DailyExpertNews
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Before Russia’s war against Ukraine began, Kira Obedinsky was a cheerful, beloved 12-year-old girl. Now orphaned, wounded and alone in a Russian-controlled hospital in eastern Ukraine, she has become an unwitting pawn in Moscow’s information war.
Obedinsky’s mother died when she was a baby. Her father Yevhen Obedinsky, a former captain of the Ukrainian national water polo team, was shot dead on March 17 as Russian troops pushed their way into the southeastern city of Mariupol.
Days later, Kira and her father’s friend tried to flee the city on foot along with 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 Kira’s grandfather, Oleksander, fears he will never see her again. He said an official of the breakaway government in Donetsk called and invited him to travel there to claim her, which is impossible because of the war.
He says he spoke to the hospital and was told that Kira will eventually be sent to an orphanage in Russia.
The Russian government has said it has helped bring at least 60,000 Ukrainian people to safety across the Russian border. The Ukrainian government has said about 40,000 people have been relocated against their will, describing it as kidnapping and forced deportation.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has said 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 to Russian territory after Russian troops blocked safe passage into Ukrainian-occupied territory and moved evacuees to distant parts of Russia against their will.
Speaking to DailyExpertNews, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of forcing people fleeing Mariupol into Russia.
“Several thousands, tens of thousands have been forced to evacuate towards the Russian Federation and we don’t know where they are, they have left no trail of documents,” the president told DailyExpertNews.
“And among them are several thousand children, we want to know what happened to them. Whether they are in good health. Unfortunately, there is simply no information about this.”
Moscow has denounced claims of forced deportations as lies, claiming that Ukraine has hindered its efforts to “evacuate” people to Russia.
But DailyExpertNews has spoken to a number of Ukrainians who said they were given only two options: go to Russia or die. In interviews with 10 people, including local Mariupol residents and their loved ones, many describe Russian and DPR soldiers descending into air raid shelters and ordering those inside to leave immediately.
No one knew where they were being taken. Five were eventually sent to Russia; three have since come out.
Ukrainian and US officials and independent human rights monitors also claimed that Russian and separatist forces are processing tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians through so-called “filtration camps” where they are biometrically screened and their phones and documents seized before being sent to Russia.
Oleksander said the Russians also took Kira’s documents and said she would get new documents in Russia.
Russian media, which have repeatedly downplayed the brutality of the conflict in Ukraine, have shown video of Kira gaily talking about what she is sometimes allowed to call her grandfather.
This is “proof” that she was not kidnapped, according to a Russian TV host, who called the allegation another “Ukrainian fake”.
Meanwhile, Oleksander has received an audio message from Kira telling him not to cry. But the young girl who lost her family, her freedom and her home in the war in Russia cannot hold back her own tears.
“I haven’t seen you in so long,” she says. “I want to cry.”