10 children of the Susliak family from Khmelnytskyi region, who had stayed in foster families in Georgia after their mother Yulia had been arrested, have returned to Ukraine on the presidential aircraft on the night of June 7. The children were accompanied by Commissioner of the President of Ukraine for Children’s Rights Mykola Kuleba.
According to him, children have been in transit across the territory of Georgia and Russia for a long time and need lengthy rehabilitation. Now it is time to study the details of this case.
"It is necessary to find out in what circumstances they were with their mother without proper support, as they were asked to leave Russia, where they applied for asylum," the Commissioner of the President of Ukraine for Children’s Rights noted.
Mykola Kuleba reported that one of the main obstacles to the return of children to Ukraine had been the suspicion that their parents intended to sell them. In particular, law enforcement officers were put on the alert by the fact that seven out of ten children were born by surrogate mothers in one year.
"This is to be verified on the territory of Ukraine - how everything happened, at what cost, etc. We have a lot to find out both in the territory of Ukraine and in the territory of Georgia. We do not know what happened in Russia, one child died there. Neither the Georgian nor the Ukrainian side has the opportunity to exhume a body. But the parents provided all the documents regarding the burial of this child," he said.
The Commissioner for Children's Rights emphasized that Georgia had not expected such a quick visit by the delegation of Ukraine.
"The Prosecutor's Office of Georgia was caught by surprise that children should be returned to Ukraine. But we should give credit to them - they needed only a day to make a decision. We were immediately given the opportunity to communicate with the children, and we began to prepare for departure, establish contacts. I met the office of the ombudsman, representatives of the Ministry of Social Policy and Health," he said.
Mykola Kuleba emphasized that the children from the Susliak family should live with grandmothers in one family not to feel separated.
"Our task is to unite them in a family and provide rehabilitation, because children are in a grave mental state, and their physical condition must be checked," the Commissioner for Children's Rights emphasized.
The issue of the placement of children will be resolved by the child protection services immediately after their return home. The children are leaving for Khmelnytskyi region this morning.
