You're reading: Ukrainians adopt two times more Ukrainian children than foreigners

Ukrainians adopt two times more Ukrainian children than foreigners, Deputy Social Policy Minister Lydia Drozdova has said. 

At a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday, the deputy minister said that the alarming tendency of more Ukrainian children being adopted by foreigners than by Ukrainian citizens had been reversed.

According to the Social Policy Ministry, Ukrainians adopted some 1,300 children, while citizens of other countries 530 children in the first eight months of this year.

According to Drozdova, the number of foreign parents who adopted Ukrainian children in 2011 fell by half compared to 2005.

In addition, the deputy minister said most people wanted to adopt children under five years of age. According to Ukrainian legislation, foreigners can adopt children older than five or children with health problems, she added.

Drozdova also stressed that there are 26,000 children waiting for adoption in the Ukrainian database, including 24,000 children older than five years and those with health problems.

At the same time, more than 1,600 Ukrainian parents are currently in the queue for adoption, and 80% of them want to adopt children under five years of age.

“We need to raise the culture of adoption in the society, and to address this issue not in the interests of adults, but in the interests of children,” she said.