Complex operation that took five years: How Ukraine repatriated its citizens from Syria

Refat Chubarov, chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, announced this on Wednesday following the evacuation of the last Ukrainian woman and her two children who had been held in a Syrian camp for six years, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"In May 2019, we formed a working group [on the repatriation of Ukrainian citizens] and began the effort. Yesterday, the last of our known citizens returned to Kyiv with her two children. With her arrival, we are closing this difficult case," Chubarov said.

However, he stressed that "the lives of these people are not closed to us."

"We continue to monitor what is happening. Some families moved from one danger to another - after being resettled in the Kherson region, they found themselves in the warzone in 2022. Women and children were hiding in basements. We later evacuated them from occupied territory," he added.

According to Chubarov, back in 2019, authorities compiled a list of a hundred people - women and children of various nationalities, including Crimean Tatars and ethnic Ukrainians - who had ended up in Syria due to different circumstances. They were living in a refugee camp managed by international organizations in a war-torn area.

"The conditions in that camp were horrific. There were very specific rules. The UN appealed to all countries whose citizens were in the camp to take them back. Estimates say the camp housed between 86,000 and 100,000 people," Chubarov said.

He expressed gratitude to President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR), which handled the repatriation effort.

"Ukraine rescues its citizens, no matter the situation, and helps them return home if they so wish," he said.

Intelligence officers told journalists the operation was extremely complex and took five years.

"One of the biggest challenges was that our citizens were on the unofficial side of Syria, beyond the reach of official channels. On the Iraqi side, which was the gateway to Syrian Kurdistan, a law had been passed mandating long-term imprisonment for families associated with ISIS. We had to negotiate with members of terrorist organizations and find methods and leverage to achieve a positive outcome," said a HUR officer involved in the mission.

Alina, the recently repatriated Ukrainian woman, stated that she had been waiting six years to come home. During her time in the camp, she was jailed for a week after a phone, strictly forbidden under camp rules, was found during a search. Now she plans to live in Ukraine.

On April 29, Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Main Intelligence Directorate confirmed the evacuation of another Ukrainian citizen and her two children who had been held in a Syrian camp for six years. They were issued passports and received consular assistance to ensure a safe return.

In total, Ukraine has evacuated 14 women and 41 children from the al-Roj camp. Two other Ukrainian women declined evacuation.