Lithuania to Provide Rehabilitation Services for Ukrainian Children Deported to Russia
Lithuania is set to provide rehabilitation and psychiatric services for Ukrainian children who were forcibly deported to Russia and are now returning home.
This was reported by LRT, citing the advisor to the Lithuanian Minister of Health, Skirmantas Krunkaitis.
“We are currently in the technical phase, discussing when the children will be able to start traveling to Lithuania,” said Krunkaitis.
The provision of such assistance to Ukrainian children is planned following a request for support from Kyiv.
According to the Lithuanian Ministry of Health, the children will receive treatment in medical rehabilitation facilities, and psychiatric specialists will provide support to mitigate the effects of forced deportation to Russia.
“Children must meet specific rehabilitation criteria. (...) This could be either motor rehabilitation or respiratory rehabilitation. The main criterion is the presence of medical indications. Most importantly, there must be specific groups of children in Ukraine who were abducted and taken to Russia,” emphasized Krunkaitis.
Minors will arrive in Lithuania with parents, guardians, or other accompanying persons. Their accommodation and meals will also be financed.
According to Krunkaitis, it is planned to accept as many children as the medical facilities can accommodate.
“Preliminarily, we can say that we will accept about 15-20 children per month across all health care facilities in Lithuania,” he informed.
It is planned to accept around 150 children per year. To provide necessary services to this number of children along with their companions, approximately €400,000 will be needed annually.
In 2025, expenses for these services (up to €100,000) are planned to be covered by borrowed funds, and in 2026 - through EU funds or other sources of financing.
President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that the return of children abducted by Russia is the “most sensitive and problematic issue.”
An international coalition for the return of Ukrainian children urged Russia to return abducted children without delay and under any conditions. A joint statement was signed by 38 countries, the Council of Europe, and the European Union.
During negotiations with the Russian leader, the US President handed over a letter regarding the abducted Ukrainian children.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia has deported or forcibly relocated over 19,500 children.
