The Ukrainian government has verified the identities of 20,651 children it says have been taken by Russia since the war began in February 2022, but estimates the true number to be much higher. Save Ukraine has brought home more than 1,700 children from Russia and occupied territories.
Increasingly, the team is rescuing boys like 17-year-old Bogdan, who fled his village near the frontline in the Russian-occupied Kherson region with two foster parents and three other teens. The journey back to Ukrainian-controlled territory requires travelling through Russia and its close ally Belarus — a distance of more than a thousand kilometres.
Save Ukraine says Russian border agents and Belarusian checkpoints seek any opportunity to prevent Ukrainians from leaving. About 1.6 million Ukrainian children are living under Russian control along Ukraine's eastern flank, where indoctrination and military training are carried out on a mass scale. Boys approaching 18 are especially vulnerable to being forced to sign contracts and sent to fight.
'They draft the boys, force them to sign a contract, and send them to war,' Fedosenko said.
The organisation operates on encrypted communication, coordinating rapid extractions before conscription officers can act. The source article noted that the text was cut off before completion, but the urgency and scale of the crisis are clear.