Ukraine Returns 31 Children From Russia After Alleged Deportation

Valeriia, who went to a Russian-organised summer camp from non-government controlled territories and was then taken to Russia, embraces her mother Anastasiia after returning via the Ukraine-Belarus border, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 8, 2023. Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters

More than 30 children were reunited with their families in Ukraine this week after a long operation to bring them back from Russia, where they had been taken from occupied areas during the war, a humanitarian group said on Saturday (April 8).

Kyiv estimates nearly 19,500 Ukrainian children have been taken to Russia since Moscow invaded in February last year, in what it condemns as illegal deportations.