Children returned from the occupied territories of Kherson region

A group of children - girls and boys aged 7 to 17 - have been returned to the territory controlled by Ukraine from the occupied Kherson region.

This was reported by the head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration Oleksandr Prokudin.

According to Prokudin, a seventeen-year-old boy was taken for hours of interrogation for his pro-Ukrainian position - without his parents or any legal representatives. The teenager was threatened, intimidated and psychologically pressured.

The fifteen-year-old boy and his thirteen-year-old sister managed to avoid attending a Russian school for almost three years, but the occupation authorities gave their parents an ultimatum: either the children would study according to the Russian program or the whole family would have to leave.

The children are currently receiving psychological support.

On August 7, a new group of children was evacuated from the occupied Kherson region. Among the evacuees are orphans, children deprived of parental care, and those who have one or both parents. In particular, they include a 5-year-old boy who witnessed the death of his mother during a Russian drone attack; three children who had to leave their homes for a long time because of the threat of seizure; a 4-year-old girl and her mother who lived on a mined street.

Earlier, Ukraine Media Center presented an analytical study "Russia's Policy of Destroying the Identity of Children in the TOT of Ukraine: Results of 2024", according to which, as of October 2024, about 1.6 million children under the age of 18 live in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. According to the researchers, the largest number of children is in the occupied part of Donetsk region - 462,476. There are 310,227 in Luhansk region, 184,479 in Zaporizhzhia region, and 149,823 in Kherson region.

Сергій Лозовський