Russia’s invasion left thousands of Ukrainian children stranded in Russia. For one 12-year-old girl, the only way out of her occupied village led away from her mother.
In October, Meduza’s publishing house released ”Stolen Youth: How Russia Kidnaps Ukrainian Children — And How Ukrainians Get Them Back.” Written by Russian journalist Nina Nazarova and Ukrainian journalist Sviatoslav Khomenko, the book was published with support from the StraightForward Foundation. From the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the authors tracked how thousands of…
On February 24, 2022, a phone call awakened Veronika Vlasova, a 12-year-old girl from the village of Pylna near Kharkiv. It was her mother, Nina Vlasova, who had last seen her daughter the previous day. Nina, a former soldier, had moved to Kharkiv to run a small business, but she promised Veronika she would return by lunchtime the next day.
When Veronika arrived at her aunt's house in the neighboring village of Borysivka, she was met with the horrifying sound of a crash. Minutes later, Russian television broadcasted an emergency address by Vladimir Putin, who declared Russia's "special military operation" to "protect people subjected to genocide by the Kyiv regime." This declaration marked the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
As the explosions and shelling began, Veronika and her relatives sought shelter in a pit in her aunt's yard. Veronika called her mother, who was already at a Ukrainian army checkpoint on the outskirts of Kharkiv, desperately trying to break through the dangerous situation to reach her daughter. Nina, unable to argue with the Russian forces, returned to Kharkiv without her daughter.
Written by urgent.news from Meduza (English)'s reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
