Evacuated status children abroad will be returned to Ukraine in family forms of upbringing.

The government has adopted changes that provide for the return of status children from abroad to be in family forms of upbringing (adoption, guardianship/custody, foster families, family-type orphanages) and patronage families.

This was reported by the Head of the State Service of Ukraine for Children's Affairs, Petro Dobromilsky.

He also emphasized that the wishes of the children themselves were taken into account: now they themselves can initiate requests to return to Ukraine.

"Family comfort, love and warmth are what every child deserves. This is especially needed by orphans, children deprived of parental care, and children in difficult life circumstances. Currently, 2,155 such children are outside Ukraine. They were forcibly evacuated as part of full-time care institutions abroad after the full-scale invasion began," said the head of the department.

According to Petro Dobromilsky, the team of the State Service of Ukraine for Children's Affairs, together with colleagues from the OVA, is systematically developing steps to ensure that evacuated children return to safe regions of Ukraine: "First of all, we are working to ensure that young Ukrainians are placed in family forms of upbringing and patronage families".