'Russian army took us away,' Ukrainian teenager told CBS News

Khmelnytsky, Ukraine — As war in Ukraine plagues, the Kiev government warns that Russia has kidnapped thousands of children, They accuse him of taking them to Russian-controlled territory. Ukraine says Russia is trying to force its children to be Russian, but as CBS News correspondent Chris Livesey discovered, the children were rescued and brought home.

He met Maxim and Ivan in his dorm room, with the Ukrainian flag proudly displayed on the wall. Although they listened to Ukrainian music and wore traditional Ukrainian clothes, the two boys were forced to be almost Russian. took us away," Ivan, 16, told Livesay.

He and his 15-year-old Maxim were living in an orphanage in the southern Ukraine city of Mariupol when Russian invading forces arrived. . The boys tried to escape but were captured by Russian forces and held with about 20 children, including an 8-year-old.

"Have you ever been afraid that you might not be able to go home?" Livesay he asked Ivan.

"I had an idea, yes," he said. ``I thought I couldn't go back to Ukraine until I was 18.''

Ukrainian officials say Russia is systematically stealing the country's children and stripping them of their identities.

"Russia continues to kidnap Ukrainian children," Ukraine's ambassador to the UN, Sergiy Kislitsa, told international organizations in May. "Illegally adopted by Russian citizens after being deported to Russia."

Russian television is in Russian-controlled territory, claiming he was saved, not kidnapped. It aired a video of Ukrainian children.

In one video, a Russian Children's Rights Commissioner told Vladimir Putin privately that Russian citizens "have big hearts and are lining up to take their children." ing.

"Very good," replied the Russian leader, vowing to eliminate delays in the process.

State by State Clip TV, Russian officials are proposing to place children like Ivan and Maxim in military boarding schools across the country. The prime minister told CBS News:

She told Livesay that she was "very hard" when she talked about the children brought to Russia. Some of the children may have had their parents killed by Russian invaders. "It's my destiny to bring them home."

That's exactly what she does. 

Vereshchuk assisted her relatives and guardians in tracking down the children, one by one, after which they have negotiated the return of Many come home with immeasurable trauma.

"A 12-year-old girl had to dig a hole to bury her mother," Vereshchuk told her CBS News. "They also tried to bury her brother, but his corpse was too heavy to drag. I have seen little children with gray hair. They turned white during this war Only."

But children like Ivan and Maxim are lucky because they managed to escape. In the case of the two boys, it was thanks to the guardian of an orphanage in Mariupol, Anton Viray.

"I couldn't leave them behind," he told his Livesay.
 
To save them would not mean crossing a deadly frontline, but through Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and then into Russia. did. A 70-hour journey by bus, he arrived shortly after dawn.

"I was afraid that I would be caught. I know that many Ukrainians do not pass through the so-called 'filtration' of Russia and are caught. I knew it could happen to me...but the kids wanted...to go back to Ukraine.

Maxim said he was asleep when the bus with Anton stopped.

"When I met Anton, I hugged him. I was so happy," the boy told CBS News. "We hadn't seen each other for a long time."

After more than two months of captivity, the boys returned safely to Khmelnytsky, a city in western Ukraine. CBS News saw Ivan send a message to his friend Philip, another kidnapped Ukrainian orphan, but not yet rescued.

He was sent to an orphanage in Moscow.

Ivan asked his friend if he still wanted to return to Ukraine.

"Exactly the same," replied Philip.

Like many Ukrainian children, he has no one left to go home to.

Within:
• War
• Ukraine
• Russia
• War Crimes
• Vladimir Putin
• Kidnapping
• Child Abduction