Last week, eight more Ukrainian children and teenagers were brought back from occupied territories, Save Ukraine reported on its Facebook page.
Among those returned was an 18-month-old boy whose mother faced threats from FSB officers. The security services threatened to take the child away after finding a contact with a Ukrainian Armed Forces serviceman in her phone.
A 17-year-old girl also came back to Ukraine-controlled territory. According to human rights defenders, she witnessed Russian military personnel beating and interrogating her relatives when they broke into their home.
Two sisters, aged 13 and 16, were returned from occupation after being bullied at school for speaking Ukrainian. The Russian soldiers forcibly enrolled the younger girl in the "Movement of the First" — an organization that militarizes children. Russian forces "evacuated" the older sister, who has a child, to Russia, where she ended up in a psychiatric hospital.
A 10-year-old boy whose father refused Russian documents and independently taught his son using the Ukrainian school curriculum also returned to Ukraine. Save Ukraine said that when Russians came to their yard, the boy pretended to be asleep so they wouldn't find him.
"Today, all the rescued children are safe, receiving help with document restoration, psychological support and the necessary assistance to begin a new stage of their lives," Save Ukraine added.
Nearly 11,000 Ukrainian children were forcibly deported to over 160 "re-education" camps in Russia and occupied Crimea in 2025 alone. This is a part of a systematic policy that has involved a total of around 35,000 children since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
This deportation is considered a war crime. It involves unlawful forced transfer of children, deliberate disconnection from their cultural and national identity, re-education, militarization, and coerced adoption, all violating international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions protecting civilian populations in conflict zones.
