Last week, the Save Ukraine team rescued 16 children from occupation. 🙏 We are grateful to our partners, Wladimir Klitschko and Tatjana Kiel with WeAreAllUkrainians, and the Joint Center for Coordination of Search and Release for making this possible — together, we are giving children their childhood back. These children were subjected to pain and threats in an attempt to break them — but without success.

🔹 Kateryna spoke Ukrainian openly at school, which drew the attention of the occupation authorities. A denunciation was written against her, her personal data was published in propaganda channels, and daily threats of physical violence followed. She was forced to “repent” on camera and taken to the FSB, where they pressured her to abandon her beliefs.

🔹 Marina was dragged into a military-patriotic club called “Rubezh,” where she was taught to assemble and disassemble rifles, shoot, and live through “army routines.” During “Conversations about Important Things” lessons, she was forced to shake hands with soldiers boasting about their “heroics at the front.” Refusal wasn’t an option — it could result in punishment and lower grades on her school record.

🔹 Anzhelika was studying to become an artist at a college when the full-scale invasion began. She couldn’t leave the occupied city right away and switched to distance learning. But soon, the Russians seized the college and forced all Ukrainian students to study under their curriculum, filled with Kremlin propaganda and a ban on everything Ukrainian. All students were forced to obtain Russian passports. As soon as Anzhelika graduated, she began looking for ways to escape occupation and find freedom.

Today, all of them are safe. At our “Hope and Healing” centers, children and their families receive rehabilitation, psychological support, restored documents, housing, and care — everything they need to feel like children again.

Thanks to Save Ukraine, more than 850 children have already been brought home. But thousands are still waiting to be rescued.