Tried for 76 days: grandmother saves grandson deported by Russians

Ukraine brought home Mykyta Bilanchuk, a 9-year-old boy deported by the Russians from Ukraine, at the beginning of September. He now lives with his grandmother in Poland. Source: hromadske

Details: The child was freed from the occupation with the participation of hromadske journalists and the Save Ukraine fund.

Mykyta was a student at the Oleshky boarding school for children with disabilities in 2022. There he underwent rehabilitation before going to school. The boy's father was supposed to take him home in March 2022, but he did not make it in time: the school was under occupation.

The Russians took the children to occupied Crimea, then transported them to Russia, and from there to the occupied Skadovsk, the territory of Ukraine.  The Russians took 105 Ukrainian children together with Mykyta.

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In April 2023, hromadske journalists found and verified the lists of deported boarding school students.

After that, they started calling everyone who might turn out to be the parents or relatives of the children, to find out if people are ready to take their children if the volunteers of the Save Ukraine fund will help organise the process, and the journalists will accompany the fund at every stage. Thus, in June 2023, hromadske journalists found Polina Kindra, the grandmother of Mykyta Bilanchuk who was deported from Ukraine. The woman lives in Poland.

Polina came to Kyiv at the beginning of June. The volunteers of the Save Ukraine Foundation helped the woman collect all the necessary documents and plan the route. Afterwards, the woman went to occupied Skadovsk to pick up the child.

All this time she was in contact with hromadske journalists. Polina Kindra spent 76 days trying to get her grandson back. Several times the woman came to the boarding house and was refused.

Polina underwent a DNA test at the request of the Russians. It confirmed that she is the boy's grandmother. The Russians and the so-called head of the boarding school, Vitalii Suk, forced her to obtain a Russian passport.

At the beginning of September 2023, Polina Kindra came to attempt to pick up Mykyta for the third time.

The boy was given to her in front of dozens of cameras by Maria Lvova-Belova, the Children's Rights Commissioner for the President of the Russian Federation, who is wanted internationally for the systematic kidnapping of Ukrainian children.

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