Two Ukrainian children were rescued by our Save Ukraine team from the criminal arbitrariness of the russian federation in the occupied territory. Yesterday the family finally crossed the border and stepped onto free Ukrainian land. Tatiana turned to us in despair, crying and asking for help, because any day now they were going to come and take her children. So we simply had no time to wait.
10-year-old Vitaliy and his older sister Violetta have had to endure a lot of harassment and abuse from the russians during the 20 months of occupation. One day, 11 armed soldiers in balaclavas came to their house at once to ask why Vitaliy was liking posts about the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Then they broke into Violetta’s room and made complaints about the color of the interior. And once, at a checkpoint, the children’s godfather was torn out of his Ukrainian passport by russian soldiers.

All the time, the occupation authorities forced parents to issue a russian certificate for their children and send them to a russian school. Otherwise, they would pay a large fine, and the children could simply be taken to an orphanage. His mother Tetiana recalls that when Vitalii found out that he had been enrolled in a russian school without his knowledge, he began to shout loudly that he did not want to go there. It was also difficult for Violetta to study: in the summer, her daughter entered a Ukrainian university and had to hide her notebooks so that the russians would not find anything.

Tetiana had long thought about going to the Ukrainian-controlled territories, but her daughter’s Ukrainian passport had expired, and carriers refused to take such passengers because there could be problems at the checkpoints. Renting a separate car is very expensive: after almost two years in the occupation without work and with such prices, it is an unbearable financial task. So as soon as the family found out about Save Ukraine, they immediately contacted us.

Now the whole family is safe. The children are happy that they will be able to freely receive Ukrainian education. To date, we have saved 219 Ukrainian children from deportation and russian occupation.