Twenty-three children rescued from Russian-occupied Ukraine, senior official says

(Corrects paragraph 6 to remove references to US funding)

(Reuters) – 23 Ukrainian children and adolescents were brought from Russian-occupied parts of the country to areas under Kiev’s control, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s private secretary said on Thursday.

Writing on the Telegram messaging app, Andriy Yermak said the rescue was carried out as part of the president’s “Bring Back Children UA” program, which aims to bring children deported to Russia or confined to Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine to safe areas.

Among those who returned were two sisters who refused to attend Russian schools when Russian-appointed officials threatened to remove the girls from their mother’s custody, Yermak said.

Another teenage boy similarly refused to attend a Russian school, and one boy and his mother were not allowed to leave the occupied territories because a relative was serving in the Ukrainian army.

Ukraine says Russia has illegally deported or forcibly displaced more than 19,500 children to Russia and Belarus in violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Research from the Yale School of Public Health in September suggested that number could be closer to 35,000.

Russia denies deporting children from Ukraine and says it acted to ensure they were protected from wartime hostilities.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Jamie Freed)