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Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand speaks to media at the Pathways to Peace conference in Toronto on Monday.Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is promising more funding to support Ukrainians who make it home after being abducted by Russia.
Anand announced the funding today in Toronto at a conference where Ukrainian youth and a former prisoner of war have shared harrowing stories of Russian captivity.
Anand says Canada is providing $863,000 in new funding to support civil society groups in Ukraine that help returned children and families.
She says Canada has used artificial intelligence technology to trace the whereabouts of Ukrainian children and prisoners of war.
How two Ukrainian children fought their way back home
Officials in Ukraine say Russia has abducted 20,000 Ukrainian children and 2,573 of them have since returned.
In 2024, the Trudeau government co-launched with Ukraine an international coalition of nations committed to finding and returning Ukrainian children abducted by Russia since it began its full-scale invasion in 2022.