Four more Ukrainian children aged 6 to 15 have returned home from Russian-occupied territory, with support from US First Lady Melania Trump.
Four more Ukrainian children have made it home from Russian-occupied territory — the youngest just six, the oldest fifteen. Ukraine's Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, said the children were brought out with the support of US First Lady Melania Trump as part of the Bring Kids Back UA initiative. It is the fifth group of children returned with her involvement.
Behind every count in these reports is an individual child's story. A nine-year-old girl from occupied Kherson region had been unable to leave for years after losing her documents. A six-year-old boy from Luhansk region had been staying with his grandparents after his parents were forced to evacuate under Russian shelling.
Among those returned are two fifteen-year-old boys. One had remained in Mariupol after his parents died, and relatives had to arrange guardianship with an aunt to keep him from being placed in a Russian institution; his mother tried repeatedly to retrieve him herself but was refused entry to Russia and Belarus. The other had been separated from his family for a long stretch and has only now been able to come home.
Over four years of full-scale war, Ukraine has brought back more than two thousand children from occupied territory and Russia. According to Bring Kids Back UA, another 20 to 30 children make it home every week — yet thousands of families are still waiting to be reunited.
Volunteers Support Ukraine keeps helping people affected by the war in whatever way its resources allow — and every child who makes it home is a reminder of why that work matters. The organization follows initiatives like this one and believes every child deserves to be reunited with their family.
