Ukraine children returned from Russia after alleged deportation

Ukrainian woman embraces her 13-year-old son, who went to a Russian-organised summer camp from non-government controlled territories and was then taken to Russia, after he returned via the Ukraine-Belarus border, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 8, 2023 [Valentyn Ogirenko/ Reuters]

More than 30 children have been reunited with their families in Ukraine this week after a long operation to bring them back from Russia, where they had been taken from occupied areas during the war, a humanitarian group has said.

Kyiv has estimated nearly 19,500 children have been taken to Russia since Moscow invaded in February last year, in what it condemns as illegal deportations.