Ukrainian children deported to Russia tell of life in “re-education camps”.

A black minibus with tinted windows pulls up in a car park on the outskirts of Kew. The side door slides open and 17 children come out one by one. The scene took place on Wednesday, March 22. It is about returning some children to their parents “He was deported” From Ukraine to Russia. The kidnappings led to an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin by the International Criminal Court. “Illegal Deportation”.

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We see big smiles, intense hugs and even a few tears of joy on the faces of these babies as they return to the arms of their loved ones. Denis has found three of these four children: the two eldest, Diana and Yana, aged 14 and 11, and the youngest, Nikita, aged 10, who wears a yellow and blue tracksuit in the colors of Ukraine. “I’m so happy, the kids are safe and sound, they’re smiling, and above all, they’re alive!” Denise moved on.

A summer camp

The families then entered a red brick building, and over a toast, tongues loosened. These families tell almost the same story: children sent to summer camp for two weeks and never coming back. The scene was the same for 15 of these 17 children, from the Kherson region in the south of the country, then occupied by the Russians. On the evening of Friday 7 October, the first day of All Saints’ Day, they set out voluntarily for a summer camp at sea, towards Yevpatoriya, in the west of Crimea.

The new local authorities allow parents to reassure themselves that the area is under constant bombardment. The Ukrainian counteroffensive is nearing its end. So they decide to take their children to safety. After a fortnight, the stay ends, but the children do not return, the school explains, as ordered by the military administration.

“They confiscated our phones and then our parents said they didn’t need us and they abandoned us. But that’s not true.”

Vitaly, a Ukrainian boy deported to Russia

At franceinfo

For about six months, for Vitaly, 16, the summer camp turns into a “re-education camp.” “When we woke up, they lined us up to sing the Russian national anthemDescribes a young man back in Ukraine. Most of us don’t want to. We hid behind each other. A girl had a Ukrainian flag in her room, and security manager Astakov found it and burned it. He said, ‘Look, see how we set fire to your country.’

“I told him over and over again that I was his mother.”

Vitaly also describes moral bullying: “They rounded us up as Ukrainians and told us that we came from a terrorist nation that kills people and that Ukraine does not need children. We were made to wear St. George’s ribbons, a symbol of Russian patriotism.”

Her eldest, mother Inessa, can’t help but blame herself to hear the story surrounded by her other 3 boys. “It was the school principal who sent them to the summer camp, who went door-to-door and texted us constantly.Mom says. She put a lot of pressure on us and asked if I should leave my son. He replied that everyone was going, so he was going too. Then, I continued to call the in-charge of the summer camp. She pretended not to know who I was. During the shelling, when everything was fine, she asked me questions about what I could give my son in Perisla near Kherson. I repeatedly told him that I was his mother, and I insisted: What do I have to do to prove it? She replied that no one will return our children to us. However, they know very well that we cannot access that area.”

16,000 children are missing

This is thanks to an NGO “Save Ukraine” These parents were able to prove their identity and rescue their children. He thus undertook his fourth repatriation convoy since the beginning of the war. The association first contacts the Russian authorities and helps parents set up a file with passports, family registers and proof of address. When everything was ready, they reached the road together in the bus.

Crossing the front lines from Kherson to Yevpatoria, as the crow flies, about 200 kilometers, Zina makes more than 3,500 men to pick up her daughter Masha. He describes his journey: “We left Kiev by train to Selm, Poland. Then we took the first bus to the Belarus border, then the first bus to Minsk. We went to Domodedovo Airport in Moscow and got on the plane.” Once they arrived in Russia, they were “9 hours were blocked, interrogated, the Russians searched our phones, they asked us ridiculous questions: where are our children, why did we leave them, if we had contacts in the Ukrainian army, we were able to leave Moscow and go to Evpatoria. A few days passed. They signed the documents and told us : Here, take your children and go!

According to Ukrainian authorities, Masha and Vitaly are among 300 minors who have been repatriated. It is similar to a drop of water as it is 50 times larger. Today there are exactly 16,226 kyivs in Russia or the occupied territories.