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WOMAN SPEAKS UKRAINIAN:

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BOY SPEAKS:

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WOMAN 2 SPEAKS:

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MAN SPEAKS:

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WOMAN 3 SPEAKS:

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GIRL SPEAKS:

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RALLYING SPEECH

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A MOTHER SPEAKS:

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EXPLOSION

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NARRATOR: On the first day
of Russia's invasion of Ukraine,

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its troops entered Kherson.

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On the city's outskirts,
Volodymyr Sahaidak ran an orphanage.

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He had 52 children under his care.

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Volodymyr decided to stay
with the children in the orphanage.

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With only two staff members,

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he relied on the older children
to help him.

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One of them was Denis, then 16.

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One of Denis' closest family friends
is his godmother, Olga.

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Denis entered the orphanage
after his mum died when he was six,

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and his father
was denied parental rights.

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VOLODYMYR SPEAKS:

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DENIS SPEAKS:

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GATE BUZZES

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Within months,
the Russian authorities

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had taken children
from other orphanages

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in Kherson to Russia
or occupied Crimea.

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VOLODYMYR SPEAKS:

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When the Russians occupied
the Kherson region,

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over a million Ukrainians
lived there.

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Among them was 14-year-old Kostya,

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living in a village
with his father and sisters.

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Under the strict curfew,

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they were allowed out
only to get food.

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KOSTYA SPEAKS:

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LIZA SPEAKS:

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Kostya says the soldiers
took him to a nearby basement

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where he was detained all night.

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His family thought Kostya had been
taken away by the Russian military.

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DOG BARKS

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Kostya's family were scared
the soldiers would return,

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so they'd already taken
what they could and fled.

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LIZA SPEAKS:

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By September, as the Russians
reopened local schools and colleges,

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more children
from the Kherson region

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were being caught up in the chaos.

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Danil, then 14, was happy
to be back with his classmates.

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DANIL SPEAKS:

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INTERVIEWER SPEAKS:

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14-year-old Diana,

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her sister Yana,
and their younger brother Nikita

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were also enrolled
in a Russian-controlled school.

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SIRENS BLARE

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RAPID GUNFIRE

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By October 2022,

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the Ukrainian army
were making progress

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in pushing the Russians
out of Kherson.

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MAN SHOUTS COMMAND

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INTENSE BOOM

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As shelling intensified,
some parents

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got offers from Russian officials

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to send their children
to holiday camps

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in Russia and Crimea for two weeks
to keep them safe.

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DANIL SPEAKS:

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ALLA SPEAKS:

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The camp was located
in Russian-occupied Crimea,

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nearly 200 miles from home.

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DANIL SPEAKS:

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Diana and her two younger siblings
went to the same camp, too.

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DIANA SPEAKS:

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VOLODYMYR SPEAKS:

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Among them were Denis
and some of his college friends.

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According to Denis,

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he was taken
by armed Russian soldiers

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and moved far away
to southern Russia.

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OLGA SPEAKS:

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At the holiday camp in Crimea,

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children had been looking forward
to going back home.

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But at the end of the two weeks,
the real situation became clear.

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ALLA SPEAKS:

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YANA SPEAKS:

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INTERVIEWER:

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Meanwhile, Kostya,

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who was still living in Kherson
with his neighbour Valya,

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had been asked to go to
a different camp in southern Russia.

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With communications damaged
by the fighting in Kherson,

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Kostya's family
couldn't get through to Valya.

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LIZA SPEAKS:

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Alla was anxiously trying to find
ways to bring her son, Danil, back.

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Denis, too,
had started calling his family

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saying he was desperate
to come back.

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Every spell...
Wingardium Leviosa!

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NARRATOR: As more and more families
lost contact with their children,

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they started calling charities
to get advice.

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The scale of the problem
soon became clear.

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KATERYNA SPEAKS:

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Oksana was one of the mothers
who contacted Save Ukraine,

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anxious to find and bring home
her 12-year-old son Nikita.

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Eventually, the Russians
reopened schools in the area

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and Oksana sent Nikita
back to his boarding school.

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It was on the other side
of the Oskil River,

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connected by a key bridge.

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DEEP BOOM

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But within the week,
a missile destroyed the bridge.

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Nikita's school was cut off
from Oksana's village.

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OKSANA SPEAKS:

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NIKITA SPEAKS:

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Olga's concerns for Denis
were also growing.

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Privately,
he had been phoning his family,

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pleading for them to bring him back.

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But now he started appearing
on Russian state television

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draped in a Russian flag.

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DENIS SPEAKS:

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VOLODYMYR SPEAKS:

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By now, the children from Kherson

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had been stuck in the Russian
holiday camp for four months,

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separated from their parents.

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LIZA SPEAKS:

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Diana and Yana's
ten-year-old brother Nikita

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was one of the youngest
camp members.

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NIKITA SPEAKS:

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LIZA SPEAKS:

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INTERVIEWER SPEAKS:

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INTERVIEWER SPEAKS:

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INTERVIEWER SPEAKS:

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The process of removing
Ukrainian children to Russia

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is headed by President Putin's
Commissioner for Children's Rights,

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Maria Lvova-Belova.

