President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking at the meeting of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children, which took place in New York on the sidelines of the 80th session of the UN General Assembly, reported that within the framework of the Bring Kids Home program, 1625 children illegally taken from there were able to return to Ukraine.
He also announced the launch of a program to collect all data on displaced children in Russia and in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
The meeting was also attended by the wife of the Ukrainian president Olena Zelenska, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs, Presidents of Finland Alexander Stubb and Czech Republic Petr Pavel, as well as Queen Mathilde of Belgium, who called for increased pressure on Russia to expedite the return of illegally taken and separated from their families Ukrainian children home.
In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and his Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova for the alleged war crime of deporting Ukrainian children.
According to Kyiv's estimates, about 19,500 children have been taken since the invasion to Russia or Russian-occupied Crimea.