By Peter April
Posted yesterday at 7:49pm, updated yesterday at 7:53pm.
Russian troops occupied Kherson until November 2022. Olexandr Chornyi/AP
REPORTING – Young Ukrainians who managed to find their parents tell about the hell of Russian “holiday camps”.
Special Envoy for Kiev, Kherson, Krivyi Rih and Odessa
In the weeks leading up to the departure of Russian troops from Kherson on November 11, 2022, Svetlana, Taissa, Sonia, Iana and Nikita, aged 10-15, are offered a ten-day free stay in Crimea by their teachers. “You can recharge your batteries, rest and have fun,” explain the residents who offer them “beach and jacuzzi”. Others are warned: “If you don’t go, the Ukrainians will kill you.” The parents nod. Some welcome the initiative. Others put up with it. Under the supervision of the local Russian administration, convoys of buses set off.
The teenagers join the annexed peninsula, the former Soviet holiday camps Louchisty, Druzhba (“Friendship”) or Metchta (“Dream”) in the seaside resort of Yevpatoria. A few days later, as the Ukrainian advance becomes clearer, parents are presented with a fait accompli, sometimes …
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