Ukraine has managed to return ten children from occupation and reunite them with their families. They are now safe.
This was reported by the head of the Save Ukraine charity organization, Mykola Kuleba, on Telegram.
"Save Ukraine's team successfully rescued and returned ten Ukrainian children who found themselves in occupation after February 24th. After a long separation, the children were finally able to embrace their loved ones, and now all families are safe," Kuleba said.
Kuleba mentioned that in schools, all Ukrainian textbooks were quickly replaced with Russian ones, and Ukrainian symbols were banned. Additionally, children were forced to write letters to the Russian soldiers.
Alina stayed at home with her father after the Russians deported her mother, Marina. The girl was forced to attend a Russian school, listen to and sing the Russian anthem there, and wear an expensive school uniform. Any refusal to do all this would result in threats to lower grades for the children. Although Alina refused to draw and write letters to Russian soldiers, telling her teacher that she couldn't draw and didn't know the Russian language. However, she couldn't avoid watching films glorifying the "greatness" of the Russian language. This is especially cynical on the part of the Russian army—forcing children to write letters to soldiers who killed their parents, mothers, brothers, and sisters, and also to glorify the country that deprived them of a peaceful life.
Alexey, whose father died from a heart condition during the occupation, also recalls only Russian textbooks, which quickly replaced all Ukrainian books at school. Once his classmates found a plaque with the Ukrainian flag and hung it in the classroom, but the teacher noticed and quickly threw it away. Refusing to write a letter to Russian soldiers was also not an option.
13-year-old Orest and 11-year-old Melania were separated from their parents after the Armed Forces of Ukraine liberated the Right Bank. The parents took the children to the Left Bank to their grandparents, as far away from the combat zone as possible. Because of this, they didn't see their parents for almost 1.5 years. During this time, Melania's hearing deteriorated due to constant stress, as did her mother Oksana's. The brother and sister desperately wanted to hug their mother and return home. But sometimes they didn't even believe that this moment would ever come.
Little Lana was born during the occupation. Her mother, Tamila, faced the full-scale invasion while pregnant. It was very difficult to survive in the first months when there was a shortage of food and medicine in the occupation. The young woman hoped to give birth in free Ukraine, but no—they had to go to the maternity hospital through several Russian checkpoints. They barely managed to persuade the soldiers to let them into the maternity hospital. New life was born amidst explosions. They were discharged home four hours after childbirth, without giving the child any vaccinations.
