Reuters identifies five children abducted by Russians from the temporarily occupied territories

The Russians abducted students of Henichesk Vocational School No. 27 in the temporarily occupied territory of the Kherson region in the south of Ukraine. Among them were Liza Batsura, Zorik and Danylo Ibrian, Illia Vashchenko and Marharyta Prokopenko.  

This is stated in the Reuters investigation.

The teenagers spent several months in camps in the temporarily occupied Crimea. The staff of the educational institutions forbade them to wear blue and yellow colours and forced them to learn the Russian anthem. At night, Russian soldiers patrolled the camps, entering the teenagers' rooms to check for alcohol and other contraband.

Currently, Illia Vashchenko, who is four years old, is in the territory of the Russian Federation. The Russians issued him a new Russian birth certificate. The boy's exact whereabouts are unknown, and there is no information on his adoption. 

Two-year-old Marharyta Prokopenko was adopted by Sergei Mironov, the leader of a pro-Kremlin political party, and his wife, Inna Varlamova. Marharyta's name was changed to Marina Mironova. 

Zorik Ibrian, who is 17 years old, is in the temporarily occupied Henichesk. Russians use him in propaganda videos with the Russian flag. 

Danylo, Zorik's older brother, is 19 years old and has recently moved into his apartment in the Krasnodar region of south Russia. He received 100,000 rubles from Russia. 

Liza Batsura managed to return to Ukraine. She currently lives with her mother in Kyiv. According to her, the deported children lived in the Druzhba camp, where they were forced to follow a strict schedule. A child who disobeyed or showed any allegiance to Ukraine would be threatened with a beating. 

“One thing that they taught us was that our parents won’t come to pick us up from there,” she said, reciting the message the camp’s directors and staff drilled into them. “They won’t be able to because we’re not their children anymore.” The kids now belonged to the Russians, “and our parents don’t need us.”

According to the media outlet, about a dozen other Kherson children were placed in the Opushkin children's tuberculosis sanatorium. The sanatorium is 24 km from the temporarily occupied Simferopol in Crimea. However, the children do not have tuberculosis.

The occupation authorities of Crimea have declared information about the deported Ukrainian orphans confidential. The so-called "head" of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, ordered to immediately inform about any requests from Western media about the deported children.

During the stay in the occupied camp, Liza met with the Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, who told her that the teenagers would receive 100,000 rubles and an apartment when they turned 18 if they stayed in the Russian-occupied territory. They were also offered to study at Moscow universities. The teenage boys were also offered places in the Russian military academy. According to Liza, several of the boys have already received Russian passports.

"The deportations have come at an enormous human cost: siblings have been separated, vulnerable youths have been turned against each other, and preschool children - with no blood relatives to claim them - have been hidden from view in Russian-held territory," the media outlet reports. 

It will be recalled that as of January 14, 2024, Russians abducted about 19,546 children during the full-scale invasion. 388 have been returned.