Global action is needed to bring home these children

I am often asked about the reasons and mechanisms behind the deportation of Ukrainian children. It is especially difficult to understand for Western audiences. What is deportation? How do Russians take Ukrainian children? And, most importantly, why do they do it?

- MYKOLA KULEBA

Since 2014, 20 per cent of Ukrainian children have been living in Russian-occupied territories or have been deported to Russia or occupied territories. Among the children rescued by Save Ukraine are tens of thousands from conflict zones. We have already returned more than 360 children from Russia and Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine. And our rescue missions continue.

In 2014, nearly a million children found themselves in the occupied territories of Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk. How many of them were deported to Russia is still unknown. Now some of these children are being militarised and used as weapons against their fellow Ukrainians. These children are fighting on the side of Russia.

The return of Ukrainian children will undoubtedly be a crucial aspect of the peace summit in Switzerland. Any meaningful peace agreement must address the humanitarian crisis caused by the abduction and displacement of innocent children during the conflict.