Ukraine returns seven-year-old child from temporarily occupied territory of Kherson region

According to Ukrinform, Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson Regional State Administration, reported this on Telegram.

On the eve of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the boy's mother traveled to Kyiv on business. On February 24, their village was captured by Russian forces. The child remained with his grandmother.

When the boy turned seven and needed to start school, the so-called "Russian administration" in the Kherson region demanded that a Russian birth certificate be issued. This could not be done without the parents, nor could guardianship be officially assigned.

The so-called authorities in the occupied territory began threatening to take the child away from the grandmother and send him to an orphanage. Thanks to President Volodymyr Zelensky's Bring Kids Back UA initiative and with the assistance of the public association Ukrainian Network for Children's Rights, the rescue of the boy became possible, Prokudin noted.

The separation lasted almost four years. The mother and child are now in territory controlled by Ukraine and are receiving all necessary support.

As Ukrinform reported, a group of children aged four to sixteen was recently returned from the temporarily occupied part of the Kherson region to territory controlled by Ukraine.

In total, 270 children have been returned this year from communities in the Kherson region temporarily occupied by Russian forces.

Illustrative photo: Bring Kids Back UA