Our team successfully rescued three families with four children from an occupied area.

Milana and Zhenya’s parents had to close their business after refusing Russian passports, not complying with Russian business regulations, and declining to pay taxes to Russia. The family, including the kids, spent most days in the basement as Russian forces frequently bombarded their village with mortars. To cope with the stress, Milana often turned up the volume of cartoons to block out the sound of explosions.

Angela and her mother lived near a Russian anti-aircraft system. This led to frequent drone attacks over their home, with drones often being shot down or self-destructing nearby. Russian forces blamed these attacks on the Ukrainian military. The occupation authorities also tried to force Marina, Angela’s mother, to enroll her in a Russian school three times, but Angela consistently refused.

Arsen’s older brother serves in the Ukrainian armed forces, which drew repeated Russian searches to their parents’ home. The first search was particularly harrowing, involving their yard being encircled by military vehicles and a sniper targeting their home. During these searches, Arsen’s father was intensively interrogated and checked for tattoos. Aliona, Arsen’s mother, planned to flee the occupation twice but feared being turned back at checkpoints due to her elder son’s military service and potentially losing her younger child. Upon learning about Save Ukraine, she immediately reached out to our team for help.

It only took a few days for us to sort everything out and assist these families in escaping the occupied area. They are now in a safe place. After they have some time to recover from their ordeal, they plan to start rebuilding their lives.

P.S. We’ve changed the names in this story to protect the individuals’ safety.