Another group of children aged 7 to 17 has been successfully evacuated from the temporarily occupied part of the Kherson region to territory controlled by Ukraine. This was reported by the head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, Oleksandr Prokudin. According to him, all evacuated children are currently safe and receiving necessary medical and psychological assistance.
This is reported by Finway
Details of the Evacuation and Children’s Stories
During the return of the children, numerous violations of their rights by Russian occupiers were uncovered. In particular, the father of one teenager became a collaborator, unlawfully appropriating his son’s funds and even writing denunciations against him. Thanks to prompt actions, the boy managed to leave just two days before a likely forced mobilization.
Another story concerns the family of a rescued boy, who had long suffered from nighttime raids by the invaders. The occupiers armed themselves and broke into their home, frightening the children so much that his sisters were afraid to go outside for several months.
Scale of Return and International Reaction
The return of the children was made possible through the initiative Bring Kids Back UA and the active work of the organization Save Ukraine. Since the beginning of 2026, a total of 36 children have been returned to territory controlled by Ukraine from the occupied part of Kherson region.
“These are girls and boys aged 7 to 17. Currently, all of them are safe and receiving necessary medical and psychological assistance. Each such return is primarily a story of liberation from the constant pressure of Russian occupiers,” said the head of the region.
In total, since the full-scale invasion by Russia, Ukraine has managed to return and rescue over 2,000 Ukrainian children from deportation and temporarily occupied territories, according to information from the Ukrainian presidential initiative Bring Kids Back UA. Official data indicates that over 20,000 Ukrainian children are in Russia or in occupied territories. The Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, estimates that Russia has illegally taken about 150,000 children from Ukraine, while the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Children’s Rights, Daria Gerasimchuk, points to a possible number of 200,000 to 300,000 children.
The International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants in March 2023 for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Children’s Ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova on suspicion of war crimes, including the forcible deportation and transfer of the Ukrainian population, particularly children, from occupied territories.
According to the Russian Children’s Ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova, since the beginning of the full-scale war, Russia has “accepted” about 4.8 million Ukrainians, of whom over 700,000 are children. She claims that most of them arrived with their parents or relatives.