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Ukraine/Belarus Border: More than 30 children were reunited with their families in Ukraine on Friday after spending months in Russian camps infested with ‘rats and cockroaches’.
An estimated 19,500 children have been taken by Russia to places in occupied Crimea or Russia since invasion of Ukraine last February.
Russia’s deportation of children invited widespread condemnation and the International Criminal Court last month issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia's children's rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, Reuters reported.
The rescue mission of children saw them crossing the border from Belarus into Ukraine following ‘a complex rescue mission involving travel across four countries’.
Dasha Rakk, a 13-year old among those rescued on Friday, said she and her twin sister agreed to leave Russian occupied city of Kherson last year.
She added that they went to a holiday camp in Crimea for a few week but once in Crimea Russia officials held them for longer period.
According to her mother Natalia said she travelled from Ukraine to Crimea through Poland, Belarus and Moscow before getting her daughters.
Russia denies accusation of abducting children claiming that they moved children away for their safety.
Meanwhile, Mykola Kuleba, the founder of the Save Ukraine humanitarian organization, said that fifth rescue mission is nearing completion which she said is special considering the number of children returned to their homes.
Kuleba also added that all 31 children brought home said no one in Russia was trying to find their parents.
Children told media that their parents were pressured by Russian authorities to send their children to Russian summer camps for two weeks, from occupied parts of Kherson and Kharkiv regions.