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WASHINGTON – When the Russian Army took Kherson in southern Ukraine, the occupation authorities offered 16-year-old Anastasia the chance to go to Crimea, a vacation away from the war, officials told her mother.
But after several weeks, Anastasia learned that she was not given a holiday and that the Russians would not let her return home.
It was only when a non-profit group, Save Ukraine, sent Anastasia’s mother on a bus to look for her that she was able to get out. He is currently living in a shelter run by the organization in Kyiv, the capital.
Anastasia says she loves her life and her family, as do the other children who live there.
“There are some people who feel sad because they have to leave their homes,” he said, on the condition that his last name not be used. “But we are also very happy because we know that there is more to life than a house that can be destroyed. Now we have a chance to move forward, move forward again.
In the 14 months since the Russian invasion, the US Agency for International Development has provided $18 billion in humanitarian aid to Ukraine, including about $15.5 billion in direct support to the government to support health care and education systems and repair the power grid. , which Russian forces have repeatedly targeted.
Beyond that assistance, American aid agencies have also sent funds to Ukrainian non-profits serving the war-torn population. Save Ukraine, founded after Russian forces invaded the country in 2014, is among them.
From the beginning, the goal was to move Ukrainians living in occupied territories or near fierce fighting to new shelters or homes.
Last May, with a grant from an aid agency, Save Ukraine set up a hotline to connect people affected by the invasion with medical and mental health care. The money also helps the group handle evacuation requests and provide psychological counseling and legal assistance.
With the second grant, Save Ukraine opened a day care center in Kherson for children traumatized by the occupation.
Overall, USAID has given $290,000 to Save Ukraine, just a drop in the bucket of overall US aid. But American officials say the Ukrainians have shown how well they can do what they are given.
“One of the most inspiring responses we’ve seen from Ukrainians is that they can do it on a shoestring,” said Isobel Coleman, the agency’s deputy administrator. “The money given, in the context of the billions given by the government, is very little. But this is a small organization that can do things effectively with a small amount of money.
Private American donors and companies have also given Save Ukraine about $7 million. The American non-profit organization, All Hands and Hearts, has provided money for 100 shelters and armored buses, cars and ambulances used to evacuate 74,000 Ukrainians from the front lines.
With the war now in its second year, Save Ukraine has expanded its mission. As Russia’s campaign to deport children from occupied territories in Ukraine came to light, the group began organizing rescues.
US funding does not go directly to these efforts, but the American government supports them.
“There is nothing more desperate than a parent who has been separated from his child; they will do everything they can to get the child back,” said Ms. Coleman. “And in the fog of war, there are few institutions that can help the parents and Save Ukraine has been a lifeline, to be able to track the children and find a way to back to parents.”
The Ukrainian government estimates that at least 16,000 children have been taken. Save Ukraine has rescued almost 100 people.
In March, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, saying he was criminally responsible for the kidnapping.
Rescue Impact Ukraine may be small in terms of numbers, but the rescuers give hope to parents like Veronika Tsymbolar, whose 8-year-old daughter, Marharyta Matiunina, was taken.
Marharyta lives with her father – ex-husband Ms. Tsymbolar – in a town near the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine when the Russian Army took over last year.
Russia blocks communications, cuts off Ms. Tsymbolar from contact with his daughter for a month. When the Ukrainians began to drive the Russians back through the river in the fall, Ms. Tsymbolar finally reached his ex-husband.
He first found a reason not to put Marharyta on the phone, he said. Ms. Tsymbolar then calls her former neighbors and learns a terrible story: Her daughter is missing.
“The only thing I can say is that I hate Russia and everything with all my heart,” he said.
A neighbor sympathetic to Moscow had fled with Marharyta when the Russian Army began to retreat.
In an interview, Oleksii Mitiunin, Ms. Tsymbolar’s ex-husband, said he started looking for his daughter just hours after she disappeared. He knew that the Russian Army would not let Marharyta pass the checkpoint, so the woman who took the child left him there.
Mr. Mitiunin said that he had tried to capture Marharyta, but “the Russians attacked me and told me to leave”.
Unable to find her own daughter, Ms. Tsymbolar contacted Save Ukraine. The group found the boy in Feodosiya, a resort town in Crimea.
In February, Ms. Tsymbolar boarded a bus with other mothers looking for their children. Once in Crimea, Russian officials refused to rescue Marharyta, but Ms. Tsymbolar insisted and they relented.
Ms. Tsymbolar believes her daughter’s abduction is part of a larger Russian campaign to brainwash children and erase their Ukrainian identity. But he says he feels very lucky to have been reunited, against long odds.
“Marharyta is fine,” said Ms. Tsymbolar. “He’s at home.”
Asya Shtefan contributed reporting from Kyiv.
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