Children of Kherson region are in the Kremlin's crosshairs: the story of abduction

Tens of thousands of Ukrainian children are being abducted and forcibly taken to Russia to be deprived of their native identity. One of them was Mykyta, whom his grandmother was able to bring home after months of searching and fighting the occupation system.

This was reported by the Canadian edition of The Walrus.

On the eve of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, Mykyta was sent to a boarding school in Oleshky, Kherson region. The boy was about nine years old, had chronic stomach problems, and his grandmother Polina, who lived in Poland, took care of him.

In the fall of 2022, Russian soldiers surrounded the boarding school and took the children away. Mykyta was first sent to Crimea for rehabilitation, then to an orphanage in the Krasnodar Territory of Russia, and then to an unknown location. The new pro-Russian director of the orphanage said that the boy "has no family." Polina turned to the organization Save Ukraine, which helps to search for Ukrainian children abducted by Russian troops. Thanks to their support, Mykyta was found in occupied Skadovsk in southern Ukraine.

Child abduction has become one of Russia's key tactics during the war. According to the Bring Kids Back UA initiative, about 20,000 children have been taken; other sources say at least 35,000. As of September 2024, only 1,605 children had returned home.

In Russia, they are trying to assimilate the children: they are being offered Russian passports, transferred to schools, summer camps and special institutions, and taught "loyalty to Russia." The New York Times described it as "a systematic campaign to strip away Ukrainian identity." In January 2024, Putin signed a decree making it easier for Ukrainian orphans to obtain Russian citizenship.

On June 13, 2023, Polina went to Skadovsk to find Mykyta. Despite the threat and the need to undergo a DNA test, she met the boy, hugged him and promised to return. At the end of August, the grandmother was informed of the test results, and on August 30, she was able to pick up her grandson. They were met by the Lviv-Belova Commissioner for Children's Rights, who offered to leave Nikita in Russia if he accepted Russian identity. Polina refused and returned to Poland with her grandson, where he underwent therapy and recovered physically and psychologically.

The International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children, co-chaired by Canada, is actively working to return abducted children. Since February 2024, more than 600 children have returned home, and Canada has allocated more than $27 million for recovery and rehabilitation, including the use of artificial intelligence to identify children.

In early October, two teenagers from Melitopol and Nova Kakhovka spoke about their experiences of abduction and torture by the Russian occupiers. Their testimonies demonstrate what Ukrainian children went through in Russian captivity.

Анна Бальчінос