Rescue of Abducted Ukrainian Children

Joining us now, Anastasia Dovhnia,

Deputy to the CEO of Save Ukraine, and she joins us from, from Kyiv.

Thanks so much, Anastasia. We appreciate having you.

Thank you for having me, Jim.

So this is a, a remarkable and a frightening story, given the

concerns about this since the very early days of the war.

Can you walk us through your investigation and how it un-

uncovered Oleksandr and documented his

path from being a, an abducted child to now,

it seems, a member of the Russian Army?

Thank you so much. You know, at Save Ukraine, every day we are rescuing

Ukraine's stolen children from Russia and occupied territories.

Every day, we are fighting for these children,

and to date, we rescued more than

1,570 of them, and each of them are testifying one thing.

Russia is militarizing them and convincing them that

their mission is to grow up as a decent and honorable

soldier and fight against Ukraine and United States.

They're forced to think and convinced that

United States is coming from devil and needs to, needs to be destroyed.

And Oleksandr is one of those kids.

Oleksandr was born in Kherson, and he's now serving

in a Russian, uh, army, uh, against his

own country. And what we found out is, first of all, as you mentioned, he

was severely wounded and treated in Moscow.

We also found number of different photographs of him together

with Russian soldiers, which, which, with young Russian soldiers that are

g- fighting against Ukraine and killing Ukrainians.

And this could not be anything but a deliberate strategy of Putin,

Ukrainian children among Russians, as, as they do it within the

kindergartens to assimilate them, to brainwash, and to

convince a child that this system is strong, and it will,

uh, break you down, and you should obey to it.

Also, apart from them, that we figured out that, uh,

as information becomes public, Russia eliminated and erased all,

uh, access to accounts of both Oleksandr

and his

wife because Russia clearly understand their intent and that the

evidence becomes public, and the crime that they committed and try,

they are trying

to hide this evidence from us.

So you're, you're describing here really

a multi-step process to, to abduct the children,

re-educate them, brainwash them in effect, and then try to

erase the records.

Are you aware of other similar cases?

Yes. Unfortunately, we do aware, we are aware of some

similar cases. We have rescued couple children,

couple young

adults who were already serving in Russian army, and we are

working hardly right now to investigate all information about Oleksandr and his

family because the very fact that he has been found in the Ukraine's

Children of War Registry means that there was a family who put this

record and who is probably waiting still for him and looking for him.

But the very hardest thing is that Oleksandr,

despite the fact that he was convinced that his own country does

not

exist, that he should go and fight for Putin and for- ...

his homeland, namely Russia, that came to liberate his territory,

uh, he's still very fortunate. Because unfortunately, as we are

fighting to reach and to rescue every single child from

Russian-occupied

territories, we still see that a lot of families of

young adults who are, been raised in occupation, the first

notice and information that they receive about their young adults

is

a obituary and this-

Yeah

... notice about the fact that their children were killed in Russian

army.

The numbers are staggering here because Save Ukraine, your organization,

says that some 1.6 million

Ukrainian children have come under threat since Russia's occupation

began. This goes back to 2014, the first Russian invasion, and

that nearly

20,000 children have been abducted since the full-scale

invasion. Do you fear, or do you believe that

there are many more children like Oleksandr?

Definitely. Unfortunately, we could not even imagine the scale,

and you are

right that for Russia, this 1.6 million children who

are under their control, in their captivity, is definitely a

generation of soldiers. And it should be treated from our

side e- uh, exactly that way, and that's why we understand

that Oleksandr's case shows what happen when we do

not reach a child at the time, and in, in right time.

And that's why time is definitely against us, and we

are fighting

every day at Save Ukraine to-

Yeah

... uh, locate, to identify these children,

to make covert routes for

them, and through the underground railroad

that we built, to rescue

them, to bring home, and to heal them.

Because unfortunately, uh, with every, every day, more and more

children are being abducted, first to military camps when,

when Russians are putting this huge narrative in their mind that they need to

grow up and fight against Ukraine and United States.

And more and more, they're staying in this system.

When child is separated from family, when they are

bro- breaking down, when they are forced to go and

be equipped w- and be prepared as a soldier, uh, more

and more

of them has, have to give up-

Yeah

... and then actually, uh-

Well-

... become in this system.

What a tragedy for the children and for their families as well.

Anastasia Dovhnia, thanks so much for joining

and telling us your

stories.

Thank you so much.