Kyiv, Ukraine – When the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Denys Kostev was 18 and living in an orphanage in Kherson. Appalled by the war, he used to film social media videos decrying the invading Russian forces. But he was soon forcibly transferred to occupied Crimea, and his rhetoric suddenly went in the other direction.
Now in Kyiv four years later, Kostev told Al Jazeera he played the role of a poster child for wartime Russia just to survive. Sprightly, eloquent and photogenic, he used to attend a theatre club at his orphanage in the southern Ukrainian city, where he lived after his mother’s incarceration and death. The experience helped him “star” in numerous videos for Russian television networks – because refusing to be filmed meant risking physical assault or being threatened with jail, he said.
Tanks rolled into Kherson days after the war began. People suspected of pro-Ukrainian sympathies were rounded up and interrogated. Some were allegedly abused.
In late 2022, while at the orphanage, Kostev also studied in a trade school. But as the war intensified, he and others were relocated to the Luchisty (“Full of Sunshine”) summer camp in Russia-annexed Crimea. Ukraine is working to return allegedly abducted children and collect evidence against individuals suspected of being involved in their capture.
More than 2,600 children have returned so far. The summer camp’s “administration” has not responded to Al Jazeera’s request for comment. Kyiv said that 84 Ukrainian orphans were held there in 2023.
Those who left were among almost 4,000 children forcibly taken from orphanages in Russia-occupied Ukrainian regions, according to Ukrainian rights groups. Kyiv claims that Moscow has herded almost 20,000 Ukrainian minors to Russia to “brainwash” them during the war. While the Kremlin acknowledges that children are being “re-educated”, it rejects Ukraine’s claims, saying that any children who have been moved were rescued from war zones.
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