Five pupils of the Novopetrivsk boarding school in the Mykolaiv region, who were taken to Russia by the occupiers, were returned to Ukraine.
Soldiers of Russia abducted children from the Mykolaiv region at gunpoint
According to the head of “Save Ukraine” charity organisation, Mykola Kuleba, the children survived for three months on the lonely front line, hiding from bombs and rockets in the basement without food or water.
In mid-July 2022, they were abducted by the Russians at gunpoint and moved to the occupied territory.
Kuleba noted that the children were kept in the Kherson Center for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation.
Every day, the military came to them and checked whether anyone had suddenly escaped, forbade them to communicate with their relatives, and threatened them.
In October 2022, the occupiers took them to Crimea, and then to Anapa, Krasnodar Krai region. From there, the children were rescued and taken to a safer territory, to Georgia.
Mykola Kuleba
Leader of Save Ukraine
According to official data of law enforcement officers, as of May 31, Russians stole and forcibly removed 19,546 children from Ukraine. However, the real number may reach up to 300,000 children.
Russia is mass abducting children from the occupied territories of Ukraine
In 2023, the Online.UA team presented the documentary "Crippled Childhood", which reveals the truth about Russia's abduction of Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
The film contains real stories of children and their families affected by Russia's war against Ukraine, comments by leading scientists, psychologists, lawyers and experts on the protection of children's rights.
The heroes of the tape went through Russian captivity, torture, abduction to a health camp, some were separated from their parents during the so-called filtering measures.
