Heartwarming Ukraine Children Joyfully Reunited with Their Families

Ukraine children, after being taken to Russia from seized territories, have been reunited with their families. Children from the Ukrainian areas of Kherson and Kharkiv were “kidnapped” by Russian soldiers.

Abducted Children Reunited with Families in Ukraine

After an extended struggle to return them to Ukraine from Russia, where they had been abducted from seized territories during the war, more than 30 children have this week been reunited with their families, according to a humanitarian organization.

The kids, who were carrying suitcases and bags of assets and some of them were clutching stuffed animals, had crossed the border on foot the day before. Volunteers met them and placed them on a bus to the Ukrainian capital.

The youngsters and their families had crossed the border into an area under Kyiv’s control on Friday, according to the Save Ukraine organization. In what it believes to be illegal measures, Kyiv estimates that since Moscow invaded in February of last year, over 19,500 children have been sent to Russia.

Ukraine Kids Repatriated from Russia; Moscow Denies Kidnapping

Moscow, which governs a portion of eastern and southern Ukraine, has denied kidnapping children and claimed they were sent somewhere for their protection.

The humanitarian group Save Ukraine organized the gatherings. The group states to have completed its fifth operation, which involves bringing back deported children from Ukraine to Russia.

Kuleba praised the “heroic mothers” who had traveled to get their children in what he called the “most difficult” of the charity’s rescue efforts to date. The organization provided the Ukrainian families of children who had been transported to Russia with the logistics, transportation, and preparation necessary to set off on the long trek to reclaim their children and bring them back.

Due to the untimely death of a grandmother who was traveling with two of her grandkids due to “stress,” the kids had to stay in Russia.  At a news conference in Kyiv, former child rights commissioner Kuleba said. He claimed in a Facebook post that the Russian FSB security force had interrogated the Ukrainian family for “13 hours.”

Ukraine Children Claim Torture in Russian Summer Camps

According to Kuleba, the kids were transported from seized areas of the Kharkiv and Kherson regions of Ukraine to what the Russians dubbed “summer camps.” No immediate response was received from Moscow. At the media briefing in Kyiv, there were three kids—two boys and a girl. On a previous rescue effort last month that resulted in the repatriation of 18 kids in all, Save Ukraine said that they were brought back to Ukraine.

The three children said that they had been taken away from their parents, who had been under pressure in the Russian-occupied areas of Kherson and Kharkiv to send their children to two-week-long Russian summer camps. The children present at the briefing claimed they were transferred around and made to spend four to six months at the summer camps.

“They tortured us like animals.” “We were locked up in a different building,” Vitaly, a little youngster from the Kherson area who did not specify his age, claimed. 

Some of them have consciously decided to stay in Russia with their parents at their side. But it is believed that many more were deported without authorization. Those who have returned allege they experienced torture, indoctrination, and propaganda while being incarcerated repeatedly against their will.

ICC Issues Arrest Warrants for Putin, Lvova-Belova

Maria Lvova-Belova, the nation’s commissioner for children’s rights, and Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, were each handed arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court last month on charges that they kidnapped children from Ukraine. 

Moscow has not kept secret the strategy it used to transfer hundreds of Ukrainian children from the seized area to Russia in order to safeguard orphans and abandoned kids in the area of conflict. However, Russia denied the accusations made by the ICC, asserting that it did not recognize the authority of the ICC and that the warrants for Putin and Lvova-Belova’s arrest were unlawful.

At a press conference earlier this week, Lvova-Belova said that her panel never transferred anyone against their will or the wishes of their parents or legal guardians, whose approval was always sought unless they were absent or not present. She said that in a place where there was continual military action, this was essential to safeguarding the interests of children.

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