The Orphans of Maliutka: The Story of a Large-Scale Kidnapping of Ukrainian Children

Photo: Patrice Senécal Le Devoir L'église de Kherson où les enfants ont été cachés par le personnel de l'orphelinat puis découverts par les Russes.

Children’s laughter escapes from an austere church courtyard, against the muffled sound of explosions. Young people are scarce in Kherson, this frontline town now deserted by its inhabitants. But in this place of worship transformed into a daycare, people continue to have fun despite the din of war. “It allows them to meet up, to take their minds off things,” explains Nataliia, a manager of the place welcoming young Ukrainians aged 5 to 14, who wishes to give only her first name for security reasons. “Some don’t say a word, a sign of post-traumatic shock. But by socializing, they manage to regain their childish air after a few weeks.”

In Kherson, the occupation has left invisible wounds, as here, in this church bordered by a pretty flower garden. Nataliia, on the other hand, is not very talkative about the history of the place, which conceals silent torments. So, it is Halyna, at her side, her former colleague, who makes it her duty to tell everything.

Both were working at the orphanage in Maliutka, a stone’s throw away, when Russia launched its all-out war against Ukraine in February 2022. “In the first days of the invasion,” says Halyna, “we took the children to the basement of this church.” A real commotion was organized to save the fifty or so newborns and children, all under the age of five. “It was the unknown, we didn’t know where to go and we didn’t want to try to evacuate the city and risk getting killed,” says the elegantly dressed 57-year-old Ukrainian.

In Kherson, conquered by Russian forces in a matter of days, everyone was taken by surprise. They had to act quickly. It is there, in the crypt, that ordinary heroism will be displayed, on the part of inhabitants like Halyna, to protect the children from the occupier; there too that their tragic fate will later be sealed, caught in the cogs of this machine of expulsions orchestrated by Moscow.

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War crime

The occupation lasted, the children took up residence in the church. But three months later, in May 2022, Russian forces discovered their hiding place. “They then took the children back to the orphanage,” says Halyna, who at the time was no longer working there, refusing to cooperate with the Russian army. Very quickly, the occupier appointed a loyal collaborator to head the establishment. Moscow’s troops deployed their propaganda apparatus there, with great staged scenes, under the eye of cameras. The objective: to trumpet the story of a supposedly saving Russia, the opposite of a Ukraine that neglected its own children. “But to tell the truth, few people wanted to work with the Russians. They threatened to torture any employee who dared to oppose the new management.” »

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At the same time, in the region, a major Ukrainian counter-offensive is being organized. When Kherson is liberated in November 2022, the Russian soldiers flee. But not alone. In the wake of their retreat, they organize a real kidnapping of children, by the hundreds. “They claimed that they had to be evacuated, freed,” says Halyna. “They took the children from Malioutka, put them on buses, and left. »

Where are these boys and girls two years later ? In occupied Crimea ? In Moscow ? “In many cases, there is no trace of them,” she sighs. But sometimes fragments of this large-scale kidnapping emerge on the Web. The former official shows the photo on her phone of little Ilya, a boy with a sad look whom she had taken care of: in April 2024, it was learned that he was in the hands of a new kidnapper, Sergei Mironov, a deputy of the Russian Duma. The man has since apparently gotten rid of him, due to an “unknown illness” diagnosed in Ilya. Vanished into thin air, once again.

This text is part of our Perspectives section.

In kyiv’s opinion, this is a forced Russification operation, a way of erasing the Ukrainian identity of these children torn from their country forever. A war crime that also indicts Vladimir Putin himself, targeted by an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court in March 2023. Compared to the more than 20,000 cases of kidnapping organized under the rule of the Russian authorities, in nearly three years, the damned of Maliutka are a drop in the ocean.

Today, the orphanage is nothing but silence, its former employees are out of work. “Maybe they will end up joining the pediatric hospital,” Halyna suggests. But it is the fate of the missing children that torments her the most. “We had become affectionate with them. No one expected this war, waged by a country with which we have coexisted for a long time. No one imagined that it could be capable of such a thing. »

With Katerina Sviderska

This report was funded with support from the Transat International Journalism Fund-Le Devoir.

Reading Safe from Bombs

In Kherson, solidarity is unfolding underground. Maryna Tchyzhova, a slender 20-year-old woman, goes down to the basement of an anonymous building that has a shelf full of books. This is where some of the city’s idle youth continue to educate themselves, finding an escape through reading. Thanks to her “Book Shelter” initiative and her small team “dedicated to providing places for young people to live,” twenty-six bomb shelters in Kherson have been converted into libraries. “We can’t reveal their locations, because the slightest bit of information could be used by the Russians to carry out a strike,” emphasizes this Kiev native. “We try to attract teenagers, but it’s hard to get them out of isolation when the future is unclear.” Contrary to a local population that prefers to flee, Maryna has chosen to make Kherson her second home, out of love. “I feel useful here. When I return to kyiv, there is no sense of war.”