Imagine being held captive for months, forced to take Russian citizenship,and undergoing awful living conditions where you were originally planning on going on a vacation. Two young girls originally from Ukraine, were abducted by Russia during the Ukrainian-Russian war. This is just one example of an effect of the Ukrainian-Russian war, especially on children, who are being torn from their families with over 19,000 identified cases. The two young girls that experienced this firsthand escaped, and on March 17th , 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest-warrant for President Putin and his commissioner for children’s rights.
They are also being held liable for the intense illegal exportation of Ukrainian children to Russia. The names of the two girls are Nastya Mitrofanova, and Masha Senchuck, who originally received an offer for a two-week vacation in Crimea Peninsula. A month later they were unable to return home, and then were transported to a Russian-run “boarding school” with thousands of other children also abducted from Ukraine. They reached out to the governments and agencies for help by taking footage at the “boarding school” but were told they would have to try to escape themselves; they made an excuse that they needed travel for a wedding and escaped captivity by the Russians. Later, investigators found the footage, and President Putin was issued an arrest-warrant for children’s rights. Unfortunately,only several hundred out of the thousands of children held in Russian custody have been evacuated.
Sources:
https://www.cjr.org/analysis/ukrainian-journalists-under-attack.php
