Russian social services took 9-year-old Vsevolod away from his parents and took him to one of the children’s institutions in Melitopol. Here, he was kept alone in a closed room for a long time, and later was forced to wear Russian camouflage and ordered to learn Russian.

His sister Svitlana cannot recall her younger brother’s life without tears. Vsevolod had to go through a lot of hardships from the moment he was born. The boy was born prematurely and needed medication to survive and develop. When Seva returned from the hospital, it was Svitlana who took over his upbringing and did everything necessary to help him recover. However, the boy continued to live with his dysfunctional parents, running away from domestic abuse to his loving sister.

For 4 years, Svitlana fought to deprive Vsevolod’s parents of their parental rights so that she could take care of her brother on her own. But all legal proceedings came to naught because of the war and the establishment of the occupation authorities in the region. The Russians began to visit Svitlana frequently with interrogations, so she had to leave Vsevolod and flee the occupation with her children.

Seva stayed with his parents. But very soon the social services of the occupation authorities took him to a boarding school. And since the beginning of 2023, the boy has been actively brainwashed in a Russian educational institution. After six months of such training, Vsevolod, who had spoken only Ukrainian all his life, began to speak Russian. What is the secret of such rapid change? Pressure and emotional abuse. In the classroom, Ukrainian children learned Russian one by one under personal supervision.

In addition, the boy was insulted by older children. With bruises on his face, arms and legs, Vsevolod miraculously managed to contact his sister by phone. Svitlana promised to return her brother to Ukrainian territory at all costs. But when she applied for permission to take Seva to the Moscow department, the Russians forbade her to communicate with her brother and did not give him a phone number anymore.
At this time, the boy was sent to Crimea for so-called “rehabilitation” and then his father, a collaborator, took him out of the boarding school for a probationary period. However, as early as September 1, the boy could have been in the hands of Russian social services again. So Svitlana had to act quickly and decisively.
The woman did not accept the Russians’ offer to obtain a Russian passport and live in the aggressor’s territory in order to possibly get custody of her brother someday. Instead, Svitlana called the Save Ukraine team and on August 23, she followed Seva on a long journey through Russia as part of our 11th rescue mission. Svitlana went through hours of interrogation, fear and pressure to fulfill her promise to her brother.

On that significant day for both of them, Seva asked his parents for a walk, where he finally saw his sister after 1.2 years of separation. Their meeting is one of the most emotional moments of reunion our team has ever seen. Now you can see it in this video.
Despite the problems at the Belarusian border, Svitlana managed to bring her brother to Ukraine. When Seva saw the Ukrainian flag, he quickly ran to the polling station without looking back.