NASTYA'S nightmare began when she was kidnapped by Putin's child snatchers aged just 15 as she made her way home with a friend.
But it would only be the start of a harrowing ordeal for the teenager who became one of thousands of Ukrainian children rounded up by Russian forces and forcibly moved into areas under Moscow‘s control since the start of the war.
The youngsters are forced into sinister camps where they are starved, tortured and “brainwashed” into becoming Russian citizens.
Once they receive their citizenship, they are placed with new families as part of a shadowy adoption process that sees them lost in the system with new names and documentation.
Nastya was living in Kherson Oblast when it was seized by Putin's fighters at the beginning of the war in March 2022.
Days before Kherson was liberated that November, she and a friend decided to visit her pal's mother in Henichesk, a town that was then under Russian occupation.
The pair were waved through the checkpoints without hesitation.
She[foster parent] took me in, and I thought everything would be fine. But in that family, I was abused. I was beaten and humiliated.
Nastya
But when they tried to return home two days later, they were accused of feeding information back to Ukraine about the Russian forces.
Nastya told Flying Eze: “They ordered us to go to the police station. They took out our phones for inspection.
“We were told to provide identification documents. I didn't have mine with me as I only had a digital version on my phone.
“They wiped our phones so I couldn't provide my documents anymore. They promised that if we provided documents that day, we would be released and allowed to return home to Kherson. But they lied.
“They took us to an unknown woman's home and kept our phones.”
After two or three weeks, Nastya's friend was rescued by her grandmother and Nastya was left alone to fend for herself.
Nastya's family back in Kherson were desperate to find out what had happened to her, but the teenager was moved several times by her Russian capturers.
Vlad's sick soldiers even warned her: “We will take everything”.
She added: “The police told me they would declare me an orphan, give me a Russian birth certificate and passport, and I would be an orphan.
“While they were searching for a foster family for me, I stayed at the woman's house.”
She says the cruel woman, who was also caring for ten other kids, abused and beat her until she was sent back to the police station where she had originally been held.
Nastya said: “The [first] woman decided to take me under her guardianship because she felt sorry for me.
“She took me in, and I thought everything would be fine. But in that family, I was abused. I was beaten and humiliated.”
‘You are nothing'
Nastya was then enrolled in College No.27 in Russian-occupied Henichesk, a port city in Kherson Oblast where a friend who had been sent to live in Crimea had been studying.
She says: “The dormitory conditions were terrible.
“There was no heating or anything decent. The walls were freezing, everything was cold, the windows and doors let in drafts.”
Nastya recalled how every Monday, students were forced to raise the Russian flag while singing the national anthem.
Terrified children were threatened to be sent to “the basement” if they didn't memorise the anthem's words.
She says kids were also sent there for singing the national anthem of their homeland instead in a defiant stand against the guards.
In the dormitory, “the basement” referred to a place where children were beaten, tortured and interrogated.
Nastya was told by Russian soldiers: “You are nothing. Ukraine is nothing.
“Soon this won't be Ukraine anymore, but Russia – we will take everything over soon.”
From that moment, Nastya was placed under strict surveillance, and Russian soldiers would enter the girls' room without knocking whenever they pleased – even when the girls were bathing or undressed.
They told the children that if they returned to Kherson, they would be killed as soon as they arrived.
The cruel soldiers constantly taunted the youngsters and told them their parents would never come for them, urging them to stop hoping for rescue and to accept their new lives.
“Despite this, I studied and the conditions were still better than in the foster family where I was abused,” Nastya said.
“I lived in the dormitory and then they assigned Russian soldiers to guard the place.
“We were allowed to take a shower only twice a week. Then the water ran out, so my friend, my roommate Liza, and I had to wash in a basin.
“Soldiers walked in [when] Liza was naked in the basin, and I was wrapped in a towel.
“They acted like they didn't notice anything, but the next day they mocked us and humiliated us over it.
“At night, they shone flashlights in our faces while we were sleeping, checking our pupils to see if we were smoking or drinking.”
Snatcher visit
Putin's sick children's commissioner Lvova-Belova visited the school in a twisted bid to get the youngsters to sign up to Vlad's youth army – or to study in Moscow.
In March 2023, arrest warrants for Putin and Lvova-Belova were issued by the International Criminal Court.
Russia attempted to denounce the warrants as “outrageous and unacceptable”.
Lvova-Belova has portrayed the forced deportation of Ukrainian children as a Russian rescue mission since being appointed Putin's children's commissioner in 2021.
She adopted at least 18 children and also has five biological kids with her husband, a Russian Orthodox priest.
They[Russians] pushed me to the point where I wanted to die.
Nastya
Footage previously emerged of Lvova-Belova bragging as she talked about “adopting” a boy from Mariupol during a meeting with Putin.
Despite the warrant, Lvova-Belova is still actively involved in the scheme and regularly visits Ukrainian children.
