Just 46 of these children later returned home, according to Daria Herasymchuk, President Volodymyr Zelensky's representative for children's rights, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Search for abducted children
Herasymchuk said in a television interview on Friday, as cited by the Ukrainska Pravda website: "Requests continue to be submitted every day and therefore I urge everyone to report cases of child abduction to the National Information Bureau. This will allow us to start searching for a specific child."
She added that the National Information Bureau collects the names of all abducted children. This data is then shared with the Red Cross and other international organisations that help Ukraine locate the children.
Herasymchuk noted that not all kidnapped children are orphans. Some are taken away together with their parents or relatives, or forcibly separated from them.
The story of Sashko
She shared the story of 11-year-old Sashko, who was living in the southern port city of Mariupol with his mother.
According to Herasymchuk, Sashko and his mother came under fire and had to seek medical assistance. Russian troops forcibly deported them to the occupied territories in the eastern Donetsk Oblast.
There, the boy’s mother was thrown out of the hospital at gunpoint. She is still missing and can’t be contacted, according to Herasymchuk. Sashko managed to get in touch with his grandmother and was later returned to Ukraine for treatment.
“A total of 46 children have been returned to Ukraine," Herasymchuk said, as quoted by Ukrainska Pravda.
Friday is day 149 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, pravda.com.ua