The State Service for Children is working to return to Ukraine 2,135 orphans who have been evacuated abroad since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.
The head of the State Service of Ukraine for Children, Petro Dobromilsky, told Ukrinform in a commentary.
He stressed that at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 4739 orphans and children deprived of parental care were evacuated abroad. As of the end of 2024, 2,604 children have already been returned to their homeland.
“These children were evacuated as part of institutions from different regions of Ukraine, including the frontline regions where the full-scale invasion began. Now 2,600 children have already been returned, and most of them have been placed in family-based care or are receiving vocational education. With the rest of the children, we are currently conducting a needs assessment. They are now in 13 countries. In particular, in Poland, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Italy, Lithuania and others. We have not been to all of them yet. For example, a monitoring visit to Germany will soon take place, and we will assess the needs of children,” Dobromilsky said.
Dobromilsky emphasized that, according to the regulations, social work specialists must assess the needs of children before they return to the country. After that, an individual return plan is developed for each child.
“When we understand all the needs of a child in educational, medical and other areas, the State Service for Children and regional services look for a family for him or her. There are children who have serious illnesses. In particular, we are talking about several children in Turkey… There are such children in different countries: Poland, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, and Austria. They are currently undergoing treatment there. That is why we are not returning them now,” he added.
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The head of the department emphasized that representatives of the State Service for Children have already visited the countries where the largest number of evacuated Ukrainian orphans are currently left.
“For example, there are about 680 children in Poland today. There were much more of them there, but some of them have already been returned. That is, we are now working with all services to bring them back home,” added the head of the service.
Thus, according to the report of the State Service of Ukraine for Children, in 2024, the Service conducted monitoring visits to Poland, Italy, Austria, Turkey and Switzerland.
In particular, in Poland, the needs assessment covered 746 children, of whom 15 were returned. In Turkey, the needs of 203 children were assessed, 192 children were returned to Ukraine; in Italy, the needs of 28 children were assessed, 20 children were returned; in Switzerland, 89 needs assessments were conducted, 5 children were returned to Ukraine; in Austria, 190 children were covered by individual needs assessments, and 1 child was returned to his biological family.
Source: Over 2,000 war-evacuated orphans to be returned to Ukraine
