Three children and young man return from Russia to Ukraine

According to Ukrinform, the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, reported this on Telegram.

He stated that, within the framework of the President of Ukraine’s initiative Bring Kids Back UA, four citizens were returned: three children and a young man whom Russian occupiers had illegally taken from the Oleshky children’s residential care home, first to a temporarily occupied territory and then to the Russian Federation.

Photo: Ombudsman of Ukraine

“For a long time, the children lived separated from their families, unable to leave because of the dangers of the occupation. Today, they are all home again, safe, on the territory of free Ukraine,” Yermak emphasized, thanking the State of Qatar for mediation and the team of the Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights for the dedicated work.

According to the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, this time, three children aged 6 to 15 and a 28-year-old person with a disability were brought home.

Among them, he said, is a six-year-old girl. After her parents divorced in 2022, her mother prevented her from communicating with her father. Later, the mother left Ukraine and disappeared, and it was eventually discovered that the child was in Russia. In May 2025, the mother passed away. After her return to Ukraine, the girl will live with her father.

Also returning home is a 28-year-old young man who requires constant care. At the time of Russia’s full-scale invasion, he was living in the Oleshky children’s residential care home.

Lubinets added that, despite the young man’s own wish to return home, significant obstacles had to be overcome to fulfill his dream.

“The staff of the Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights maintained constant contact with the applicants, assisted in document preparation, and accompanied the entire process,” the Commissioner noted.

Lubinets reminded that, since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, a total of 1,564 children have been returned home to Ukraine from temporarily occupied territories and from Russia.

As reported by Ukrinform, two young adults aged 21 and 22 were evacuated from temporarily occupied Crimea within the framework of the President of Ukraine’s initiative, Bring Kids Back UA.

The first photo is illustrative.