KHERSON, Ukraine — Hours after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, health staff at a children’s hospital within the south began secretly planning how one can save the babies.
Russians were suspected of seizing orphan children and sending them to Russia, so staff at the youngsters’s regional hospital in Kherson city began fabricating orphans’ medical records to make it seem like they were too in poor health to maneuver.
“We deliberately wrote false information that the youngsters were sick and will not be transported,” said Dr. Olga Pilyarska, head of intensive care. “We were scared that (the Russians) would discover … (but) we decided that we’d save the youngsters at any cost.”
Throughout the war Russians have been accused of deporting Ukrainian children to Russia or Russian-held territories to boost them as their very own. No less than 1,000 children were seized from schools and orphanages within the Kherson region during Russia’s eight-month occupation of the realm, say local authorities. Their whereabouts are still unknown.
But residents say much more children would have gone missing had it not been for the efforts of some in the neighborhood who risked their lives to cover as many children as they might.
On the hospital in Kherson, staff invented diseases for 11 abandoned babies under their care, so that they wouldn’t have to present them to the orphanage where they knew they’d be given Russian documents and potentially taken away. One baby had “pulmonary bleeding”, one other “uncontrollable convulsions” and one other needed “artificial ventilation,” said Pilyarska of the fake records.
On the outskirts of Kherson within the village of Stepanivka, Volodymyr Sahaidak the director of a middle for social and psychological rehabilitation, was also falsifying paperwork to cover 52 orphaned and vulnerable children. The 61-year-old placed a few of the children with seven of his staff, others were taken to distant relatives and a few of the older ones remained with him, he said. “It seemed that if I didn’t hide my children they might simply be taken away from me,” he said.
But moving them around wasn’t easy. After Russia occupied Kherson and far of the region in March, they began separating orphans at checkpoints, forcing Sahaidak to get creative about how one can transport them. In a single instance he faked records saying that a gaggle of children had received treatment within the hospital and were being taken by their aunt to be reunited with their mother who was nine months pregnant and waiting for them on the opposite side of the river, he said.
While Sahaidak managed to stave off the Russians, not all children were as lucky. Within the orphanage in Kherson — where the hospital would have sent the 11 babies — some 50 children were evacuated in October and allegedly taken to Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, a security guard on the institution and neighbors told The Associated Press.
“A bus got here with the inscription Z (a logo painted on Russian vehicles) and so they were taken away,” said Anastasiia Kovalenko, who lives nearby.
Initially of the invasion, a neighborhood aid group tried to cover the youngsters in a church however the Russians found them several months later, returned them to the orphanage after which evacuated them, said locals.
Earlier this yr, The Associated Press reported that Russia is trying to present hundreds of Ukrainian children to Russian families for foster care or adoption. The AP found that officials have deported Ukrainian children to Russia or Russian-held territories without consent, lied to them that they weren’t wanted by their parents, used them for propaganda, and given them Russian families and citizenship.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, says Russian officials are conducting a deliberate depopulation campaign in occupied parts of Ukraine and deporting children under the guise of medical rehabilitation schemes and adoption programs.
Russian authorities have repeatedly said that moving children to Russia is meant to guard them from hostilities. The Russian Foreign Ministry has rejected the claims that the country is seizing and deporting the youngsters. It has noted that the authorities are trying to find relatives of parentless children left in Ukraine to seek out opportunities to send them home when possible
Russian children’s rights ombudswoman Maria Lvova-Belova personally oversaw moving tons of of orphans from Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine for adoption by Russian families. She has claimed that a few of the children were offered a chance to return to Ukraine but refused to accomplish that. Her statement couldn’t be independently verified.
UNICEF’s Europe and Central Asia child protection regional adviser, Aaron Greenberg, said that until the fate of a toddler’s parents or other close relatives may be verified, each separated child is taken into account to have living close relatives, and an assessment should be led by authorities within the countries where the youngsters are positioned.
Local and national security and law enforcement are searching for the youngsters who were moved but they still don’t know what happened to them, said Galina Lugova, head of Kherson’s military administration. “We have no idea the fate of those children … we have no idea where the youngsters from orphanages or from our instructional institutions are, and this can be a problem,” she said.
For now, much of the burden is falling on locals to seek out and convey them home.
In July, the Russians brought 15 children from the front lines within the nearby region of Mykolaiv to Sahaidak’s rehabilitation center after which on to Russia, he said. With the assistance of foreigners and volunteers, he managed to trace them down and get them to Georgia, he said. Sahaidak wouldn’t provide further details concerning the operation for fear of jeopardizing it, but said the youngsters are expected to return to Ukraine in the approaching weeks.
For some, the specter of Russia deporting children has brought unexpected results. In October when there have been signs that the Russians were retreating, Tetiana Pavelko, a nurse at the youngsters’s hospital, fearful they’d take the babies with them. Unable to bear children of her own, the 43-year-old rushed to the ward and adopted a 10-month-old girl.
Wiping tears of joy from her cheeks, Pavelko said she named the child Kira after a Christian martyr. “She helped people, healed and performed many miracles,” she said.
