Inside the operation to rescue Ukraine's abducted children

More than 19.000 kids have been deported to Russia. Their parents are trying to bring them back, one child at a time

di Veronika Melkozerova

In the yard of a local church in Kyiv, a gray minivan arrives, brandishing the sign “Evacuation. Children.” The doors are flung open and out jumps a fiery-haired woman in her 40s: Oksana Galkina.

«I got her! I finally brought my Liza back», she screams happily as she spots the volunteers of Save Ukraine, the Ngo that assisted her in carrying out the most formidable mission she’s ever embarked upon: rescuing her 16-year-old daughter, Liza, from the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.

In the company of a dozen other parents and legal guardians of kidnapped children, Galkina journeyed through the European Union, to Russia, and then into the Russian-occupied southern territories of Ukraine, finally returning back home. Their goal? Reclaiming the children Russia had wrenched from their arms.
Galkina’s story offers a glimpse at one of the horrors of the Ukrainian war: The forced transfer of thousands of children from Ukraine to Russia or Russian-occupied territories. While the exact numbers involved remain uncertain, according to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (Osce), the Ukrainian government has identified more than 19,000 children it says were deported to Russia. Liza is one of just 371 children that organizations like Save Ukraine and Ukraine’s Ombudsman’s Office have managed to rescue.

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