Nastya felt compelled to sign documents indicating what she wanted to study when prompted by Lvova-Belova.
“Paratroopers came to visit those who had agreed to join the Young Army,” she said.
“They explained where they would be trained and what to expect.
“After the paratroopers left, another military unit arrived, and those who had agreed to join the Young Army were made to swear an oath that they would never betray Russia. They also had to sign documents.”
Eventually, Nastya was able to find a phone and make a call to her mother, who tracked down volunteers in Ukraine to help get her home.
“After the school found out that we were leaving and returning to Ukraine, they started harassing us,” Nastya said.
“They told us that we were Russian children, that we would always be Russian children and that they would not let us go because we belonged to them, the Russian government.
“They wanted to issue me a Russian passport but since I didn't have any documents with me, that saved me. They couldn't issue one for me.
“Me and Liza were constantly bullied by other students. They pushed me to the point where I wanted to die.”
Finally home
Nastya was rescued from Russia's grip in May 2023 with the help of Volodymyr Zelensky's initiative Bring Kids Back UA and the Save Ukraine team.
She is now a happy and healthy 17-year-old living in Ukraine with her grandmother and loved ones.
Under the 1948 Geneva Conventions, forcibly transferring children and changing those children's nationality or civil status is considered a war crime.
But it is feared Russia could be using the shady adoption scheme as a cover-up to kidnap Ukrainian children, change their names and give them Russian passports.
Dozens of Ukrainian children have been piled onto planes bound for Russia before being put into camps.
The deportation of Ukrainian children started when the Kremlin invaded Crimea in 2014 and annexed it.
The programme was founded by Putin’s celeb doctor Elizaveta Glinka – known in Russia as Doctor Liza, who was accused of abducting children by the Ukrainian government.
She was believed to be behind the first transfer of children from Donetsk to Russia in December 2014 and 500 more in the following two years.
'I was snatched by Russian soldier'
ILLIA, 11, was deported from Mariupol after a Russian missile strike killed his mother and left him with horror shrapnel wounds when he was nine.
His neighbours buried his mum's body in their back garden before he was snatched by Vlad's soldiers and taken for surgery at a camp in Donestk.
The shrapnel was removed without any anaesthetic and forced to write and speak Russian and repeat “Glory to Ukraine as part of Russia”.
He says Russian forces tried to turn him into a “propaganda tool” but that he is not “one to be duped so easily.”
Illia's grandmother had been searching for her grandson ever since losing contact with her daughter in March 2022.
It wasn't until they spotted the young boy in a video from Russia that she realised he was alone and that her daughter had been killed.
His grandmother never gave up hope and set about getting her injured grandson back home where he belonged.
Months later, Illia returned home to Ukraine and had further surgery to remove more fragments from his leg while 11 remain.
His grandmother Olena said: “He had a school, he had a home, he had a mother and he lost all of that – his entire childhood.
“He kept to himself, he was afraid of noise, he was afraid of sirens. He had no memory.
He now has dreams of becoming a doctor so that he can help fighters on the frontline as a combat medic.
A recent report by the United Nation's Human Rights Office said Russia had inflicted unimaginable suffering on millions of Ukrainian children and violated their rights since the start of the war.
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk said: “Their rights have been undermined in every aspect of life, leaving deep scars, both physical and psychosocial.”
Some children had to take part in military-patriotic training, including singing the Russian anthem, and to follow the Russian school curriculum – in violation of international humanitarian law.
The report added: “In the four regions of Ukraine that were illegally annexed by the Russian Federation in 2022, children have been particularly affected by violations of international human rights law.”
It said this included “summary executions, arbitrary detention, conflict-related sexual violence, torture and ill-treatment.”
You're Not Alone
EVERY 90 minutes in the UK a life is lost to suicide
It doesn’t discriminate, touching the lives of people in every corner of society – from the homeless and unemployed to builders and doctors, reality stars and footballers.
It’s the biggest killer of people under the age of 35, more deadly than cancer and car crashes.
And men are three times more likely to take their own life than women.
Yet it’s rarely spoken of, a taboo that threatens to continue its deadly rampage unless we all stop and take notice, now.
That is why Flying Eze launched the You’re Not Alone campaign.
The aim is that by sharing practical advice, raising awareness and breaking down the barriers people face when talking about their mental health, we can all do our bit to help save lives.
Let’s all vow to ask for help when we need it, and listen out for others... You’re Not Alone.
If you, or anyone you know, needs help dealing with mental health problems, the following organisations provide support:
- CALM,www.thecalmzone.net, 0800 585 858
- Heads Together,www.headstogether.org.uk
- HUMENwww.wearehumen.org
- Mind,www.mind.org.uk, 0300 123 3393
- Papyrus,www.papyrus-uk.org, 0800 068 41 41
- Samaritans,www.samaritans.org, 116 123
