Save Ukraine and Bring Kids Back UA continue to rescue young Ukrainians from russian captivity. Over the past week, we have managed to return 23 children, among which were three orphans, from the temporarily occupied Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Luhansk regions.

The personal stories of those rescued are extremely chilling, and all of the kids faced the risk of getting deported to Russia.

For instance, one of the boys from Enerhodar witnessed his father getting brutally beaten in front of him. The boy also faced a real threat of forced mobilization into the occupation army after turning 18.

The Russian military broke into the house of sisters aged 15 and 17 three times in the middle of the night with searches and interrogations. Russians took things they liked and threatened to take the children away from the family.

A 16-year-old teenager was constantly summoned for interrogation by the FSB and detained by the military police because they considered him a “criminal” because he refused to obtain a russian passport.

The situation in occupied territories is tough. Russian forces tried to entice children into attending their schools by offering a payment of 10,000 rubles. However, in these schools, a janitor was teaching math, and a former grocery store cashier was teaching English because most of the regular teachers refused to cooperate with the occupying authorities.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Save Ukraine has managed to rescue and return 446 young Ukrainians from russian-controlled areas. There is still much work to be done, and we won’t stop until every Ukrainian child is freed from russian captivity.

Bring Kids Back UA continues to unite the efforts of the state, international organizations, and civil society in rescuing Ukrainian children.

We are grateful to Humanity Foundation, We Are All Ukrainians, Ron Wahid, and all our reliable partners who made the rescue of Ukrainian children possible.