Reuters journalists investigated the fate of missing Ukrainian children for six months. A small part of them managed to return home to Ukraine, but this is becoming an increasingly difficult task because Ukrainian children are increasingly exposed to Russian propaganda.
Russia abducts Ukrainian orphans to Crimea
The Prosecutor's Office of the International Criminal Court told Reuters that it continues to "develop multiple, interconnected lines" of the investigation into the abduction of Ukrainian children.
The Ukrainian prosecutor's office told Reuters that it is conducting a pre-trial investigation into the deportation of Ukrainian children in the occupied territories and their adoption by Russian families.
Reuters tracked down 48 orphans from Kherson, 46 of whom are in two orphanages and a tuberculosis sanatorium in Russian-occupied Crimea.
Two other children are in Russia. One of them is four-year-old Ilya Vashchenko. He received a new Russian birth certificate on September 26, 2023, at the Russian state registry office in Podolsk near Moscow.
The second child is two-year-old Margaryta Prokopenko. She was adopted by Serhii Mironov, the pro-Kremlin party "A Just Russia – For Truth" leader, and his wife, Inna Varlamova. Margarita's name was changed to Marina Mironova.
Abducted Ukrainian children are being"brainwashed"
The abduction of Ukrainian children is supported by "a huge machine of deportation, placement and re-education".
Returning the children is a difficult task. Volunteers and officials in Ukraine say that the job gets more complicated every day as the children get older and exposed to Russian influence.
Mykola Kuleba, head of the non-profit organization Save Ukraine, which helps return Ukrainian children from territory controlled by Russia, says:
Almost everyone was "brainwashed". And we can never get them back. Because now they hate, hate Ukraine, he said.
Reuters writes about the story of kidnapped brothers Zorik and Danylo, who have relatives in Ukraine: once Danylo called and accused Ukraine of destroying the Kakhovska dam in the Kherson region last June.
He said: "It's all Ukraine bombing people, it's all Ukraine's fault, Russia is cool and big." I say to him: Danya, have you forgotten who your mother is? She was Ukrainian. Where were you born? You were born in Ukraine, his relative Alla Ponomarchuk described the call.
Another girl, Liza, who was taken to the Russian Federation with Danylo and Zorik and managed to be returned, shared videos with Zorik that he sent to her on Telegram after her return to Ukraine.
In one of the videos, the guy points to the Russian flag on the sleeve of his T-shirt and then directs a stream of obscenities at Lisa for supporting Ukraine.
Do you get it? [It's] Russia. "Glory to Russia," Zorik says, looking into the phone's camera.
I am afraid of them. I hope I never see any of them again, Lisa says.
