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Oleksandr Prokudin (C), chief of the Kherson Oblast State Administration in southern Ukraine said Monday that 24 children were returned after being forcibly deported to Russia during the war. Photo courtesy Oleksandr Prokudin/Telegram
April 10 (UPI) — Ukraine‘s government is planning to form a coalition of world leaders to coordinate and document the recovery of thousands of children deported to Russia and its territories throughout the continuing war.
The Coordination Council for the Protection and Safety of Children will immediately seek to bring home 4,396 Ukrainian orphans who were being held in Russian-occupied territories inside Ukraine, according to Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, who called on the global community to support the repatriation effort.
The announcement comes as 24 children abducted by Russia were reunited with their families Monday as part of a “complicated rescue operation,” said Oleksandr Prokudin, chief of the Kherson Oblast State Administration in southern Ukraine.
A day earlier, a group of 31 Ukrainian children who were forcibly separated from their families six months ago were brought back home on a bus.
A total of 215 children have been rescued from Russia and the occupied territories inside Ukraine, according to Save Ukraine — a private humanitarian group that has led five missions to recover lost children.
The new government recovery program — chaired by Andriy Yermak, a top member of President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s cabinet — will also seek criminal charges “to punish those guilty of crimes against Ukrainian children,” Vereshchuk said.
The government was hoping to enlist help from an international humanitarian organization like the Red Cross or UNICEF to serve as an intermediary between Moscow and Kyiv.
“In this case, the assistance of the world community is very important to us,” Vereshchuk said, adding that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki were among those pushing for such a coalition. “I hope that such a platform will start operating soon.”
Vereshchuk said Ukraine was prepared to retrieve children from points along Russia’s shared border with the European Union.
Altogether, at least 20,000 children have been abducted and taken to Russia since the invasion began in Feb. 2022, according to Ukrainian government figures.
Last month, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Children’s Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for illegally transferring children to Russia.
The court, which is not recognized by Russia and the United States, said Putin bears responsibility for the deportations.
