Five more orphans abducted by Russia returned to Ukraine

Mykola Kuleba, the founder of Save Ukraine and Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights in 2014-2021, announced this on Facebook, Ukrinform reports.

“Today Ukraine is rejoicing in a special way: five children from the Novopetrivka boarding school in the Mykolaiv region were rescued," he said.

According to Kuleba, the children had been surviving on the front line for three months, hiding from bombs and rockets in the basement without food and water. In mid-July 2022, they were kidnapped at gunpoint by Russian invaders and moved to the occupied territory.

The children were held in the Kherson Center for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation. The Russian military came to them every day and checked if anyone had escaped, forbade them to communicate with their families, and threatened them.

In October 2022, the invaders took the children to temporarily occupied Crimea, and then to Anapa in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai. From there, the orphans were rescued and taken to Georgia.

"Today, fortunately, we can say with relief that our mission to save these five children from the Novopetrivka orphanage is over. We are happy to meet them in Ukraine and hand them over to their legal guardians. Now the children are already in the strong arms of their families and friends and under the care of Save Ukraine," Kuleba said.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, a 15-year-old orphan boy was returned to the Ukrainian-controlled territory from the temporarily occupied part of the Kherson region.

Photo: Getty Images