KHERSON, Ukraine — Hours after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, health staff at a children’s hospital within the south began secretly planning how one can save the babies.
Russians were suspected of seizing orphan children and sending them to Russia, so staff at the youngsters’s regional hospital in Kherson city began fabricating orphans’ medical records to make it seem like they were too in poor health to maneuver.
“We deliberately wrote false information that the youngsters were sick and will not be transported,” said Dr. Olga Pilyarska, head of intensive care. “We were scared that (the Russians) would discover … (but) we decided that we’d save the youngsters at any cost.”
Throughout the war Russians have been accused of deporting Ukrainian children to Russia or Russian-held territories to boost them as their very own. No less than 1,000 children were seized from schools and orphanages within the Kherson region during Russia’s eight-month occupation of the realm, say local authorities. Their whereabouts are still unknown.
But residents say much more children would have gone missing had it not been for the efforts of some in the neighborhood who risked their lives to cover as many children as they might.
On the hospital in Kherson, staff invented diseases for 11 abandoned babies under their care, so that they wouldn’t have to present them to the orphanage where they knew they’d be given Russian documents and potentially taken away. One baby had “pulmonary bleeding”, one other “uncontrollable convulsions” and one other needed “artificial ventilation,” said Pilyarska of the fake records.
On the outskirts of Kherson within the village of Stepanivka, Volodymyr Sahaidak the director of a middle for social and psychological rehabilitation, was also falsifying paperwork to cover 52 orphaned and vulnerable children. The 61-year-old placed a few of the children with seven of his staff, others were taken to distant relatives and a few of the older ones remained with him, he said. “It seemed that if I didn’t hide my children they might simply be taken away from me,” he said.
But moving them around wasn’t easy. After Russia occupied Kherson and far of the region in March, they began separating orphans at checkpoints, forcing Sahaidak to get creative about how one can transport them. In a single instance he faked records saying that a gaggle of children had received treatment within the hospital and were being taken by their aunt to be reunited with their mother who was nine months pregnant and waiting for them on the opposite side of the river, he said.
While Sahaidak managed to stave off the Russians, not all children were as lucky. Within the orphanage in Kherson — where the hospital would have sent the 11 babies — some 50 children were evacuated in October and allegedly taken to Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, a security guard on the institution and neighbors told The Associated Press.
“A bus got here with the inscription Z (a logo painted on Russian vehicles) and so they were taken away,” said Anastasiia Kovalenko, who lives nearby.
Initially of the invasion, a neighborhood aid group tried to cover the youngsters in a church however the Russians found them several months later, returned them to the orphanage after which evacuated them, said locals.
Earlier this yr, The Associated Press reported that Russia is trying to present hundreds of Ukrainian children to Russian families for foster care or adoption. The AP found that officials have deported Ukrainian children to Russia or Russian-held territories without consent, lied to them that they weren’t wanted by their parents, used them for propaganda, and given them Russian families and citizenship.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, says Russian officials are conducting a deliberate depopulation campaign in occupied parts of Ukraine and deporting children under the guise of medical rehabilitation schemes and adoption programs.
Russian authorities have repeatedly said that moving children to Russia is meant to guard them from hostilities. The Russian Foreign Ministry has rejected the claims that the country is seizing and deporting the youngsters. It has noted that the authorities are trying to find relatives of parentless children left in Ukraine to seek out opportunities to send them home when possible
Russian children’s rights ombudswoman Maria Lvova-Belova personally oversaw moving tons of of orphans from Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine for adoption by Russian families. She has claimed that a few of the children were offered a chance to return to Ukraine but refused to accomplish that. Her statement couldn’t be independently verified.
UNICEF’s Europe and Central Asia child protection regional adviser, Aaron Greenberg, said that until the fate of a toddler’s parents or other close relatives may be verified, each separated child is taken into account to have living close relatives, and an assessment should be led by authorities within the countries where the youngsters are positioned.
Local and national security and law enforcement are searching for the youngsters who were moved but they still don’t know what happened to them, said Galina Lugova, head of Kherson’s military administration. “We have no idea the fate of those children … we have no idea where the youngsters from orphanages or from our instructional institutions are, and this can be a problem,” she said.
For now, much of the burden is falling on locals to seek out and convey them home.
In July, the Russians brought 15 children from the front lines within the nearby region of Mykolaiv to Sahaidak’s rehabilitation center after which on to Russia, he said. With the assistance of foreigners and volunteers, he managed to trace them down and get them to Georgia, he said. Sahaidak wouldn’t provide further details concerning the operation for fear of jeopardizing it, but said the youngsters are expected to return to Ukraine in the approaching weeks.
For some, the specter of Russia deporting children has brought unexpected results. In October when there have been signs that the Russians were retreating, Tetiana Pavelko, a nurse at the youngsters’s hospital, fearful they’d take the babies with them. Unable to bear children of her own, the 43-year-old rushed to the ward and adopted a 10-month-old girl.
Wiping tears of joy from her cheeks, Pavelko said she named the child Kira after a Christian martyr. “She helped people, healed and performed many miracles,” she said.
