An 18-year-old Ukrainian woman successfully returned to Ukraine from Russia after her family relocated her following the full-scale invasion, hromadske reported.
Before the war, the woman lived in an eastern Ukrainian city. She planned to enter university and spoke Ukrainian. Her family decided to move to Russia, despite her attempts to persuade them to relocate to another part of Ukraine.
After moving, she was forced by parents to attend two schools simultaneously — Ukrainian online and Russian in-person. She described the Russian schooling as “unbearable”.
“One classmate would not leave me alone,” she recalled. “He would run up and scream in my face: ‘Glory to Russia’, ‘Death to Ukrainians!'”
During one incident, when a dog was running around during a community work day, her classmate kicked the animal hard and shouted: “I am great Russia, and the dog is Ukraine!”
Despite constant pressure, she continued studying in the Ukrainian online school and kept contact with friends in Ukraine. Eventually, she realized she could not live in Russia and began planning her return.
She found work and saved money for travel. Volunteers helped her exit Russia. Her journey was challenging, involving interrogations at checkpoints by occupation services. Eventually, she successfully crossed the border.
“I cannot change my parents,” she said. “This is their life, they are used to it, they made their choice. I wish we could all be together in Kyiv, be a real family again. But all I hear is ‘you abandoned us’.”
Currently, her closest people are the volunteer who helped her leave and her boyfriend. She remains hurt that her “propaganda-poisoned family” is not with her.
In February, Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets reported that 600,000 children are currently on temporarily occupied territories. Only 7% of them study in Ukrainian schools.
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