Five Ukrainian orphans deported by Russia back in 2022 return to Mykolaiv

Five orphans who had gone through the horrors of deportation by the Russian invasion forces since 2022 were returned to Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region.

That’s according to Vitaliy Kim, head of the regional military administration, who reported the news on Facebook, as seen by Ukrinform.

"In Mykolaiv, we welcomed the five students from the Novopetrivska special boarding school, who in 2022 went through the horrors of deportation by the Russians. In March 2022, the facility was under occupation, and in July 2022, Russian military forcibly took the children and staff to Kherson region, and then farther on to (Russia’s – ed.) Krasnodar region," Kim wrote.

According to the official, in November of the same year, the said children and their companions were able to make it out of Russia and to the neighboring Georgia.

The region Department of Education and Children’s Services took measures to find the affected teenagers’ close relatives or place them in new families. Four children from the group will get new families, and a 17-year-old girl will be studying in a lyceum starting September.

Help in returning the group from abroad was provided by the Save Ukraine team with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Joint Center under the Security Service of Ukraine, and Operation Hope (Finland).

As reported, 13 more children were returned from the temporarily occupied territories within the framework of the Bring Kids Back UA action plan initiated by the Ukrainian president.

Photo: Mykolaiv RMA