The head of a Ukrainian rescue organisation said it has brought back 31 children from Russia, where they had been taken during the war.

Mykola Kuleba said at a news conference in Kyiv on Saturday that the children were expected to arrive in the capital later in the day. Kuleba is the executive director of Save Ukraine and is the presidential commissioner for children’s rights.

Deportations of Ukrainian children have been a concern since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year. The International Criminal Court increased pressure on Russia when it issued arrest warrants on 17 March for President Vladimir Putin and Russian children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of abducting children from Ukraine.