Ukraine has returned eight children from occupation back to safety.

Ukraine has returned 8 children from the temporarily occupied territories of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions, as well as Crimea.

This was reported by the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets. 

The returned children are aged between 6 and 16 years. Some of them have health issues, so they were met in Ukraine with ambulances. Among those returned is a boy who was in the "Oleshky Children's Boarding School" at the time of the Russian invasion, whose residents were taken by the occupying authorities to Skadovsk and Russia.

"The family circumstances and the lack of prospects for a good future for the children prompted the adults with whom the young Ukrainians were staying to take decisive action – returning the children to the territory controlled by the Government of Ukraine," the ombudsman noted.

He added that 7 children were returned with the mediation of Qatar. Another boy was brought back through a humanitarian corridor with the assistance of Veterans Alliance.

The return of the children was part of the approved action plan of the President of Ukraine, Bring Kids Back UA.

If your child is missing, and you, as their legal representative, do not know their whereabouts – be sure to report this to the National Police at 102. If you are convinced that the child has been deported to the Russian Federation or is located in the temporarily occupied territories, in addition to the police, you should inform the Office of the Ombudsman.

Hotline: 0 800 50 17 20 – within Ukraine, 044 299 74 08 – for calls from abroad, email – [email protected]