The Children Of Kharkiv Were Sent To A Summer Camp In Russia. They Never Came Back.

and September 20, 2022 at 11:41 am EDT Some Ukrainian parents sent their children to camps in Russia to escape months of violent occupation. Now, as Ukraine reclaims territory, children have been excluded. (Video: Whitney Shefte, Jon Gerberg/The Washington Post) IZYUM, Ukraine — The last time parents saw their children, they were boarding buses to Russia — to a summer camp near the beach. It was August 27, and after months of enduring some of the worst conditions imaginable, families in this devastated town held by Russian forces since March had enrolled their children for a camp in Gelendzhik, a Russian resort town. in the Black Sea. They hoped the camp, advertised in Russian propaganda news agencies, would give their children a break from the war and a semblance of normalcy. Days later, Ukrainian forces unexpectedly invaded and regained control of Izyum and other occupied areas of the Kharkiv region. The surprise advance forced Russian troops and Ukrainian collaborators to flee, abandoning much of their equipment as they went. Residents of Izyum celebrated the successful counterattack, which reignited hopes that the tide of war was turning in Ukraine’s favor. But the advance also left children who traveled to the camp in Russia stranded on the other side of a dangerous front line with no clear way home. The Washington Post met about a dozen parents from Izyum with children now stuck in Russia at the camp. Parents said about 200 children from various towns and villages in the Kharkiv region traveled there in August and were supposed to be returning home by bus last week. Most phone and internet services have been disrupted in Izyum, leaving parents largely unable to contact their children directly as they now frantically search for ways to bring them back. Many parents spoke on condition of anonymity for this article, citing concerns it could hurt their chances of safely retrieving their children. Others hoped that speaking out would give them a better chance of bringing the children home. Torture, murder, kidnapping: Russian retreat from Izyum reveals horror Many also expressed concerns that publicizing that their children traveled to a camp in Russia could spark accusations that their families collaborated with Russian forces. “I have only one thing on my mind: to get my child back,” said a woman whose 12-year-old son is in the camp. He said he last spoke to him directly 10 days ago. It may be easy for those who did not survive the occupation in Izyum to claim that families should have known better than to send their children to Russia, the parents said. But they insisted the decision was not political — and only reflected their wishes to allow their children a sense of normal childhood after surviving bombings, sleeping in basements, washing with snow and rainwater, eating meager rations and in some cases , were injured during the occupation. Vera, 38, who spoke on condition that she use only her first name, sent her 15-year-old son, Dima, to the camp in the hope that it would help him recover physically and mentally after a cluster munition bombing. Vera cried as she recalled how a bomb had fallen in the same room where her son and his friend had tried to hide from the attack, badly injuring them. The friend was evacuated for further medical treatment, and Dima stayed in Izyum, where doctors removed shrapnel from his limbs. But he never mentally recovered from the incident. “The kid was all stressed out,” she said. “Now she’s afraid of every little noise or rattle.” Vera said she feared her son and the other children could be mistreated in Russia because of their Ukrainian nationality. But when he briefly got a phone connection, he managed to get on the phone with Dima and saw “how blackened he was”. He assured her that no one was harassing them. “They really rest well there,” he said. However, “the child wants to come home.” “I shouldn’t have gone,” Dima remembers saying in their last call. On Monday, several mothers gathered at 10 am in a corner in Izyum to discuss ideas on how to bring their children home. Without a telephone network, they share information through neighbors, by word of mouth, which makes it difficult to organize and seek help from volunteers or Ukrainian officials. Some mothers have stood near Ukrainian army bases and connected to their Starlink networks to send messages to their children. On Monday, the mothers compiled a list of the names and ages of 29 children from Izyum who they knew were still in the camp. Some parents have reportedly already traveled out of the area to try to retrieve their children themselves. Others said they could not afford such a trip and that traveling through Europe to Russia would require international passports, which they do not have. Volodymyr Matsokyn, the