Ukraine has successfully retrieved 128 children forcibly removed to Russian territory, reported Ukrinform citing Yuliya Usenko, Head of the Children Protection and Violence Response Department at the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine.
According to Ms. Usenko, more than 50 of the children that have been retrieved are now with their parents in the EU.
“Bringing [the children] back to their homeland is the job of a large number of people who work for months to bring back at least one child. It involves many risks, including for those who provide the assistance,” Usenko said.
According to the official, ordinary diplomatic tools are not effective under the current circumstances, as Russia has no regard for the requirements of international humanitarian law and “there is no one mechanism” in returning the children to Ukraine. Therefore, people working towards the return of the children have to constantly look for new ways to bring them back to their parents and relatives.
Ukrainian law enforcement authorities have estimated that the number of Ukrainian children forcibly displaced and deported since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion may be as high as 16,000.