Six kids from Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Donetsk regions, as well as Crimea, returned to Ukraine thanks to the coordinated teamwork of Save Ukraine and Bring Kids Back UA.
Among these children is 17-year-old Myroslav (the name was changed for safety reasons) from Pryazovia, who was afraid that the occupiers would force him to join the Russian army, as there had already been similar cases with other underage boys.
He shared the story of how the Russians took local children from his school to old monuments to World War II soldiers. There, the collaborator teachers said that the Soviet army had defended the people from the N*zis and that this is what Russia is doing now. The boy avoided going to school, even reaching the point of not leaving the house during lessons.
Myroslav's rescue from the occupation was not easy. At the border, FSB officers put pressure on him and the people who accompanied him, threatening to send him back. They accused him of espionage and emphasized that there was “chaos” in Ukraine and “peace” in their country. But despite all these difficulties, the boy managed to come to Ukraine.
The following case confirms the main reason why Ukraine continues its efforts to rescue children from the temporary occupation – to ensure that the aggressor doesn’t get to those kids and does not turn them into military machines fighting against their own nation.