Maria Lvova-Belova, Putin’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, boasts that 700,000 Ukrainian children have been taken to Russia “for their safety.” Among Russia’s War Crimes, kidnapping Ukraine’s children may be the cruelest. Sadly, it exists on a horrific scale.
The anguish of these children’s families is hard to imagine, but what about the experience of the children who were actually kidnapped? Only a few have been rescued, but here’s the experience of two Ukrainian children who were victims of this crime.
Sergiy Koldin was 11 and his sister Ksenia 17 when they were kidnapped and sent to Russia two years ago. The Russians separated the children, and they ended up 900 miles apart. As Ksenia explained in a recent in person interview, the two didn’t see each other for nine months. “It was the worst nine months of my life,” she said.
During her time in captivity, the Russians allowed Ksenia to continue her studies, but there was a constant diet of brainwashing. For example, they tried to convince her that Russia had to invade Ukraine. The reason? They told her Ukraine had been on the brink of invading Russia and Russia had to defend itself.
In Ksenia’s case, the brainwashing didn’t take. She’d sit in a class in her school room, telling herself, “Ukraine is going to win!” And then she’d repeat silently the phrase in her own language that countless Ukrainians still use, “Slava Ukraini!” It means, “Glory to Ukraine!” Her attitude was that her captors could say whatever they wanted, it wasn’t going to change her mind about them or about Ukraine.
Ksenia was fortunate because nine months into her ordeal, she learned of a secret hot line to Save Ukraine. This organization is dedicated to rescuing Ukrainian children from Russian captivity. It’s a modern-day version of the Underground Railroad that before the American Civil War helped slaves escape from their Southern masters.
The people she talked with on the hot line gave her the joyous news that they could help her escape. “But I can’t leave,” she told them. “I don’t want to go without my little brother!” Since her brother was 900 miles away, this was a problem.
Mykola Kuleba from Save Ukraine, takes up Ksenia’s story. “We were able to find little Sergiy,” Mykola begins. “but the immediate problem was, Sergiy didn’t want to come back.”
“I need to stay here!” Sergiy told Kuleba. As Kuleba learned his Russian captors had convinced him that Ukraine was full of Nazis who wanted to kill him.
Kuleba had heard this story or one similar to it many times. “The Russian strategy is to brainwash the abducted children and to teach them to hate Ukraine. They’re taught to sing Russian patriotic songs, to idolize Putin, and that the evil Ukrainians will rape and kill any girls or boys who try to return to Ukraine.”
Eventually, between Kuleba and Ksenia, Sergiy decided he wanted to return to his homeland. Using means that can’t be disclosed, the two children were repatriated to Ukraine.
However, the psychological trauma they had endured plus the indoctrination meant that returning them to their homes wasn’t enough. “Our mission,” explains Kuleba, “is not only to find these kids and return them to their homeland, but also to provide support for the various mental health problems they’re enduring after the trauma of being ripped from their families and their homeland.”
Ksenia is now 19 and still recovering from that ordeal. However, she’s more than willing to talk about it with this reporter. She wants others to know what the Russians did to her and her brother.
Ksenia and her brother are safe now, but what about the almost countless other children who have been abducted, and who are today being taught to hate and fear their homeland? And what about their grieving parents?
As time passes, the hundreds of thousands of abducted Ukrainian children will forget that they are Ukrainian. The will be taught to hate their homeland. They may even end up in the Russian army, conscripted to fight against the people who gave them birth.
Ukraine needs to win this war and be freed from this kind of oppression. It’s possibly the cruelest that can be imagined.
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Mitzi Perdue is a businesswoman, author, anti-human trafficking advocate, and journalist reporting from and about Ukraine. She has visited multiple times, has many local contacts, and has published more than 95 articles. She holds a bachelor of arts degree, with honors, from Harvard University and a master’s degree from George Washington University.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.