Four children aged 10 to 17 have been returned from the occupied part of Kherson region to Ukrainian-controlled territory. Some of the students had been threatened by the Russians with being taken from their families.
The return was reported by the head of the Kherson regional state administration, Oleksandr Prokudin, and the organization Save Ukraine.
They shared that 17-year-old Oleh, who "openly opposed forced Russification" in his local school, was among those returned. One day, he and a friend managed to sneak past a Russian checkpoint and wrote "Glory to the Armed Forces of Ukraine!" on concrete blocks.
"He told the occupiers directly that the children would study online, even though they constantly threatened to take them away," Save Ukraine reported.
Also among the returned children were 15-year-old twins Eva and Yegor, whose grandfather had prevented them from attending Russian schools, where programmes from the aggressor country were being implemented.
"Each rescued child has their own story of resistance. The 17-year-old boy openly opposed Russification, demonstrating unwavering loyalty to Ukraine, despite the threat to his life. The 15-year-old twins managed to avoid forced education in Russian schools soaked with propaganda, thanks to the courage and resilience of their grandfather. And the 10-year-old boy, who lost his parents in a shelling, faced the threat of being placed in an orphanage, but his grandmother was able to save him," wrote Andriy Yermak.
