Ukraine brings back three families with children from Russian occupation

Three families with four children have been brought back to Ukraine from the occupied territory.

Source: the NGO Save Ukraine

Details: Save Ukraine volunteers said that the parents of Milana and Zhenia (names changed for security reasons) lost their business because they did not want to receive Russian passports and pay taxes to Russia.

Quote from Save Ukraine staff member: "The children and their mother were forced to stay in the basement almost all day long, as the Russians were constantly bombarding their village with mortars. And when there were explosions, Milana would turn up the sound on her cartoons so that they couldn’t hear the noise."

Anzhela lived with her mother in an occupied town.

The Russians "invited" her to attend a Russian school three times, but she refused each time.

Anzhela's mother said that a Russian air defence system was stationed near their house, and the Russians had shot down UAVs right over their house on several occasions. The Russians also frequently launched small drones with parachutes. These devices would fly close by and self-destruct. That is how the Russian army manipulated local residents and lied about "bombardment by the Ukrainian Armed Forces".

Arsen's older brother was serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but the family’s settlement was under occupation, and they could not leave on their own. Russians came to their house several times to search it.

Quote: "The first search was the worst, when their yard was surrounded by Tigers and URALs [Russian military transport vehicles – ed.], and a sniper sat in front of the house and aimed at the window. The father was interrogated for several hours and forced to take off his clothes and show them whether he had any tattoos."

Arsen’s mother packed and unpacked her bags several times to leave the occupied territory. But she was afraid that she would be turned back at the filtration point because of her elder son, and that her younger son would be taken away.

Reminder:

In early February, four children under the age of 16 were brought back from the Russian-occupied territories of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts. The youngest is not even a year old. 

Read also: Ukraine brought back a servicewoman’s 12-year-old son who had lived under occupation for more than a year and a half.

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