A few days later, Kiara and her father’s girlfriend try to escape the city on foot with the neighbors. But after being injured in a landmine explosion, Kira was taken to a hospital in the Donetsk region, which is controlled by Moscow-backed separatists.
Now Kiara’s grandfather Sikandar fears that he will never see her again. He said a separate government official in Donetsk called and invited him to travel there to make the claim, which is impossible because of the war.
He says he spoke to the hospital and was told that Kira would eventually be sent to an orphanage in Russia.
The Russian government says it has helped evacuate at least 60,000 Ukrainians across the Russian border. The Ukrainian government has said about 40,000 people have been relocated against their will and described it as abduction and forced deportation.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has said that more than 433,000 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Russia since February 24, when Russian forces invaded Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials have said thousands have been forcibly deported into Russian territory after Russian troops blocked safe passage into Ukrainian-occupied territory and moved evacuations to remote parts of Russia against their will.
“Several thousand, thousands were forced to evacuate in the direction of the Russian Federation and we don’t know where they are, they haven’t left any documents,” the president told CNN.
“And there are several thousand of them children, we want to know what happened to them. Are they in good health. Unfortunately, there is no information about this.”
Moscow has accused Ukraine of obstructing efforts to “pull out” people in Russia, saying false claims of forced deportation.
No one knew where they were being taken. Five were eventually sent to Russia; Three made it.
Ukrainian and US officials and independent human rights monitors also alleged that Russian and separatist troops are treating thousands of Ukrainian citizens through so-called “filtration camps”, where their biometrics are checked and their phones and documents sent. Huh. before it is confiscated. to Russia.
Oleksandr said the Russians had also snatched Kira’s documents and said that she would be provided with new documents in Russia.
The Russian media, which has repeatedly underestimated the brutality of the conflict in Ukraine, shows Kira happily talking about how she is sometimes allowed to call her grandfather.
This is “evidence” that she was not kidnapped, according to a Russian TV presenter, who dubbed the claim another “Ukrainian fake”.
Meanwhile, Sikandar receives an audio message from Kiara asking her not to cry. But this young woman, who lost her family, her freedom and her home in the war of Russia, is not able to hold back her tears.
“I haven’t seen you for so long”, she says. “I want to cry.”
CNN’s Nathan Hodge, Yulia Kesaeva, Eliza Mackintosh, Alexandra Ochman, Gianluca Mezzofor, Katie Polglas, Teale Reben, Anastasia Graham-Yul and Amy Cassidy contributed to this report.