10-year-old Mykyta was kidnapped by the Russians from the Oleshkiv boarding school in October of last year. He, along with other pupils of the institution, including children with disabilities, was forcibly taken to the territory of Russia under the pretext of “evacuation”.

For a long time, the boy was in Crimea, and then these children were moved several more times through the territory of Russia so that relatives lost track of them and couldn’t find them. Polina didn’t know about the whereabouts of her grandson.

Is Mykyta still alive? Is everything okay with him? In which boarding school is he? Mykyta’s grandmother used to knock on the thresholds of all residential institutions in Krasnodar Krai to find out at least something about him. In desperation, the woman found the contacts of Save Ukraine and contacted our team. After that, we started searching together.

Thanks to the cautious and persistent work of our volunteers, we found out the boy’s whereabouts. And then the grandmother asked to help her take her grandson from there. Polina couldn’t do it herself, because the Russians resisted in every possible way and hadn’t given her the grandson. The woman had to survive several interrogations. Despite all the necessary documents confirming their family ties and Polina’s custody of Nikita, she was forced to undergo a DNA test. We had to wait a long time for the results.

However, even after that, no one gave the boy to Polina. After all, the director of the Oleshki boarding school, collaborator Valentin Suk, organized to illegally give the boy Russian citizenship during that time. He had no right to do so since Mykyta had received a legal representative in Ukraine – his grandmother. Therefore, she was forced to take a Russian passport and register custody of the boy.

This story of the return of Nikita had been lasting for three long months. Our team helped Polina do everything the Russians wanted so that they would give her a grandson. Polina personally took Mykyta from the hands of Maria Lvova-Belova, the ombudsman for children’s rights in the Russian Federation, for whose arrest the International Criminal Court issued a warrant in March of this year. Smiling cynically, Lvova-Belova spoke to the journalists’ camera about the fact that she always promotes the reunification of families, but behind the scenes, she had offered Polina a financial reward so that she would stay with the boy in Russia. But the woman categorically refused.

Fortunately, Polina and her grandson managed to leave the Russian Federation. They are safe now. We helped her find an apartment in good condition. They have a long rehabilitation ahead of them. They need to restore all the lost documents, and Mykyta needs to undergo a preventive examination and start treatment. After all, during the year while the boy was in Russia, no one took care of him, so he was in a very neglected condition. You can also join in helping with Mykyta’s treatment because his grandmother is unable to work. She has to deal with the rehabilitation of her grandson.