“Finally, you can speak Ukrainian”: 16 more children deported to the Russian Federation and Crimea have returned home

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It was possible to return to Ukraine 16 children aged 7-16 from the Kherson region, whom the occupiers deported to Russia and the occupied Crimea, allegedly to “recreation” camps. The evacuation of children to Ukraine was carried out by volunteers of the charity fund Save Ukraine. In total, 14 families managed to return their children home. For several months, Ukrainian children did not see their relatives. Some – almost a year, and some – since October. All of them were transported to Russian cities (such as Yeisk in the Krasnodar region), temporarily occupied Crimea (in Feodosia, Yevpatoria) and Kherson region (in occupied Henichesk). “They all have different stories, but most of the children were actually deported, kidnapped. Most of the children from the Kherson region were sent on “rest” in October. What kind of rest camps can there be in October? Parents who tried to take their children back were told: ” Who told you it was a vacation anyway? We carried out the evacuation, saved your children,” says former children’s ombudsman and executive director of Save Ukraine Mykola Kuleba. Mykola Kuleba and the Save Ukraine team met the children with their parents in Kyiv immediately after their return. Photo: UP. Life According to him, under during this evacuation, it was possible to return home the children whom the Russians did not return last time due to the absence of their parents. “There are children whom we could not take during the last evacuation, although we had all the necessary documents translated into Russian. But then their parents were not with us and those institutions, after consultations with the relevant authorities of the Russian Federation, refused to give the children away. They were hysterical because the children were waiting for their parents and thought they would come. As a result, the children had to wait several more months,” says Kuleba. What’s more, they didn’t want to let the children go even when the parents themselves came to pick them up. This was the case with a football player boy from Kherson. Mykola Kuleba emphasized that currently the Russians are trying in every possible way to prevent the return of children deported from Ukraine. This is done in order to Russify them. The ex-ombudsman added that the children in the so-called “camps” were treated normally for this very purpose. “The Russians’ strategy does not involve punishment – they wanted to leave the children in the Russian Federation . They understand that the longer the child stays on their territory, the better they will be able to Russify it,” Kuleba emphasized. One of the girls who managed to return home. Photo: UP. Life Read also: “Dad, you must come, or we will be adopted.” The terrible war saga of one Ukrainian family One of 16 children’s stories Among the children who finally returned home is 14-year-old Andriy. The boy had not seen his mother and sister for almost a year – since the beginning of the full-scale war. As told by “UP. Life” of his mother Olga, Andriy, unlike other children, was not in a “rest camp”. On February 24, her son and his father stayed with his grandmother in the village of Kiselyvka, in the Kherson region. This settlement was occupied by the Russians shortly after the invasion. The Armed Forces managed to liberate Kyselivka only during a powerful counteroffensive in Kherson Oblast in November. “I haven’t seen my child for almost a year. The war separated us when I was in Mykolaiv, and he was with his grandmother in a village in the Kherson region. When the war started, the son went with his father to the other side of the coast. It was impossible to take him from there at all. They had no way to return. The train and buses did not run and he stayed there. I was really looking forward to the de-occupation, but it so happened that when the city was de-occupied, his father went to the Crimea because he urgently needed an operation. He could not leave the controlled territory of Ukraine. My son went with him,” says Olga, having just arrived in Kyiv on the Save Ukraine evacuation bus. On the last day when it was still possible to return from Crimea, Andrii’s father was in the hospital. Then, according to Olga, there was no chance to leave. Only On February 1, after months of searching for opportunities, the woman, together with other parents of deported children and volunteers of the foundation, was able to take her son home from the occupied Crimea. We looked for many options to take our son to Ukraine. At first they thought to take him through Zaporizhzhia, but he is a minor and therefore it was necessary to write a power of attorney for someone. But not every person will take on such responsibility for someone else’s child. Then I looked for options to take him across the Crimea, but to go myself was very expensive, we did not have such funds. After months of searching, there was a lucky opportunity to take the baby. At first I did not believe that it was possible to do it for free. Nowadays, this happens very rarely, but a miracle happened,” emphasizes Andrii’s mother. Andrii with his mother. Photo: UP. Life The road home turned out to be difficult and tiring. The evacuation bus was not immediately allowed to cross the Belarusian border. “They let us go there, but already when they were leaving, they said that we can cross the Belarusian border only once. We arrived at one checkpoint – they didn’t let us in, at the second one too, and only at the third one. But not immediately. Even when we passed all the checks, our passports were not returned for a very long time. When we were at the border with Belarus, everyone was checked very carefully – things, phones, they asked a lot of questions. They asked if there were military personnel, if we knew those who serve in the Armed Forces, where our troops are stationed…”, recalls Olga. The woman admits that during the checks she was most afraid that someone she knew might write something to her – “every second I was checking my phone, because there could be problems.” The fear passed only when the bus crossed the border with Latvia. It was followed by a Lithuanian, a Polish, and finally a Ukrainian. Today, Olga and her son are finally together, at home. She says that the first thing they plan to do is visit their grandmother – the son I missed her very much. Andriy emphasizes that he was really looking forward to returning to Ukraine: “I’m glad, very glad. Finally, you can speak Ukrainian.” The boy didn’t speak his native language because he was afraid – he just didn’t understand it, he emphasizes. Immediately after returning from his grandmother’s, Andriy will go to school: “He walked a lot.” We will remind you that earlier we told the story of a teenager who managed to return to Ukraine after being deported to the Russian Federation. We managed to establish what path the boy took, how he ended up in Russia, and who exactly in the occupied territory contributed to the boy’s deportation. You can read the story of 16-year-old Serhiy in the article: “Help me”. The story of the deportation of a teenager who managed to return to Ukraine

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