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Three Kherson Boys Taken to Crimea for “Re-Education” Resist Russian Indoctrination, Return Home
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![Amira_barkhush]( "Amira Barkhush")
Russians took three boys from the Kherson region to a camp in temporarily occupied Crimea in 2022 for “re-education.” However, they staged a rebellion and attempted to resist. Eventually, they were returned to Ukraine.
This was reported in a Politico article published on March 26.
Vladyslav, Denys, and Rostyslav ended up at the “Druzhba” camp, located in temporarily occupied Crimea, at different times.
Such camps, set up by Russia across occupied Ukrainian territories, were intended to strip the children’s Ukrainian identity and push pro-Russian propaganda. The news agency wrote that according to estimates, nearly 20,000 children were abducted and brought to such camps.
Denys was transported to the camp a month before the de-occupation of Kherson, in October 2022. Along with him, 300 other children were initially transported by ferry to the village of Oleshky, and from there, they were taken by bus to Crimea. Denys' classmate, Serhiy, was also taken along.
Upon arrival at the camp, located near Yevpatoria, they were greeted by Valeriy Astakhov, the camp’s security head, who turned out to be a former member of the Berkut special police unit . According to the boys, Astakhov mistreated them, beat them, locked them in the basement, and threatened to send some of them to a psychiatric hospital.
The boys told Politico that their rebellion against the camp’s system began almost immediately. They tried to avoid the daily ritual of singing the Russian anthem in the camp’s square, fled to a nearby store to avoid eating camp food, and later began locking themselves in their rooms and refusing to leave, despite threats from the camp authorities.
Eventually, the boys were transferred to the “Luchisty” camp, also in Crimea, and later to the Kerch Marine Technical College, where they remained until July 2023. At this new location, they were offered Russian citizenship and money, but they refused.
The organization Save Ukraine helped bring the boys back. Serhiy’s mother reached out to them for assistance. All the boys were successfully returned to Ukraine through Belarus. They walked the final kilometers along the Belarusian-Ukrainian border.
In an interview published on March 26, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that one of Kyiv’s main priorities during recent ceasefire negotiations with the United States in Saudi Arabia was the return of Ukrainian children who were illegally deported to Russia.
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-21d0b63c17f6020e4df75f6c6f9a2f4f.jpg "Ivan Khomenko")
