16/04/2025 (Agence Europe) – On Wednesday 16 April, around a hundred leaders from Europe – including European Commissioners and ministers — and Canada called for the return of nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children who have been deported to Russia. They wore blue T-shirts bearing the words ‘Thousands of children stolen from Ukraine. Bring kids back’. According to the ‘Children of War’ initiative of the Ukrainian National Information Bureau (NIB), 19,546 children have been deported or forcibly expelled to Russia since the start of the invasion in February 2022. Only 1,274 children were able to return, according to ‘Bring Kids Back UA’, an initiative of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “A just and lasting peace cannot be achieved without children returning home”, emphasised several European Commissioners on X. (CG)