Ukrainian Presidential Office discloses how many Ukrainian children have been forcibly deported by the aggressors since the start of the war 

Mykhailo Zahorodnii - Monday, 23 May 2022

The Russian aggressors have deported 232,000 children from Ukraine to Russia since the beginning of the full-scale war.

Andrii Yermak, head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, shared this data during a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

"Over two thousand of them are either orphans or separated from their parents.

Meanwhile, the Russian parliament is preparing to simplify the procedure for the adoption of Ukrainian children by Russian citizens", he said.

Andrii Yermak also said that as of 21 May, about 660 children have died or been injured as a result of Russian bombardment.

It is impossible to verify the exact number of injured and/or deported children due to the ongoing hostilities and the occupation of some Ukrainian regions.

Yermak also shared the stories of two children: Veronica from Vuhledar, who lost her family in the shelling, and Ilya from Mariupol, who was abducted to CADLR (Certain Areas of Donetsk and Luhansk Regions that are temporarily occupied by the Russians).

10-year-old Veronica and her family had been hiding in the basement ever since the Russian aggressors started shelling Vuhledar. One day a Russian tank shell hit their ventilation window.

Veronica then lost her father, her grandmother, and her uncle and his wife. She herself spent several days in a coma, suffering severe spinal cord and cerebral injuries.

Now Veronica is walking again and learning to exercise her paralysed right hand.

10-year-old Ilya and his mother Natalia also hid from the shelling in the basement of their house. At the beginning of the war, they were still in Mariupol.

One day they came under the aggressors’ fire while running to their neighbours’ place to hide. Natalia was wounded in the head and Ilya’s leg was shattered. Natalia managed to pull her son to safety. 

"Ilya’s mother hugged him for as long as her heart was beating. She passed away that night.

The next day, the Russian military forcibly took the boy to occupied Novoazovsk, and from there they took him to Donetsk", Andrii Yermak said.

Local doctors were going to amputate the boy's leg, but he was lucky.

Thanks to his grandmother's efforts, Ilya returned to Ukraine. His grandmother obtained custody of him and crossed four countries' borders to take him home.

"The day when the doctors said that his leg was fully functioning and Ilya could walk again, he considers his second birthday.

It is impossible to imagine what this boy had to go through. His pain cannot be forgiven", Andrii Yermak said.