(Reuters) -Twenty-three Ukrainian children and teenagers have been taken from Russian-occupied areas of the country to territory under kyiv’s control, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff said on Thursday.
Andriy Yermak, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the rescue was carried out under the president’s “Bring Kids Back UA” program aimed at bringing to safe areas children deported to Russia or confined in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.
Yermak said those who returned included two sisters who rejected a demand to attend Russian schools made by Russian-installed authorities who had threatened to remove the girls from their mother’s care.
Another teenager similarly refused to attend a Russian school and a girl and her mother were denied permission to leave the occupied areas because one of their relatives was serving in the Ukrainian army.
Ukraine says Russia has illegally deported or forcibly displaced more than 19,500 children to Russia and Belarus, in violation of the Geneva Conventions.
US-funded research, in a report from the Yale School of Public Health, suggested in September that the number could be closer to 35,000.
Russia denies deporting children from Ukraine and says it has taken steps to ensure they are safe from wartime hostilities.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Jamie Freed)