A report authored by Save Ukraine and the UK charity War Child features harrowing testimonies from children who have witnessed atrocities while living in occupation. One 16-year-old boy from Kherson shared how he was forced to watch Russian soldiers throw his father, his brothers and sisters-in-law “into a pit” after their “pro-Russian neighbours” reported them for being Ukrainian. “In the pit, they had just one mattress, and weren't allowed to sleep or use the toilet,” he said. “It was a trench with no exits covered with a roof, with a door like in prison.” The boy’s family were detained in the pit for a week.
Under occupation, children are forced to attend Russian schools, where they are taught pro-Russian propaganda and disinformation about Ukraine. They are also sent to camps designed to turn Ukrainian children into Russian soldiers. “We have children who were told they were going to summer camps, only they were military camps,” said Kukura.
A 17-year-old girl from Kherson who was sent to one of these camps described how children would be “beaten or thrown into a cold pool” if they ‘misbehaved’ by saying “glory to Ukraine”, having pro-Ukrainian symbols, or contacting anybody in Ukraine. “As punishment, they were forced to pull waist-high weeds or dig fields,” she added.
For some, the abuse and torture are far more severe. “The hardest thing for me is remembering the death of my friend,” said an 18-year-old boy from Kherson, who is part of Save Ukraine’s programme for those who were under-18 when living under occupation but are now young adults. “The Russians found a message thread with Ukrainian soldiers on his phone and took him to the commandant’s office [...] They ripped out his teeth and eyelids, cut off his fingers [...] He couldn’t survive the torture. Later, the news said he died of a ‘blood clot.’ But the truth is, they killed him.”
To cut the occupied regions off from the rest of Ukraine, Russia has imposed an information blackout, banning telecommunications and Ukrainian media. It is designed to make people believe Ukraine has abandoned them. When I visited Izium in September 2023, a year after the city was liberated, I was told how residents had been fed propaganda that Ukraine had surrendered. Seeking more information, they went to a hill outside the city – the only place they could get phone and internet connection to contact loved ones or read Ukrainian news – where, they said, Russian snipers were stationed, ready to shoot them.
Dmytrenko described how one 16-year-old boy, who was separated from his mother and eventually rescued by Save Ukraine, was told that “Ukrainian Nazis would eat him” if he escaped back to Ukraine. He was old enough to know it was unlikely to be true, but young enough for the threats to terrify him.
“We have to be here to show they have a safe place to come, they have not been abandoned, we are waiting for them and we will support them,” insisted Dmytrenko.
Genocide and war crimes
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin and the country’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova Belova, for war crimes over their child abduction programme. In February 2024, the International Court of Justice found a claim made by Ukraine that Russia is committing genocide was admissible.
"Article II of the UN genocide convention specifies the actions, any of which, if committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, constitute a genocide,” Ukrainian academic Yuliya Yurchenko, senior lecturer in poltical economy at the University of Greenwich, told openDemocracy.
“These actions include forcibly transferring children of the group to another group, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, such as Russian soldiers raping Ukrainian women in order for them not to give birth to Ukrainians, killing members of the group and causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group. While it may take years to officially recognise Russia’s actions as a genocide, the points above leave no doubt.”
This has been echoed by American academic and author Timothy Snyder, who, one year into the war, told the United Nations Security Council: “We can see that there is a war of aggression, crimes against humanity, and genocide.”
As courts pick over the evidence, including that provided by Save Ukraine, the war grinds on and the centre’s work gets harder. Russia is making it increasingly difficult for the centre’s team to reach families in need of rescue: forcing individuals to use a Russian-made messaging app and demanding that anyone who wants to leave the occupied territories to have Russian identity documents. For a centre that relies on word of mouth, a hotline and a secure messaging app to arrange rescues, these restrictions are deeply concerning.
Despite these challenges, Dmytrenko and the team at Save Ukraine are determined to keep going, not just for the children’s sake, but for the sake of all of Europe.
“Diplomacy is not working at getting the children back,” said Dmytrenko. “Russia will not stop at Ukraine. They are kidnapping and raising child soldiers so they can invade other parts of Europe. It’s not just about Ukraine. It’s about all of Europe’s security.”
