Three more children were returned to Ukraine from the territories temporarily occupied by Russia. One of the returned children is eight years old, and the other two are 18-year-old brothers who were wanted as missing persons.
Three children were rescued from the occupation
The Save Ukraine Fund reports that the 14th rescue mission ended in this way, during which 14 children were saved, seven of which are children deprived of parental care.
One of the rescued, 8-year-old Elisey, lived with his grandmother in the now-occupied Kherson region at the time of the full-scale invasion. The boy's mother lived in Odessa.
The grandmother died, and the occupation authorities placed the child in a boarding school. Due to her health, the mother could not pick up her son, so the woman's cousin went to pick him up. However, the child was not given to her without explaining anything, although the woman had all the necessary documents.
It was necessary to act, because if a child stays in the territory of the Russian Federation without parental care for half a year, he is given the appropriate status, which allows him to be given to a Russian family or to choose another way of placement. So our team did everything to ensure that the mother received the necessary medical care and was able to take the child from the occupied territory!
Save Ukraine notes that the woman had to go through many hours of FSB interrogations and interviews. However, she was able to pick up her son from the boarding school.
Two 18-year-old brothers, Andrii and Mykhailo, were also returned to Ukraine. They are orphans who, before the full-scale invasion, were brought up in a foster family in the occupied territory.
After coming of age, the boys realized that very soon the occupation authorities would send them to fight against their own [people]. In Ukraine, they were both wanted as missing persons.
All three children are now safe. They are waiting for recovery and return to everyday life.
The Save Ukraine Fund has already returned 226 children from the occupied territories to Ukraine.
Russians abduct Ukrainian children
The Online.UA documentary project "Abducted Childhood" is about Ukrainian children who were forcibly deported and kidnapped to Russia.
Children and their parents shared their 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.
