Eleven Ukrainian Children Reunite With Families After Years in Russian Occupation

Eleven more Ukrainian children have been rescued from occupation as part of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Bring Kids Back UA  initiative, Chief Operating Officer of Bring Kids Back UA and Advisor to the Head of the Office, Dariia Zarivna, reported on May 28.

Among them is a girl whose mother and brother, both servicemen and defenders of Azovstal, spent over three years in Russian captivity. Throughout this time, her mother did not know if she would ever see her children again. During the prisoner exchange, she met her son on a bus, and today she was finally able to embrace her young daughter.

Another boy was reunited with his family for the first time in three years—his father, who has been defending Ukraine in the armed forces throughout the war, and his brother, also a soldier who was held in Russian captivity for over three years.

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The rescue also included an orphaned boy who was kidnapped from school by Russian forces, taken to a basement, and tortured. He was beaten, threatened, and forced to join the Russian army just before his 18th birthday.

“Thanks to Save Ukraine  and other partners for helping organize this complex rescue mission. Together, we will keep fighting until every Ukrainian child is safe,” Zarivna wrote.

On February 19, it was reported that Ukraine had successfully repatriated 15 children from Russian-occupied territories, including three teenagers who had been issued conscription notices by Russian authorities.

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