11-year-old Davyd, whose family was divided by war, is brought back to Ukraine

David, a boy from Donetsk Oblast who was first in the occupied territory and then taken to Moscow, has been brought back to Ukraine.

Iryna Vereshchuk, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories, reported about the boy's arrival in Ukraine.

Daria Kasianova, the head of the Ukrainian Child Rights Network, told the story of the child to Ukrainska Pravda. Zhyttia.

Davyd's large family moved from Donetsk Oblast to Lviv Oblast five years ago. The children's father serves in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Before the full-scale invasion, Davyd, who was 11 years old at the time, went to the Ukrainian-controlled part of Donetsk Oblast to visit his great-grandmother. After 22 February 2022, the child ended up under occupation.

"He lived with his great-grandmother in the village of Staromlynivka, Donetsk Oblast. His mother, Liliia, and her three younger children lived in Lviv Oblast at the time. So the boy ended up in the temporarily occupied territory, and the family was divided by the contact line," writes Iryna Vereshchuk.

Then Davyd was taken to Donetsk, where his uncle was living, and he later took the boy to Moscow. The mother could not go and bring her son back because her husband was a military serviceman.

Davyd's uncle did not want to give him back, threatening to place the child in a shelter.

"Davyd really wanted to go to his mother and to Ukraine. The child is a patriot. His mother contacted the hotline of the Ministry of Reintegration, and we developed a plan to bring Davyd home," says Daria Kasianova.

Through joint efforts, the child was brought back to Ukraine.

"Now they are doing well. However, both the boy and the mother need psychological support," says Daria Kasianova.

Previously: As Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, reports, the Russians adopted 386 Ukrainian children who were deported to the aggressor country.

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