Last week, the Save Ukraine team rescued 16 children from occupation. This was made possible thanks to the support of our partners within the framework of the President of Ukraine’s initiative Bring Kids Back UA.

These children were subjected to pain and threats in an attempt to break them — but without success.

🔹 Milana, 17, had to wait for her mother to return from a basement, where she was held for three days without food or water — simply because Milana’s father is a Ukrainian soldier. Her mother endured searches, a polygraph test, and constant humiliation. She was threatened with being “found in the Dnipro River.” Milana lived in constant fear that her mother might disappear forever.

🔹 Mark, 17, went to class but ended up being registered for military service. After a so-called “psychological test,” Russian soldiers took him and several classmates to the military enlistment office without parental consent. At one point, he almost lost both parents when a drone struck their car — they survived only by miracle.

🔹 Solomiya, 2, also survived occupation by sheer miracle. One night, when she woke up with a 40°C fever, her mother Olena could not wait for an ambulance. She decided to drive her daughter to the hospital herself — but Russian soldiers blocked their car at the bridge and threatened to smash the windows. Desperate, Olena carried her daughter in her arms and crossed the pontoon bridge in the dark.

🔹 The family of Alina, 14, barely managed to escape occupation to avoid ending up on the street. The occupying authorities threatened to take away their apartment. Even at the checkpoint, soldiers refused to let them through until Alina deleted all Ukrainian channels from her phone.

Today, all of them are safe. At our centers, the children and their families receive rehabilitation, psychological support, restored documents, shelter, and care — everything they need to feel like children again. Thanks to Save Ukraine, more than 800 children have already been brought home. But thousands more are still waiting to be rescued.

🙏 We are grateful to our partners WeAreAllUkrainians and the Joint Center for Coordination of Search and Release — together, we are giving children their childhood back.