Prosecutor-General explains why it is not easy to return Ukrainian children from Russian Federation

Russia has taken thousands of Ukrainian children to its territory. The enemy smuggled them under various pretexts, but mostly by deception, depriving the children of their families, loved ones, familiar surroundings and homeland. Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin has announced an investigation into the facts of forced deportation of more than 19 thousand Ukrainian children, the press service of the Office of the Prosecutor General reports.

Thousands of civilians are illegally detained in Russia and in the occupied territories. And we call for an international mechanism to return children and civilian detainees home. The role of lawyers in this is crucial," he said during a panel discussion with International Bar Association Executive Director Mark Ellis at the IBA's annual conference.

He noted that Ukraine has international political support in its endeavour to get its children back, but needs legal mechanisms to return Ukrainian citizens home as soon as possible.

We would like to point out that the Ukrainian parliamentary commissioner for human rights, Dmytro Lubinets, said that Russians continue to illegally adopt Ukrainian children in the hope of certain material benefits.

We have 386 children confirmed. The fact that they were placed in a Russian family has been established, and on them either started the procedure or finalised the adoption procedure," Lubinets said.

We would like to point out that often the removed Ukrainian children are sent to military camps where they are taught to shoot, kill and hate Ukrainians.