The humanitarian organization confirmed on Saturday that more than 30 children returned to their families in Ukraine last week after a long process of their return from Russia, which deported them from the occupied regions of Ukraine during the war.
Kyiv estimates that about 19,500 children have been transferred to Russia since the start of the war last February. Ukraine condemned this as an illegal deportation.
Moscow, which controls parts of eastern and southern Ukraine, denies the kidnapping of the children and says they were taken away for their safety.
“The fifth rescue mission is now coming to an end. It was a special mission in terms of the number of children we were able to return, and also because of its complexity,” said Mykola Kuleba, founder of the humanitarian organization Save Ukraine.
The organization helped the parents of these Ukrainian children with the logistics, transportation and planning they needed to embark on the long journey to pick up and return their children.