Russian soldiers and agents have been caught on CCTV stalking the premises of a Ukrainian orphanage, apparently seeking children to take.
Throughout the 10-month invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces have repeatedly been accused of deporting Ukrainian children to Russia or Russian-held territories.
The video footage shows men from Russia’s secret police, FSB, with armed soldiers carrying rifles entering the building. The armed Russian can be seen entering rooms on the premises according to the footage, gathered by Sky News.
Authorities in charge of the orphanage said that they had evacuated the children ahead of time. Volodymyr Sahaidak, the director of an orphanage in the village of Stepanivka outside Kherson, said that he started “hiding children because we understood they would take them", calling it the “scariest thing”.
At least 52 orphans were sent to the care of local people before the Russian soldiers arrived he said. Mr Sahaidak told Sky News that the children’s files were confiscated by Russians hoping to find their whereabouts.
The men confiscated all the files relating to children and it is also alleged they also stole computers along with files because they could not figure out where the children were,
The 61-year-old placed some of the children with seven of his staff, others were taken to distant relatives and some of the older ones remained with him, he said. “It seemed that if I did not hide my children they would simply be taken away from me,” he added.
The Ukrainian government alleges that 13,000 children have been deported or abducted during the war.
Suspecting Russians of seizing orphan children and sending them to Russia, the staff at the children’s regional hospital in Kherson city began fabricating orphans’ medical records to make it appear like they were too ill to move.
At least 1,000 children were seized from schools and orphanages in the Kherson region during Russia’s eight-month occupation of the area, local authorities have said.
