Now Oleksandr is already in Kyiv. He is the fifth of the group of children abducted by Russia from Mariupol to be returned. For almost two years abroad, the boy came of age, but all this time he really wanted to return to the Motherland.
Abducted as a child, the young man returned to Ukraine
Ukraine managed to bring home a young man who was forcibly taken from Mariupol to a settlement near Moscow by the Russians last year.
This was announced by the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine on Facebook.
We have another opportunity to tell that the number of citizens returned from Russian deportation is increasing. This story began in April 2022. 17-year-old Oleksandr, as part of a group of 31 children, was taken from temporarily occupied Mariupol to Moscow, the statement said.
The Ministry noted that the vast majority of children from that group were orphans or deprived of parental care.
The young man was returned to Ukraine.
On the eve of the New Year, a public figure involved in the return of children contacted the Crisis Response Department of the Ministry of Reintegration.
And here is a new small victory. Now Oleksandr is already in Kyiv. He is the fifth of this group to be returned. In almost two years in a foreign country, he came of age, but all this time he really wanted to return, the Ministry of Reintegration added.
What is known about the abduction of Ukrainian children
For Children's Day in 2023, the Online.UA team presented the documentary project "Abducted Childhood", which tells the story of Ukrainian children forcibly deported and abducted to Russia.
In the "Abducted Childhood" film, children and their parents openly share their own stories: some of them were in captivity, some were forcibly taken to a "rehabilitation camp", and some were separated from their parents during the so-called filtering measures.
During more than a year and a half of full-scale war, Ukraine was able to return less than 400 children. At the same time, Russia claims to have "evacuated" 744,000 Ukrainian children.
