The Save Ukraine team helped several more Ukrainian children escape from the hands of the occupiers and leave the temporarily occupied territories and Russia. This rescue mission was carried out as part of the President of Ukraine’s initiative Bring Kids Back UA.

🔹 Among those rescued is 9-year-old Alinka, for whom every morning was a challenge. She had to attend a “foreign” school, where she was forced to sing the Russian anthem and draw the tricolor. Teachers used to scare children with mines during lessons, and for saying “please” in Ukrainian, she was threatened to be put under surveillance.

🔹 10-year-old Kostya was forced to perform at the local cultural center holding a portrait of a Russian soldier and singing a song about military victories on May 9. The children were told they had to perform and couldn’t refuse. No one explained why. At the Russian school, the boy was bullied and beaten for being Ukrainian.

🔹 Maksym had to go through three “visits” from Federal Security Service of Russia officers who broke into his house in the middle of the night. The reason for the searches was his refusal to get a Russian passport. Luckily, his mother managed to hide the phone, which had a lot of content related to Ukraine — full of “compromising material” that could have led to punishment for the whole family.

🔹 Olena is one of the Ukrainian children who were taken to so-called Russian “re-education camps”, where she was forced to run with a gun, set up traps, and dig trenches. In addition, Russians threatened her with rape just because she liked a photo with a Ukrainian flag on social media.

🔹 17-year-old Yevhen lived like in a prison for the last three years. He was afraid of every knock on the door — the occupiers could come at night with a sledgehammer and search the whole house, looking for his father. Despite the danger, Yevhen kept refusing to go to a Russian school, stayed hidden at home, and continued to study online at a Ukrainian school. Now the boy is safe, and most importantly — he was finally able to hug his older brother, a soldier who recently returned from russian captivity.

Thanks to our longstanding partners WeAreAllUkrainians, Humanity Foundation, Reload Love, and the Joint Center for Coordination of the Search and Release of Prisoners and Illegally Detained Persons due to the Aggression against Ukraine for helping in this rescue mission. We won’t stop until every Ukrainian is home.

*Names have been changed for safety reasons.