“They locked her up, tracked where she was going.” Daria Kasyanova tells about rescuing a girl from occupation

Darya Kasyanova, chairman of the board of the Ukrainian Child Rights Network and program director of the SOS Children’s Villages of Ukraine charity foundation, told Pryazovia News how her team helps return Ukrainian children who have been occupied or taken to Russia.

According to her, each case is a separate, carefully planned operation, and some cases require not only legal and psychological assistance, but also real courage.

“One of the most recent stories is a girl we took out of Zaporizhzhia region, her mother died in the summer, and her father is a military man, he was in Ukraine, he is fighting. Her aunt, who tried to take her, was simply not allowed into the occupation. Her relatives were with the girl, but these relatives cooperate with the Russian authorities and they categorically did not want her to go, so they took her documents away. It was very difficult, because she was locked up there, forbidden to leave the house, and they tracked where she was going and for how long. We took her out when our man came to pick her up,” Kasyanova said.

According to Daria, the child has suffered a serious psychological trauma and needs the help of specialists.

“She tells horrible things, that girls she knows were raped there, that children refuse to go to school, children refuse to get Russian passports, about the coercion that goes on at school. So, unfortunately, the situation is very difficult. In fact, children themselves are afraid to leave, there is active propaganda and intimidation of both children and adults. As for the possibility of leaving, it is now possible only through the territory of Belarus, and then either to Ukraine or Poland. So it’s very difficult,” she added.

Daria Kasyanova also noted that children who have already been taken to Russia often have a better chance of returning than those who remain in the occupied Ukrainian territories.

“Today, it is almost impossible to get out of the occupied territories, for example, from Melitopol. There are a lot of soldiers there, a lot of checkpoints. At each checkpoint, there is a lot of attention to any children who are traveling, even with their parents. Therefore, this issue is very complicated and it is now included in the negotiation process – all children must be returned, all our occupied territories must be opened to allow them to leave,” she emphasized.

Another problem is the cost of leaving. Even if the family is ready to take this step, it requires a lot of money.

“It’s also very expensive, even if the family is ready to leave – you need at least $500 per person to leave the occupied territory. If it’s a family of four, you need to find $2,000 somewhere to leave. We have cases where parents were leaving with their children, the children were taken away, and the parents were taken by the police to investigate. It’s good that there was a grandmother who came and took these children,” Kasyanova said.

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