The Council made a decision on the possibility of forced evacuation of children from their parents

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted draft law No. 12353, which gives the police the right to evacuate children from dangerous areas without their parents’ consent and hand them over to the relevant services. This is stated in the document provided for review.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs noted that military administrations make decisions on mandatory evacuation based on a written request from the military command and after coordination with the Coordination Headquarters responsible for organizing these measures.

Evacuation can be carried out in whole or in part, in particular for certain categories of persons, such as children, people with disabilities, and elderly people who cannot leave dangerous areas on their own due to age or health.

The police emphasized that if a mandatory evacuation is announced, one of the parents or legal representatives must take the child to a safe zone. In the event of refusal, the police officers will hand the children over to the guardianship authorities without the parents’ consent.

The territory, where a general mandatory evacuation has been implemented, can be visited only with special permits. Citizens who have left war zones are provided with temporary housing.

The Deputy Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Bohdan Drapyatyi, emphasized that this legislative act arose in response to the needs during a full-scale war with Russia. He added that the document was developed for more than a year to create effective mechanisms to protect the population, especially children who cannot ensure their own safety.