Three Ukrainian teenagers brought back from Russian-occupied territory after cluster munition strikes family home

Three more teenagers have been evacuated from Russian-occupied to Ukrainian-controlled territory. Two of them had seen their family home hit by cluster munitions.

Source: Bring Kids Back UA

Details: Bring Kids Back UA reported that the teenagers are now safe.

When Russian troops arrived, normal life came to an end for Sasha, 15, and Veronika, 13 (names changed for safety reasons), as fear, searches and constant threats became part of their everyday reality. The children nevertheless continued to study online at a Ukrainian school.

Quote: "One day, a cluster munition dropped from a drone hit their house. Everyone survived by what felt like a miracle, but they realised that staying meant death."

More details: It was then that the family decided to leave Russian-occupied territory. They managed to escape despite being held and interrogated by Russian soldiers for five hours at a checkpoint.

Fourteen-year-old Artem has also managed to escape occupation after the war separated him from his mother for three years.

Quote: "She fell ill with Covid-19 before the full-scale invasion and took her son to his grandparents' to keep him safe. When the invasion began, the woman, who works as a police officer, had to evacuate and was unable to take her child with her."

More details: Artem remained living under occupation with his relatives and continued studying remotely at a Ukrainian school. After a while, the Russian occupation authorities began checking up on children who were not attending local schools that had introduced the Russian curriculum. Because of this, Artem's relatives feared he might be taken away.

The teenager has now been taken out of Russian-occupied territory and reunited with his mother.

The operation to locate and evacuate the children was carried out with the help of the Joint Centre of the Security Service of Ukraine for the coordination of the search for and release of prisoners of war and persons unlawfully deprived of their liberty as a result of armed aggression against Ukraine.

Quote: "We continue to fight for every child and will not stop until all Ukrainian children have come home."

Background: Ukraine has identified about 400 locations in Russia where around 19,500 abducted Ukrainian children are being held. Daria Herasymchuk, Ukraine's Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights and Child Rehabilitation, has reported that Russia employs at least six scenarios to move Ukrainian children to its territory.

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