Another 12 Ukrainian children have escaped the Russian trap thanks to the efforts of the Save Ukraine team as part of the President of Ukraine’s initiative #BringKidsBackUA. For three years, they lived under constant pressure — facing militarization, forced Russification, and the threat of being separated from their families.

Among the rescued is Bohdan, a boy from a large family. Russian occupiers threatened his parents, saying their children would be taken away and sent to a Russian orphanage unless they were enrolled in a propaganda school. Bohdan was already forcibly taken to a military enlistment office, registered in the database as a Russian conscript, and even assigned a military specialty. At school, he was humiliated for speaking Ukrainian and threatened with being reported to the security services. His older brother was taken to a basement and tortured.

We also managed to rescue a family that had been living under pressure from discrimination and forced ideological indoctrination. The parents were consistently denied employment because they held Ukrainian documents, and their children were forced to sing the Russian national anthem, wear ties in the colors of the Russian flag, recite poems, and record propaganda videos. When they refused, their child was summoned by the principal and bullied by classmates, who threatened her saying she would be “bombed for being Ukrainian.”

Russian forces also attempted to abduct 10-year-old Yehor from his grandmother when the family tried to flee the occupied territory on their own. FSB officers forbade them from leaving the region, forcibly separated the boy from his grandmother, and took him away under armed escort in an unknown direction. But they could no longer stay at home: their house was destroyed, the boy was terrified of explosions, and he had to attend a Russian school just to avoid being taken from his grandmother. That’s when the family reached out to Save Ukraine, and our team helped Yehor and his grandmother escape the temporarily occupied territory.

Today, all 12 children are finally safe. We sincerely thank our partners — WeAreAllUkrainians, the Humaniti Foundation, and Reload Love — for supporting us in this difficult mission. Bringing children back to Ukraine is becoming increasingly challenging. This is our joint victory in the larger struggle of humanity against the cruelty of the Kremlin regime.

You can also join our mission to rescue Ukrainian children — follow the link.

P.S. Names have been changed for security reasons.