UKRAINIAN
\nUkrainian orphans Ivan and Maksym, 17 and 16, escaped shelling and hunger in besieged Mariupol only to be captured and taken to the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk where they were held incommunicado for months with dozens of other children.
\nThey are now among about 400 Ukrainian children to have returned from Russia or Russian-held territory since Moscow\u2019s full-scale invasion began in February, 2022 – a tiny fraction of the 20,000 children that Kyiv has identified as taken without the consent of family or guardians.
\nThe boys and four other Ukrainian children told their stories in The Hague, where the campaign \u201cBring Kids Back UA\u201d was launched this week by Netherlands-based NGO Orphans Feeding Foundation with the backing of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
\nThe boys, students at the Mariupol Technical School of Building, were living in a dormitory when the area came under fierce bombardment by Russian forces. Food and water ran out, and they fled on foot in March to a nearby village.
\nWhen we arrived, we went to the hospital, because there was nowhere else to go. We said we were orphans, and they informed the Donetsk hospital. Then child protection services came and asked where our parents were. So we were taken away,\u201d Maksym said.
\nIvan said: \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to go there, but we didn\u2019t have a choice. We were fed four times a week. We spent time in our rooms and played on our phones. They let us go outside for one hour a day, and not every day. There was nothing for us to do.\u201d
\nHe said 31 Ukrainian children ended up at Donetsk Hospital Nr. 5, and that most had taken up offers to go to Russia, where they were promised comfortable housing and other incentives.
\nMoscow has repeatedly denied forcibly taking Ukrainian children, saying it found only a small number of children in orphanages or without parental care, and tried to accommodate as many as possible with relatives in Russia.
\nThe International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant in March against Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine.
\nBut Moscow\u2019s envoy to the United Nations in New York said shortly afterwards that Russia did not prevent children contacting relatives and friends, wherever they lived, and that parents could apply for help with reunification.
\nA source has said talks are under way, mediated by Saudi Arabia and Turkey, on repatriating thousands of children. \u2014INTERNEWS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UKRAINIAN Ukrainian orphans Ivan and Maksym, 17 and 16, escaped shelling and hunger in besieged Mariupol only to be captured and taken to the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk where they were held incommunicado for months with dozens of other children. They are now among about 400 Ukrainian children to have returned from Russia or Russian-held […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356457,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-356422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n