On the night of December 21, the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Verizon building in New York were illuminated in the colors of the Ukrainian flag. The campaign was held under the slogan "These children will not return home for the holidays."
What is known about the action dedicated to Ukrainian children kidnapped by the Russian Federation
The action was organized by the American actor, director and producer Isaac Liev Schreiber through the BlueCheck initiative and the Lubetzky Family Foundation to remind Americans about the 19 thousand Ukrainian children stolen by Russia.
In addition to the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Verizon building in New York were illuminated in the colours of our flag, and a Ukrainian children's choir sang carols in the Central Railway Station passage.
Behind the choir, an animation was projected onto the Central Railway Station, visualizing the number of missing children. This projection will also be seen elsewhere in New York, including the Brooklyn Bridge and the Verizon Building.
The action was held under the slogan: "These children will not return home for the holidays."
Once in Russia, their identities are erased, and they are forced to accept Russian culture and citizenship. As American families across the country gather for the holidays, this campaign is a reminder that without our continued support for Ukraine, these abducted children may never return home, Isaac Lev Schreiber said.
By the way, in 2022, after a full-scale Russian military invasion, Isaac Lev Schreiber actively supported Ukraine.
He co-founded Blue Check Ukraine, an organization created to facilitate the donation process for those Americans who want to help Ukraine. Schreiber takes an active part in the return of Ukrainian children deported to Russia and actively supports the initiative of the President of Ukraine Bring Kids Back UA.
What is known about the abduction of Ukrainian children
For Children's Day in 2023, the Online.UA team presented the documentary project "Abducted Childhood", which tells the story of Ukrainian children forcibly deported and abducted to Russia.
In the film "Abducted Childhood", children and their parents openly share their own stories: some of them were in captivity, some were forcibly taken to a "rehabilitation camp", and some were separated from their parents during the so-called filtering measures.
It is essential to understand that during more than a year and a half of full-scale war, Ukraine was able to return less than 400 children. At the same time, Russia claims to have "evacuated" 744,000 Ukrainian children.
Since diplomacy with the aggressor country does not work, Russia continues to remove children from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine illegally.
However, this is not an evacuation, as the Russians claim, but a mass kidnapping of minor citizens of Ukraine.
The project documents children's testimonies about war crimes committed by the Russian Federation against the Ukrainian people.
