(Reuters) – Eight Ukrainian children seized from their families by officials in the Russia-annexed and controlled Crimea peninsula and placed in state orphanages returned home on Thursday, a senior Ukrainian official said.
Darina Zarivna, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, said the children had been seized while receiving treatment in hospital and were rescued as part of the Bring Kids Back programme.
They had been subjected to bullying in an orphanage and forced to take part in pro-Russian patriotism exercises and made to handle weapons and prepare for war, she said.
“Their story is an example of the systemic harshness of the occupiers. They were forcibly taken from their mothers during a hospital stay and (the mothers) were obliged under threat to turn them over to an orphanage,” Zarivna wrote on Telegram.
“All this is a part of Russian policy aimed at destroying Ukrainian identity.”
Zarivna gave no details of how the children were rescued or where they were now. There was no immediate comment from Russian authorities.
The International Criminal Court issued warrants in 2023 for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges related to the abduction of Ukrainian children. The Kremlin rejects the allegations.
Earlier this week, Zelenskiy’s chief of Staff, Andriy Yermakov, said 12 children forcibly taken to Russia had returned to Ukraine.
Moscow and Kyiv have carried out several exchanges of children for reunification with their families since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014 in the aftermath of a popular revolt that prompted a Russia-friendly Ukrainian president to flee the country.
Ukraine says over 19,500 children have been taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territory without the consent of family or guardians during the war, calling the abductions a war crime that meets the U.N. treaty definition of genocide.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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