- Title: PERSONAL: Ukrainian orphans taste freedom after fleeing Russian occupation
- Date: 4th August 2023
- Summary: KYIV UKRAINE (AUGUST 2, 2023) (REUTERS) GIRL TAKING BAGS OUT OF CHARITY FOUNDATION "SAVE UKRAINE" EVACUATION BUS RECENTLY ORPHANED ILONA PAVLIUK, 16, HIDING HER FACE FROM CAMERA AS SHE WALKS TOWARDS HOSTEL (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) 16-YEAR-OLD ILONA PAVLIUK, SAYING: "I was driving when I saw (a sign reading) "Ukraine". I wanted to cry so much. Since the war began, I wanted t
- Embargoed: 18th August 2023 13:25
- Keywords: children occupation orphans personal russia ukraine war
- Location: KYIV, UKRAINE
- City: KYIV, UKRAINE
- Country: Ukraine
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Europe,Military Conflicts
- Reuters ID: LVA001230304082023RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: After nearly a year and a half locked away in hiding under Russian occupation, followed by a daring escape last month, 16-year old Ilona Pavliuk could hardly believe it was ok to just stop and play.
Her ailing father had kept Ilona and her brother Maksym, 15, hidden in the house since the Russians came to their village, Pishchane, on the south bank of the Dinpro River, at the start of their invasion last year.
At a hostel in Kyiv, Ilona recounted that she couldn't go anywhere, because her father was worried. He said that the Russians could rape her. Or kill her: there had been such cases.
Last month, their father finally died of AIDS, the same illness that killed their mother a decade ago, leaving them orphans.
President Vladimir Putin claims to have annexed Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine. Moscow says it has gathered hundreds of thousands of orphans and vulnerable children there, taking them to Russia for their safety.
Ukraine says this amounts to forced deportation to erase the Ukrainian identity of a generation of children, a crime against humanity for which Putin has already been indicted by the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
Ilona and Maksym were able to escape with the help of Save Ukraine, a charity that maintains an underground network inside occupied parts of Ukraine and Russia itself, helping children flee. It says it has rescued 200 children so far.
Children whose parents die are the most urgent cases, because the Russian-installed occupation authorities will swiftly impose legal guardianship, said Save Ukraine's founder, Mykola Kuleba.
Save Ukraine moved fast for Maksym and Ilona. Within days of their father's death, volunteers inside Russian-held territory helped the children flee, first to Russia itself, then to Belarus, then across the border and home at last to Ukraine. Details of the journey are kept confidential to protect activists along the route.
Ilona and Maksym are now living at the group's Kyiv hostel. Once they have Ukrainian passports sorted, they will go stay with their late father's ex-wife, now a refugee in Slovakia.
For Ilona, it only hit home that she was safe at last when she saw the border guard who let her enter Ukraine at the Belarus border. A fresh tear rolls down her cheek as she recalls how she wept on her arrival.
(Production: Stefaniia Bern, Ivan Lyubysh-Kirdey) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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