Ukraine hospitals generate 'master plan' to save newborns from Russian military

Kherson (Ukraine): Hours after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, health workers at a children’s hospital at Kherson in eastern Ukraine began secretly planning how to save newborn babies.

These hospital employees suspected the Russians of confiscating orphans and shipping them to Russia, so staff at the children’s regional hospital in the city of Kherson in eastern Ukraine began falsifying the orphans’ medical records to make it appear as if they were too sick to move.

Dr Olga Pilarska, head of intensive care, said, “We deliberately wrote false information that the children were sick and could not be moved. We were scared that they (Russians) would find out but we decided that we will save the children at any cost.”

Throughout the war the Russians have been accused of deporting Ukrainian children to Russia or Russian-occupied territories to raise them as their own. Local officials say at least 1,000 children were confiscated from schools and orphanages during Russia’s eight-month occupation of the Kherson region of Ukraine. Their whereabouts are still unknown.

News agency AP quoted local people as saying that many more children would have gone missing, if some people of the community had not tried to hide as many children as possible, risking their lives.

Earlier this year, AP had reported that Russia is trying to give thousands of Ukrainian children to Russian families for foster care or adoption. The report claimed that authorities deported Ukrainian children to Russia or Russian-occupied territories without consent and lied to them that they were not wanted by their parents.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said that Russian authorities are conducting a deliberate disinformation campaign in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine and deporting children under the guise of medical rehabilitation schemes and adoption programs.

However, Russian officials have repeatedly stated that the purpose of taking the children to Russia is to protect them from hostilities. The Russian Foreign Ministry has rejected claims that the country is confiscating and deporting children.

“It has been noted that the authorities are looking for relatives of orphans abandoned in Ukraine in order to provide opportunities to send them home when possible,” the ministry said in a statement.

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