Lvova-Belova said that since the fall of 2022, children have been "resting and gaining strength" in Russian camps.
Following an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, Russia said 56 children from Ukraine were waiting to be reunited with their families.
Ombudsman for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, who is accused of forcibly deporting children from the occupied territories of Ukraine, said that the children are "safe and in touch with their families," and they allegedly have the plan to return each of them home.
“As I already said, the children have been in Crimea and the Krasnodar Territory health camps since autumn. With the consent of their parents, citizens of Ukraine, they were temporarily sent along with their escorts away from hostilities - to rest and gain strength,†she said.
Belova attributes the children's detention there to the inability to provide a safe return journey by saying that the front line has "significantly changed." According to her, 33 children from Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv regions have been returned to their families over the past two weeks.
The Humanitarian Research Laboratory of the Yale School of Public Health has identified a network of re-education and adoption centers for Ukrainian children in the Russian Federation and Crimea territory.
The researchers found information on at least 6,000 children aged four months to 17 years old. It is noted that parental consent to be sent to these camps was obtained under duress and was regularly violated.
