Kyiv [Ukraine], March 22 (ANI): A largely clandestine network of volunteers in Ukraine has quietly helped bring home hundreds of children deported or illegally transferred from Ukrainian territory to Russia and Russian-controlled areas, according to CNN reporting and information from the humanitarian group behind the operations.
Organisers liken the effort to an “underground railroad.” It relies on secret negotiations, logistics and covert travel routes that have allowed dozens of young Ukrainians to return to territory controlled by Kyiv. Volunteers say the work is needed because there is no formal legal mechanism between Ukraine and Russia to secure the return of children taken across borders during the conflict.
One returning youth, 19-year-old Rostyslav Lavrov, described planning and carrying out his escape after years in Russian-controlled territory and attempts by Russian authorities to confer Russian documents on him. “I chose a day when I had classes in another building. I woke up early, put on my uniform, and did everything as usual, so they would think I was going to study,” he said, explaining how he avoided suspicion. He added he took nothing with him to avoid drawing attention at checkpoints.
The operation is coordinated by Mykola Kuleba, founder of the Kyiv-based charity Save Ukraine and a longtime children’s rights advocate, who acknowledges the controversy around such extralegal efforts. “We created an underground railroad to locate and rescue these children,” he said, stressing that with no official process agreed with Moscow, volunteers are filling a vacuum to help evade what they describe as forced assimilation and deportation.
By the end of February, the volunteer network had facilitated the return of more than 1,100 Ukrainian children through these informal channels. Human rights groups and Ukraine’s ombudsperson’s office say more than 1.6 million children still live in territories under Russian control, where they face pressure to attend schools using the Russian curriculum and are targeted for passporting and other measures activists say undermine their Ukrainian identity.
The broader effort links with Bring Kids Back UA, a state-led action plan launched by the Ukrainian government in 2023 that coordinates international and non-governmental efforts to reintegrate young Ukrainians and document abuses for possible legal action. As the war enters its fifth year, volunteers and officials say continuing these rescue and reintegration operations is critical to reuniting families and protecting a generation of children caught in the conflict. (ANI)
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