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Five months
after its invasion of Ukraine,

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the Russian government
fast-tracked the process

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of granting additional
Russian citizenship for Ukrainians,

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including all Ukrainian children
taken to Russia.

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As reports of missing children
began to circulate,

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The International Criminal Court
started to investigate

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potential war crimes.

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In March, the court issued warrants
for the arrest

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of Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova

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for the alleged unlawful deportation
and transfer of children

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from Ukraine.

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Lvova-Belova had herself fostered
a Ukrainian teenager from Mariupol.

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He's just one
of several Ukrainian children

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who have been shown on Russian TV.

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CROWD ROARS

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Some displays have been cruder,

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like this rally
involving other children

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from Mariupol, the city the Russians
occupied after a brutal offensive.

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In Ukraine,
lawyers are working with

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the International Criminal Court,

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trying to build a case
against Russia's removal

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of children from their country.

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They allege it's part
of a wider Russian strategy.

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With no direct contact
to the Russian authorities,

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Danil's mother, Alla,
and other families

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have decided to go
and get their children themselves -

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however risky.

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Mama!

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Ah!

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SHE MUMBLES

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Isn't it three years?

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Diana, Nikita and Yana also
finally made it back to Ukraine.

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CAMERAMAN:

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They now live in a shelter
in West Ukraine,

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with their parents.

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INTERVIEWER:

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After four long months
of separation,

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some parents and relatives were
managing to reach their children.

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But no-one had come for Kostya.

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He didn't know that his family
still had no idea where he was.

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Kostya's Russian foster family
was located

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over 500 miles
from his own family's village.

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INTERVIEWER:

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As Kostya's father
was too ill to travel,

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Liza volunteered.

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But she had to wait until
she turned 18 and had a passport.

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LIZA:

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INTERVIEWER:

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KOSTYA:

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With Denis's relatives
unable to travel to Russia,

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Olga, Denis's godmother,

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has volunteered to make
the difficult journey herself.

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But she can't do it without support,

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so she's come to the offices
of Save Ukraine.

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Olga is part of the same group
of women going to Russia as Oksana.

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It had been nine months
since Oksana had last seen her son.

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OKSANA:

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MYKOLA:

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HORN TOOTS

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OLGA:

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INTERVIEWER:

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OLGA:

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Olga and Oksana have embarked on
their rescue missions.

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They've gone via Poland and Belarus
to try to reach Moscow.

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INTERVIEWER:

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SHE SIGHS

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To add to Kateryna's worries,

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Denis had been in touch
with his family back home.

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Just three weeks
and we'll be in England.

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After a worrying 36 hours,

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during which
the Save Ukraine charity

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had no news about Olga,

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Kateryna was finally able
to make contact.

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OLGA CHUCKLES

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INTERVIEWER:

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INTERVIEWER:

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00:47:12,580 --> 00:47:14,580
INTERVIEWER:

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As weeks pass,
Denis is increasingly becoming

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a part of the Russian
propaganda machine.

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OLGA:

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Russia says that Olga
was denied access to Denis

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because they only give children back
to blood relatives

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or legal guardians,

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and because she didn't have
the required papers.

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After months of waiting,

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Russia's Commissioner
for Children's Rights,

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Maria Lvova-Belova,
has finally agreed

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to give her first interview
to a British broadcaster.

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She is facing
an international arrest warrant

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00:50:32,740 --> 00:50:35,740
for her part in the alleged
unlawful deportation

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of Ukrainian children
from their country.

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INTERVIEWER:

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00:51:42,020 --> 00:51:44,020
INTERVIEWER:

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00:52:53,220 --> 00:52:55,220
INTERVIEWER:

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00:54:24,420 --> 00:54:29,580
Maria, a mother of five, is also
an experienced foster parent.

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Some of the controversy around her
was sparked

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when she took 17-year-old Filipp
from Russian-occupied Mariupol

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into her own foster care,

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after the city had been flattened
by months of Russian shelling.

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We spoke with him in the presence of
Lvova-Belova's press officer.

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Filipp's mother died
when he was young,

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and he didn't know his father well,

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so he lived in foster care.

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When Filipp was brought to Russia,

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he was placed in
a rehabilitation centre

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outside Moscow.

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It was there that he met Maria.

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00:58:09,820 --> 00:58:13,700
Maria Lvova-Belova says
she has seen no evidence to support

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00:58:13,700 --> 00:58:16,900
the children's allegations
of mistreatment or poor conditions

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in the holiday camps.

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But Ukrainian officials
strongly dispute

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the claims she made in her interview

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00:58:25,300 --> 00:58:29,460
about Russia's efforts to facilitate
the return of Ukrainian children.

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No-one knows the exact numbers
of Ukrainian children

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who have been removed to Russia.

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However, Ukraine claims thousands
of children are involved.

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Lawyers here are working hard
to get them back.

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01:02:13,420 --> 01:02:15,180
INTERVIEWER: