Children returned from Russia to Ukraine want to go back to Russia

Alexander Pavlichenko, the director of the human rights organization “Ukrainian Helsinki Union,” stated that Ukrainian children do not like being in Ukraine. He referred to the children who found themselves in territories controlled by Russia after the start of the war.

“Some of the children who came from these territories, upon returning to Ukraine, want to go back to Russia. They believe that better conditions were created for them there, and they see themselves better realized there. And this is a problem because involving these returning children in various processes, providing constant attention, and integrating them, rather than abandoning them with the assumption that their return is already an achievement on which we can stop,” said Pavlichenko.

At least 20,000 such children were counted, at least those whom relatives or the state tried to return from Ukraine. Those who ended up in Russia with their parents are not related to the human rights defender’s words. Many of them were returned by Russia at Ukraine’s request, and now they complain about poor conditions and lack of prospects. In Russia, volunteers helped the children, sent them to health resorts in the south, involved them in education, and helped them choose future professions.