Return of four children with their parents to the territory of Ukraine

This time, an entire family was taken to the territory of free Ukraine: four children with their parents. The children are Kostik (8 years old), Maxim (7 years old), Andrey (5 years old) and their one-year-old brother Damir, who was born in April 2022. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the family has had to live in the part of the Kherson region that is still under occupation. The removal became possible thanks to the efforts of the Ukrainian Child Rights Network (UCRN) and the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine.

This is an ordinary family who, two months into the great war, tried to leave the occupied Kherson region with a baby and three other young children in their arms. They were traveling in their own car. But they were not allowed to leave. Eventually they ran out of gas and decided to return. The decision turned out to be a life-saving one. As soon as they returned, they learned that the convoy they were traveling with had been shot.

The family couldn’t leave for a long time: they couldn’t afford it, including financially.

The older boys went to school. They were used to writing in Ukrainian, but they had to get used to Russian. In general, it was difficult for them to study in Russian. They experienced a specific stress. However, they are children, and they tried to adapt.

Eventually, the parents turned to the UMD for help and decided to leave.

“The road home was long. Their bus broke down, they stood at the border for a long time, in the rain. But they were lucky that they have four children: they were not checked as long and thoroughly as others are usually checked. They say that when they saw the Ukrainian border, they started crying. Like everyone else who returns from deportation, they are fleeing the occupation,” says Oleksandra, a social work specialist in the Way Home project, who was in charge of this return case and met the family from the train.

Kherson residents came to Ivano-Frankivsk to visit their relatives. They will start from scratch. They will send their children to Ukrainian schools and kindergartens. They will look for new housing and live – live anew. Because they could not stay where they had stood on their own feet and given birth to their children – heavy shelling began.

“When we were leaving the occupation, we didn’t tell anyone – neither my mother nor my grandmother. We knew that no one would let them go. We did not want hysteria, but support that we could not hope for Oleksandra says. – So when they crossed the border and told us, they told their relatives. And they heard my favorite from us: “Welcome home!”

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“The Way Home” is a project aimed at finding and returning children displaced to Russia or to the non-government controlled areas of Ukraine, as well as reuniting families whose children are without parents during the occupation. The project is implemented by the Ukrainian Child Rights Network in partnership with the international humanitarian organization Save the Children in Ukraine.

Our other partners are: Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, EDUKIDS Charitable Foundation, Media Initiative for Human Rights.

Join the “WAY HOME” project and make your contribution to the return of children, as it requires considerable resources.

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The materials developed within the project do not necessarily reflect the official position of Save the Children.