Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak discussed with British theater and film actor, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Orlando Bloom assistance in the return of Ukrainian children illegally deported by Russia.
The meeting was also attended by the UNICEF team led by Head of the Fund's Mission to Ukraine Murat Shahin.
Andriy Yermak thanked Orlando Bloom for his continuous long-term support of Ukraine, which is extremely important for our people. He noted that the actor's current visit is another signal to the world of support for Ukraine, which is resisting full-scale Russian aggression.
Separately, the Head of the President's Office noted the important mission of Orlando Bloom as a UNICEF ambassador in helping children.
"Therefore, we want to discuss with you the issue of protecting Ukrainian children, which is very important for us. I am talking about the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children by Russia. We faced a situation where in the 21st century there is no mechanism in the world - no organization - that would know how or be able to overcome this problem," Andriy Yermak said.
As the Head of the Office of the President emphasized, this problem covers various cases. First, we are talking about children who were taken from their parents by the Russian occupiers and sent to the territory of Russia under the pretext of recovery. These children are still being held there.
"That's why it is necessary to talk about it publicly so that the world knows that thousands of Ukrainian children who have parents, grandparents cannot return home to Ukraine," said Andriy Yermak.
The second category of children, according to the Head of the Presidential Office, are those illegally deported by Russia from the occupied Ukrainian territories. The children lost their parents, but have relatives in Ukraine: a grandmother, grandfather, aunt or uncle, which is confirmed by documents. The occupiers do not return children to their relatives, but give them for adoption on the territory of Russia, Andriy Yermak said.
The third category of children is the most difficult: young Ukrainians illegally taken to the Russian Federation from orphanages located in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
"President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the team of the Presidential Office are currently working to return our children, including those children who do not have relatives. We can provide them with better living conditions than they have in Russia," noted Andriy Yermak.
According to him, the reform of boarding schools is underway in Ukraine, as a result of which a system based on family forms of upbringing will be created and children will grow up in families.
Andriy Yermak also informed about the establishment under the patronage of the Office of the President of Ukraine of an international working group with the participation of members of the government and representatives of international institutions, which is constantly working on the issue of the return of illegally deported children.
Advisor - President's Commissioner for Children's Rights and Children's Rehabilitation Daria Herasymchuk said that the Ukrainian side has so far identified the names of 16,207 children deported to the Russian Federation or Belarus or forcibly relocated to the occupied territories of Ukraine. Almost 200 of them are orphans and children deprived of parental care. At the same time, according to her, there are several hundreds of thousands of such illegally deported children, but it is currently impossible to establish their data, because Ukraine does not have access to the territories temporarily occupied by Russia.
"We managed to return 327 children, including 17 a few days ago. And we know what happens to them there. They lose the opportunity to speak Ukrainian - they are forced to speak Russian and study Russian culture. They are also beaten and prevented from communicating with their parents and relatives - they immediately take away children's mobile phones and say that their parents no longer need them," she said.
Daria Herasymchuk emphasized that such actions against Ukrainian children have signs of genocide and the International Criminal Court has already issued an arrest warrant for the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.
Advisor to the Head of the President's Office Daria Zarivna added that such steps by Russia are not accidental - they are part of the strategy that the Russian Federation has been implementing since 2014, when it annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.
"They created a project called The Train of Hope, according to which Russian citizens could come to Crimea by train to illegally adopt Ukrainian children," said Daria Zarivna.
As noted by Andriy Yermak, Ukraine calls on UNICEF to intensify its efforts to solve the issue of the return of deported children, in particular by involving its ambassadors around the world.
"We are talking about this with the UN, UNICEF, and the structures of the European Union. But we need people-ambassadors, pioneers, who would tell the world about this problem: thousands of Ukrainian children are illegally deported to Russia, and they all need to be returned home, to Ukraine. We would be happy if you help us in this, because children are our future," the Head of the President's Office emphasized.
For his part, Orlando Bloom expressed his readiness to tell the world about what is happening to Ukrainian children. At the same time, he emphasized that for greater efficiency, a strategy is needed that will guarantee the rescue of children and their successful return home.
The UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador also spoke about his trip to the village of Demydiv in the Kyiv region and meeting a large family. There are nine children in this family, four of whom are adopted. According to the British actor, this family is an excellent example of Ukraine of the future, where orphaned children grow up in families, not in boarding schools.