Four families with nine children have returned from the occupied territories

From the occupied part of Kherson region, nine children along with their parents have been successfully evacuated, announced Olexander Prokudin, the head of the regional military administration, on July 1.

"These are four families raising four boys and five girls. The youngest child is 8 months old, and the oldest is 17 years old. Currently, the children are safe and recovering from the horrors they endured during the Russian occupation," he stated.

Prokudin acknowledged the participation of the organization Save Ukraine in facilitating the evacuation of civilians.

According to regional authorities, since the beginning of 2024, 139 children have been evacuated from Kherson region to territories controlled by Ukraine.

Official Ukrainian government data indicates that approximately 20,000 children have been deported from Ukraine to Russia since February 24, 2022. This figure only includes cases officially documented.

Ukrainian human rights advocates insist that hundreds of thousands of children have been forcibly displaced from Ukraine. Former Commissioner for Children's Rights under the President of Ukraine, Mykola Kuleba, stated in February that this figure accurately reflects only the children identified by Ukraine.

As of January 2024, around 500 children have been successfully returned to Ukraine, according to government records.