All children brought back by Ukraine enter families, Human Rights Commissioner says

After being brought back from the territory of Russia or European countries, Ukrainian children exclusively enter family-based forms of upbringing. This concerns children who do not have parents or whose parents have been deprived of parental rights.

Source: Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) Commissioner for Human Rights, as reported by Ukrinform

Quote: "All the children we bring back are placed exclusively in Ukrainian families.

That is, all the children we are bringing back from the territory of the Russian Federation, as well as those who will be brought back to Ukraine from the territory of European countries, will be placed exclusively in family-based care. And it is already working," the official said.

Lubinets said there are enough willing families to take in children, so there are no problems with their placement.

However, Ukrainian children cannot currently be placed in European families. This is because the provisions of international humanitarian law prohibit foreigners from adopting children from a country in a state of international armed conflict.

"The adoption of Ukrainian children and temporary guardianship over Ukrainian children must take place exclusively based on Ukrainian national legislation and exclusively by citizens of Ukraine," the ombudsman says.

Ukraine is currently undergoing deinstitutionalisation reform, so the residence of children in specialised institutions should become a thing of the past, he added.

"Every Ukrainian child deserves to live in a Ukrainian family," says Lubinets.

Lubinets also stated that Russia does not provide official lists of deported Ukrainian children. Information about their further plans for relocation is obtained by the authorities through intelligence agencies and concerned Ukrainians from temporarily occupied territories.

Background:

• On 1 February, Daria Herasymchuk, Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights and Child Rehabilitation, stated that Russia employs a minimum of six scenarios to relocate Ukrainian children to its territory, one of which involves fabricating a medical diagnosis.

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