Children, most of them orphans, who were trapped in a sanatorium in Mariupol, a Ukrainian port besieged by Russian forces, were taken to one of the two pro-Russian separatist capitals in eastern Ukraine, relatives told AFP today.
A total of 19 children and teenagers, aged 4 to 17, lived for about two weeks in the icy basements of this sanatorium, which specializes in treating lung disease, while Russian rockets fell not far from the building.
Living in the Donetsk region, in cities not far from Mariupol (southeast), the children were sent to this sanatorium before the Russian offensive began on February 24.
Olga Lopatkina, the guardian of six children among them, had requested their removal from there and their transfer to Europe, where she has taken refuge at the moment.
But today, one of them called her to tell her that they had been transferred to Donetsk, the capital of a “democracy” of rebels currently under Russian control, she said, adding that the children had been admitted to a hospital there.
“I do not know how to get them back now,” Lopatkina said, adding that the conversation was short and no adults had contacted her to let them know where the children were now.
Alexei Volostsuk, a relative of a sanatorium official who had been there for some time before leaving Mariupol, said Russian troops had prevented the children from being transported to Zaporizhia, a city controlled by Ukrainian troops.
According to him, a local elected official went there to transport the children by ambulance through a humanitarian corridor, but during an inspection at a checkpoint in Berdyansk, Russian soldiers decided to send the children to Donetsk because they come from this area.
The French Agency could not contact the sanatorium because all communications have been cut off in Mariupol.
Most of the children came from orphanages in the Donetsk region, but from the part of it that escaped the control of the separatists of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DNR).
The Geneva-based TB-based charity Stop TB expressed concern about the children’s fate, and its chief executive said he was “in despair” at the difficulty of getting them out of war zones. .
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