Since the beginning of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, at least 20,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly deported to Russia, according to Ukrainian authorities. So far, they have managed to bring back 2,000 minors, a difficult process that, in some cases, has taken years, reports Euronews.
Among the survivors is Vlad Buriak, now 20 years old, who was 16 when he tried to evacuate from Melitopol, a city in the Zaporizhia region occupied by Russian forces in the early weeks of the invasion. On April 8, 2022, the car in which Vlad was traveling was stopped by Russian troops at a checkpoint in Vasilivka, the last checkpoint before Ukrainian-controlled territory.
“They accused me of filming them and pulled me out of the car,” Vlad recalled in an interview with Euronews.
“After they checked my documents and age, they put a gun to my temple: ‘Should I shoot you right now?’ I was very scared. I had no idea what to do in such a situation.”
Vlad was then taken to a filtration camp, a facility used by Russian forces for interrogations, detention, and forced deportation. He was later imprisoned in a police station jail, then taken back to Melitopol, to a hotel converted into a detention center.
He described shocking tasks, including cleaning torture rooms used against civilians and Ukrainian soldiers.
“One of my tasks was to clean the torture room. There was blood, bandages with medicines, and all sorts of other things. Most of the time I was cleaning the torture room,” Vlad said.
In addition, he helped in the kitchen, distributing food to detainees and maintaining other areas of the facility.
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