscow's commissioner for children's rights, on war crimes charges related to the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children, along with the unlawful transfer of people to Russia from Ukraine since it invaded in February last year.

The Kremlin's alleged deportation of thousands of children from Ukraine to Russia or areas occupied by Russian forces was a major topic at the recent UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, reported RFE.

Moscow has said the transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia was a humtarian campaign to protect orphans and children abandoned in the war zone.

But the Council was sceptical on April 4 when it demanded that Russia provide access to and information about Ukrainian children and other civilians forcibly transferred to territory under its control.

Save Ukraine has helped people fleeing war zones since 2014. Over the past year, it launched a program to return taken children back to Ukraine. Over the past year, the NGO said it rescued 95 children, reported Kyiv Independent.