It's reported to 20,000 Ukrainian children: Zelensky urges Russia to return

Unlike 20,000 other Ukrainian youths, Rudenko was rescued from nongovernmental organisation “Save Ukraine” and returned to Ukraine's controlled territory after nine months in captivity.

Ukraine's president, Voldymyr Zelensky, and other Ukrainian officials, say at the centre of their attention now is the fate of the thousands of children, many of whom remain in areas occupied by Russia, in what Moscow calls “rehabilitation centre”.

“This crime must be fully investigated and those responsible must account for”, said Ukraine's Foreign Minister, Andriy Syhbika over the weekend, as part of the campaign's launch #ChilrenArenNon Negotible.

“Right and lasting peace requires the return home of all these Ukrainian children, he added, broadcasts Periscope.

United States President Donald Trump has made the end of the longest conflict in Europe since World War II among the main goals of his foreign policy since taking office three months ago.

As the talks took place on various and sensitive issues, the issue of repatriation of all those taken from Ukraine has been among the main topics of negotiation by Ukrainian officials.

Ukrainian officials have accused Moscow of orchestrating what some groups have dubbed “systematic abuse” of children from Ukraine towards parts of the country controlled by Russia, or even beyond, in Russia and its ally, Belarus.

Evidence collected last year by the Belarus and Ukrainian Radio Free Europe suggested camps are being used to teach Ukrainian youths to identify themselves with concepts promoted by Moscow and Minsk.

This came after a November 2023 study by the Humanitarian Research Laboratory of the Yale School of Public Health, which found that the accompanying trips of Ukrainian students to Belarus were being co-ordinated by Belarus and Russia as part of the so-called United States between the two countries.

The study found that this process includes <x0riatriation”, or “promising messages or cultural, historical, social and patriotic ideas that serve political interests” of both regimes.

According to the report, military exercises, including interior ministry troops, were conducted with at least six groups of children”.

Rudenko told the Ukrainian REL Service earlier this month that during the time it was held by Russian authorities, his daily routine had clear orientation.

We'd wake up with the Russian anthem, raise the flag, and exercise. After breakfast, they told us what had happened at night in Russia. Literally. Then we watched Russian films”, he said, describing the regime while staying in camps.

According to Yale Humanitarian Laboratory, more than 8,400 children from Ukraine have systematically moved to at least 57 centres: 13 centres in Belarus and 43 centres in Russia or in territories occupied by Russia.

According to the Ukrainian government's official portal Childrenup.gov.ua, the number is much larger than 20,000, while only 1,300 children have returned successfully. /REL