Five more Ukrainian children successfully returned from occupation. Among them is a 12-year-old girl whose father is being held in Russian captivity.

Five more Ukrainian children have been successfully returned from the temporarily occupied territories, Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets reported on Saturday, March 29.

The children are between 11 and 16 years old and were returned from the temporarily occupied territories of Crimea, as well as the Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions.

Among them is a 12-year-old girl whose father is being held in Russian captivity. Over the three years of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the girl, whose parents are divorced, changed her place of residence twice and experienced conflicts with her mother.

According to Lubinets, the girl’s mental and physical health has significantly deteriorated over the past year. Her grandmother has now been granted custody, and she will receive all the necessary support.

Another child among those returned is a boy who had been living in the temporarily occupied territories with his father and suffered systematic abuse. Despite clear evidence of physical violence, the so-called “local” social services failed to intervene. Lubinets noted that the boy’s mother attempted to rescue him on her own, but her efforts were unsuccessful.

The children were brought back with the mediation of Qatar, a long-standing partner in these efforts. The return was carried out as part of the Ukrainian president’s Bring Kids Back UA initiative.

Lubinets added that representatives of the Ombudsman’s Office maintained constant communication with the applicants and assisted them in preparing the necessary documents for the children’s return. He reaffirmed his commitment to continuing efforts to bring home all children who have been deported or forcibly displaced by the enemy.

Why is the number of deported Ukrainian children increasing, yet the figure of 19,546 remains unchanged? How does Russia legalize abductions under the guise of guardianship, and what should a real peace agreement include?

Kateryna Rashevska, an expert at the Regional Center for Human Rights, discussed these issues in an interview with Alla Kotlyar titled “Ukraine must demand not only the return of children but also the punishment of those responsible.”

Anastasiya Gurin

EMPR