Teenagers from Melitopol and Nova Kakhovka tell about abduction and captivity

Two Ukrainian teenagers told how they survived abduction and torture by the Russian occupiers. Their stories from Melitopol and Nova Kakhovka show what children in Russian captivity had to go through.

This was reported by the Crimean Tatar Resource Center with reference to The Times.

In April 2022, 16-year-old Vladyslav Buriak from occupied Melitopol was stopped by the Russian military at a checkpoint in Vasylivka. The boy was dragged out of his car at gunpoint and placed in a cramped three-by-two-meter cell with more than 30 other people.

"I saw a man hanging from the ceiling with a bucket of blood under him. His face was so broken that it was impossible to recognize him," Vladyslav recalled.

"Although he was not tortured, he was forced to clean the torture chambers after the torture. One of his cellmates committed suicide after two days of abuse.

On July 7, 2022, Vladyslav was transported from Melitopol to Zaporizhzhia, where he met his father. He was unable to show emotion then. Today he is 20 years old and lives in the UK with his mother and sister.

Another story is that of Valeriy Sidorov from Nova Kakhovka. The occupiers gathered schoolchildren in the square, put them in 12 buses and took them "to Crimea for two weeks." The girl ended up in a camp in Yevpatoria, where more than 400 teenagers were under the supervision of armed guards and cameras.

"When journalists came, we were fed normally. On other days, the food was inedible. We were like animals in a zoo," said Valeria.

"Every morning, children were forced to sing the national anthem, raise the flag and march in red scarves, and were punished for using the Ukrainian language.

In August 2023, Valeriia managed to escape: she passed the checkpoints, got into a car with strangers, and walked for two hours through a minefield. Now 19 years old, she lives in Kyiv, is studying to become a nurse and is seeing a psychologist.

In June, the government introduced a one-time payment of 50,000 hryvnias for children who returned to government-controlled territory after being deported, forcibly displaced, or staying in the temporarily occupied territories. According to the Ministry of Social Policy, these funds will help parents or other legal representatives to ensure proper conditions for the child's adaptation and reintegration.

Анна Бальчінос