You're reading: Nine Ukrainians released from refugee camp in Syria

Two Ukrainian women and seven children have been released from the Roj refugee camp in northeastern Syria, according to Ukrainian journalists Roman Bochkala, Andriy Tsaplienko and Alyona Savchuk.

Krym.Realii, a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty service focused on Crimea, also confirmed this information, citing its sources.

The Ukrainians are scheduled to arrive in Kyiv today.

According to Savchuk, 12 women and 37 children were supposed to be freed from the Al-Hawl and Roj camps, but most of them remain there. However, Tsaplienko wrote that “the rest of our fellow countrywomen will be brought (back home) by Christmas,” which, in Ukrainian Orthodoxy, is celebrated on Jan. 7.

Roj and Al-Hawl are refugee camps controlled by the Iraqi Kurdistan authorities where families of militants who fought for the Islamic State (IS) live. As a result, many of the Ukrainians there are likely wives and children of dead or imprisoned IS militants.

Most of relatives of ISIS militants came there after the fall of the terrorist organization in Baghuz in 2018-2019.

“Can we say that these women took part in certain battles on the side of Islamic State or whether they are supporters of destructive ideologies, terrorism or the Islamic State? It’s difficult to say,” journalist Tara Ibrahimov, a member of Children: Syria-Iraq, told the Suspilne broadcaster. “The women with whom I am in contact declare that they have no connection to that.”

At least 17 Ukrainian women and 43 of their children have been waiting for repatriation from Syrian camps for a year and a half, according to a list compiled by Children: Syria-Iraq, an association of relatives of detained Ukrainians.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 27 Ukrainian women have asked for assistance. Meanwhile, Refat Chubarov, the head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, has said that 99 women and children are detained in Syrian camps, citing lists provided by the Security Service of Ukraine.