Ukraine brings back 12 children taken by Russia, Zelenskyy's chief of staff says

Kyiv: Ukraine brought home 12 children forcefully taken by Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's chief of staff Andriy Yermak said late on Monday.

"As part of the initiative of the President of Ukraine Bring Kids Back UA, it was possible to return home 12 children who were under the pressure of the Russian occupation," Yermak said on his Telegram messaging app.

The Bring Kids Back UA programme under Zelenskiy is an initiative to return home all children forcefully deported from Ukraine, according to the initiative's statement.

Among the returned children is a 16-year-old girl who lost her mother, a 17-year-old teenager who was issued a summons to the Russian army, and an eight-year-old girl, Yermak said.

There was no immediate comment from Russia. The office of Russia's Commissioner for Children's Rights did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment outside of business hours.

Moscow and Kyiv have carried out several exchanges of children to be reunited with their families since the start of the war that Russia launched with its full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukraine says that more than 19,500 children have been taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territory without the consent of family or guardians since the war began, calling the abductions a war crime that meets the U.N. treaty definition of genocide.

Russia has said it has been evacuating people voluntarily and to protect vulnerable children from the war zone.

Kyiv has been able so far to bring back 388 children, according to data published by Ukraine's Ministry of Reintegration.

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued warrants for the arrest of Russia's commissioner for children Maria Lvova-Belova and President Vladimir Putin related to the abduction of Ukrainian children. Russia denounced the warrants as "outrageous and unacceptable".