24 March 2023 , 15:08
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Kidnapped Ukrainian children have hugged relatives after finally being freed from Kremlin camps this week after months.
Seventeen youngsters had been whisked off to Russia-held Crimea and were told their families had abandoned them.
In emotional reunions the snatched children were even threatened with being beaten with an iron rod for supporting Kyiv.
Moments after a bus load of kidnapped children arrived in Kyiv, a ten year-old boy leapt into his waiting father’s arms.
Denys Zaporozhchenko kissed his son’s forehead and hugged his two daughters who had also been abducted.
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He last saw them in October in Kherson as officials promised to send them to Crimea to avoid fighting and return them after up to two weeks.
He recalled: “By the time we realised we shouldn’t have done it - it was too late.”
Inessa embraces her son Vitaly for the first time in months (AFP via Getty Images)Mum Inesa Vertosh said her son was “more serious” after he was returned.
She said: “He looks at me and says: ‘’mum - I don’t want to tell you about it, you wouldn’t sleep at night.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has had an arrest warrant slapped on him for war crimes- including deporting 16,000 Ukrainian children.
The release of the 17 was praised by EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, who branded the kidnappings “a war crime”.
More than 16,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia since the February 24, 2022 invasion (AFP via Getty Images)She said: “It is a horrible reminder of the darkest times of our history, what’s happening there to deport children.
“This is a war crime.”
The reuniting of the children with their families on Thursday was organised by a non-government organisation called Save Ukraine.
It has been fighting illegal deportations of Ukrainian children to Moscow-held territory.
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The International Criminal Court accuses Russia of trying to “re-educate” Ukrainian children and one teen said some were beaten with rods.
Taya Volynska (R), 15, and Yevheniya Kondratieva (L), 15, who were both snatched by Putin's forces (AFP via Getty Images)One returned boy said: “One girl was hit on the back, she had a big bruise on her back from where the rod was.
“We were sat in the hall and someone shouted ‘Glory to Ukraine’ and someone replied ‘Glory to the heroes.’
He added: “They were taken away. But I don’t know what happened to him.”
The boy said he was threatened with being taken to another town and adopted by a Russian family.
The kids claim to have suffered beatings at the hands of their "re-educators" (AFP via Getty Images)Russian strikes killed at least ten and wounded 20 in several areas of Ukraine on Friday as Kyiv’s forces prepared to launch a major counter-offensive in the coming weeks.
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's former president and now the deputy head of Russia's Security Council chaired by President Vladimir Putin, delivered a warning to the west.
Ukrainian dad Denys Zaporozhchenko (left) hugs his son Dayana after a bus repatriating them to Kyiv arrived on March 22 (AFP via Getty Images)He said Western experts operating weapons, such as the U.S.-made Patriot air defence missile systems supplied to Ukraine, would be legitimate targets for the Russian military.
He said: “They are combatants, they are the enemies of our state and they must be destroyed.
"They must understand that as soon as an American or a Polish soldier shows up there, he must be killed.”