MOSCOW. April 14 (Interfax) - The last remaining Ukrainian children who were previously evacuated from the zone of the special military operation and who spent time at recreational camps in Krasnodar Territory have been handed over to their relatives, while another eight children are waiting to be reunited with their families in Crimea, Russian children's rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova said on Friday.
"All the children of Ukrainian citizens who spent vacations in Krasnodar Territory and whose return was delayed have now been handed over to their relatives [...] A grandmother arrived today to take the last boy from the group. He was on vacation in Krasnodar Territory," Lvova-Belova wrote on Telegram.
In addition, over the past 10 days relatives have arrived in Crimea to collect six children, and now only eight Ukrainian children remain in the region, she said. "I hope that thanks to joint efforts, they will end up back with their loved ones soon. In this way, more than 2,500 children have been returned to their families from holiday camps since October 2022 despite the difficulties," she said.
As of April 3, there were two children with Ukrainian citizenship waiting to be reunited with their families and who were still in recreational camps in Krasnodar Territory, and another 38 were in Crimea, according to the bulletin on the activities of the children's rights commissioner during the special military operation which was published on April 4.
Lvova-Belova said earlier, on April 5, that 16 such children from the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions remained in Russia's Krasnodar Territory and in Crimea. The Russian children's ombudsman's office confirmed to Interfax that 24 Ukrainian children had been handed over to their relatives or legal guardians on April 4.
Lvova-Belova's office said earlier that in the late summer and fall of 2022, in view of the situation near the frontlines, parents living in the Kherson, Zaporozhye, and Kharkov regions and in some other territories voluntarily sent children to recreational camps in other parts of Russia, including in order to protect them from military actions. Sanatoriums and recreational camps in Crimea and Krasnodar Territory received the children from adults accompanying them based on powers of attorney written by their parents or legal guardians. In January 2023, more than 2,000 children were reunited with their relatives, while almost 400 remained in recreational camps in Krasnodar Territory and Crimea.
Lvova-Belova said at the time that the return of such children was complex, because not all the parents and legal guardians could promptly travel from Ukraine and present appropriate supporting documents to take the children back home.