Six more children rescued from occupation - Ombudsman
Kyiv • UNN
Six Ukrainian children have been returned from the occupied territories as part of the Bring Kids Back UA plan. The families faced pressure on the TOT and are now receiving assistance with reintegration in the government-controlled territory.
Six more Ukrainian children were returned to the government-controlled territory. This was reported by the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets, UNN reports.
As part of the implementation of the approved action plan of the President of Ukraine Bring Kids Back UA, 5 families with 6 children were able to leave the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. These are families from Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea
The Ombudsman noted that families in the TOT faced psychological pressure, lack of proper medical care and supply of necessary medicines.
"Adult family members were forced to obtain Russian passports, without which they would not be able to move around the TOT of Ukraine. Children were forced to attend Russian schools, where the educational process was permeated with propaganda of the 'Russian world'. Without the consent of their parents and children themselves, they were enrolled in military organizations. For refusing to study in Russian schools, they threatened to remove children from their families and take their parents to "basements" under trumped-up articles," Lubinets wrote.
The Ombudsman also reported that his representatives in Ivano-Frankivsk, Cherkasy, Lviv, and Zhytomyr regions joined the work with families to reintegrate them into their new places of residence.
"The meetings involved representatives of local authorities and charitable foundations, including the Rockada Foundation and BGV. The families were helped to find temporary accommodation, obtain and renew necessary documents, find employment and enroll their children in educational institutions, and receive financial and humanitarian assistance," said Lubinets.
Addendum
On October 2, it was reported that 7 more children were returned from the temporarily occupied territories of Kherson region and Crimea.
Lubinets stated that Ukraine is actively working to improve legal mechanisms to protect the rights of children and their return, but that Russia is deliberately delaying this process.
