More than 30 children were reunited with their families in Ukraine this week after a long operation to bring them back from Russia, where they had been taken from occupied areas during the war, a humanitarian group said on Saturday (April 8).
Kyiv estimates nearly 19,500 Ukrainian children have been taken to Russia since Moscow invaded in February last year, in what it condemns as illegal deportations.
Moscow, which controls chunks of Ukraine’s east and south, denies abducting children and says they have been transported away for their own safety.
“Now the fifth rescue mission is nearing its completion. It was special regarding the number of children we managed to return and also because of its complexity,” said Mykola Kuleba, the founder of the Save Ukraine humanitarian organization….