Vitaliy never thought he would end up in a place like this. He was just a normal kid from Berislav, a small city in the Kherson region of Ukraine. He liked to play soccer with his friends, watch cartoons on TV, and dream of becoming a pilot someday. He had no idea that his life would change so drastically on October 7, 2022.

Russian social services took 9-year-old Vsevolod away from his parents and took him to one of the children's institutions in Melitopol. Here, he was kept alone in a closed room for a long time, and later was forced to wear Russian camouflage and ordered to learn Russian.