deputy mayor of Izyum, who recently returned to the occupied city, said in a text message on Tuesday that officials have a full list of children in the camp and are “currently working on this issue together with state agencies.” . “We will definitely return the children, whatever the cost,” Matsokin said, noting that it will be important for international organizations “to help Ukraine return our youngest citizens back to their homeland.” Of the 200 children attending the camp in Gelendzhik, he said, 80 are from Izyum. He added: “Russia violates international law and human rights, neglects it, creates propaganda stories for Russians who are fooled by these lies about loving and protecting little Ukrainians. It’s disgusting.” The letters left behind by disillusioned Russian soldiers as they fled Throughout the summer, at least two groups of children from the Kharkiv region went to similar camps and returned home, the parents said, creating a sense of confidence that the camps were safe and not a ploy to permanently move children deep within Russian territory. (Russia has been accused of forcibly relocating thousands of Ukrainians.) The decision to send their children to the camp also reflected a sense of confidence among Russian troops and officials that they had already effectively annexed the territory they controlled in Kharkiv — a miscalculation that apparently contributed to the surprise success of the Ukrainian offensive. Attending summer camp is a common rite of passage in Russia and Ukraine, and some of the children attending this camp previously attended summer camps in Ukraine before the war, the parents said. The camps seemed well-run and required routine medical checks as part of the registration process, parents said. Anatoliy Kovalenko, 58, a general surgeon and head doctor at a hospital in Izyum, said he performed routine health checks on 10 to 15 children he later learned had traveled to the camp. Russian publicity promises an idyllic, rejuvenating experience. “Parents who wish to improve the health of their children at children’s health camps in the Russian Federation should contact the Ministry of Education of the city of Izyum at 4 Vasylkyvskoho Street from Monday to Saturday between 10:00 and 15:00,” it says in a camp. advertisement in Russian edition newspaper distributed in Izyum. “Bring the child’s birth certificate with you.” An article about the camps featured pictures of smiling children and said they were “resting safely” in Medvezhonok, which the paper described as “one of the best places in Russia, on the Black Sea coast”. Other children attended camps in Crimea, the peninsula jutting out into the Black Sea, one article said. Vitaliy Ganchev, the Russian-appointed head of the Kharkiv region’s military-civil administration, was quoted as saying it was the first time children could vacation in Crimea and other regions “for free and in an organized way, especially the August. high season.” “This is an invaluable experience for them,” the article read. “It is impossible to overestimate the help that Russia provides us.” Officials intended to send “at least 800 more small residents of Kharkiv to rest,” the article said. When they left in August, the children packed light clothes for the summer weather. This week, Dima told his mother that the camp will be extended until October 10 and that the children will start school. They also expected to receive warmer clothing and move into a heated building, he said. “Since Russia was still here, they had to come back here,” Vera said. “And then when Ukraine came in here, they said, ‘We’re extending the term for another 21 days.’ “ A woman who gathered with other mothers on Monday, but declined to be named because of safety concerns, said her teenage daughter understands “it’s going to be harder for them to come back” now that the lines of control have changed. Breakaway regions are pushing to join Russia as the war effort falters Initially, the parents had zero interest in the Russian camps. “At first there was no question of sending them,” said the mother. “Then the first team went and came back and the second team went and came back.” She eventually sent her daughter to the camp because she was “psychologically damaged” from months of war. Now that Izyum is back under Ukraine’s control and the children are stranded in Russia, “no one really feels sorry for us,” he said. For some observers, the simple fact that they stayed in Izyum throughout the occupation “means we are partners,” he said. Advertising that they had sent their children to a camp in Russia would fuel such suspicions, he said. In May, Olya Yemelyanskaya’s home was hit by shelling, setting it on fire and destroying most of it – including her teenage foster daughter’s bedroom. When she heard about the camp on Russian radio, Yemelyanskaya said: “We only had one thought…