Three more Ukrainian children return from Russian-occupied territory

The team of the Save Ukraine charity organization has managed to return three more children from temporarily occupied Ukrainian territory.

Mykola Kuleba, the founder of Save Ukraine, announced this on Facebook, Ukrinform reports.

"The Save Ukraine team has managed to return three more children from the temporarily occupied territories. Thus, we completed the 14th rescue mission, during which we saved 14 children, seven of them children deprived of parental care," Kuleba said.

According to him, at the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion, 8-year-old Yelysei lived with his grandmother in the temporarily captured part of the Kherson region, while his mother lived in Odesa. The grandmother died, and the Russian invaders immediately placed the child in a boarding school. The mother could not go to pick up her son due to bad health, so the woman's cousin went to pick him up. However, the child was not given to her, although the woman had all the necessary documents.

"It was necessary to act, because if a child stays in Russia without parental care for half a year, they are given an appropriate status, which allows them to be handed over to a Russian family or to choose another way of placement. So our team did everything to ensure that the mother received the necessary medical assistance and was able to take the child from the occupied territory," Kuleba said.

The woman had to go through many hours of interrogation by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), interviews and overcome obstacles. However, she was able to pick up the boy from the boarding school.

"Two 18-year-old brothers, Andrii and Mykhailo, also came to Ukraine with Yelysei. Both are orphans. Before the full-scale invasion, they were brought up in a foster family in the occupied territory. After coming of age, the boys realized that very soon the occupation authorities would send them to fight against their own people. In Ukraine, they were both wanted as missing persons," Kuleba said.

According to him, now all three are safe. The children are waiting for recovery and a return to normal life.

Photo credit: Mykola Kuleba / Facebook