At the beginning of December, journalists from Slidstvo. Info" According to the monitoring results, which the journalists reflected in the video, children did not have access to education and medicine, were subjected to physical and psychological violence and were forced to appear in promotional videos to raise money. And this is in fact the reality of boarding schools, which does not change from moving to Turkey or anywhere else, noted Daria Kasyanova, Chairman of the Board of the Union of the Ukrainian Network for Children's Rights, in an interview with Alla Kotlyar for ZN. U.A..

“In March 2022, to representatives of the Ruslan Shostak Foundation, who were consulting on how all this could be organized, I said: simultaneously removing and placing in one place a large group of children, especially traumatized children who have experience in institutions, is always a problem, because in essence this is a “social ghetto”. I warned about the risks. About sexualized behavior, violence, abnormal methods of working with children, to which they will react abroad (otherwise these people don’t know how to work) - we talked about all this then,” adds Kasyanova.

She emphasized that the Shostak Foundation really saved thousands of Ukrainian children from war. And that's a fact. However, further, according to Kasyanova, responsibility depends on what exactly was organized, paid for and how this activity is positioned: as a transfer of assistance or an own project. From the beginning, the foundation positioned its activities everywhere, including in the media, as a large project “Childhood without war”. Famous people were attracted to him, thanks to which they raised funds to help children.

[see_also ids\u003d"

“Accordingly, there are certain policies that they had to implement and monitor. I have nothing against PR and fundraising, because I understand: all this requires money. But if we spend money, we must provide normal conditions for these children,” adds Kasyanova.

At the same time, she emphasized that conditions are not only food, accommodation and fresh air. This also includes safety.. And everyone who works with children or is with them, including in a hotel, should be instructed. It was necessary to teach what cruel treatment, sexualized behavior is, what the psychology of an orphan and deprived of parental care is, how to react to certain manifestations in these children, how to protect them.

" But I saw that the foundation had already made a statement, they took responsibility and stated that they were ready to work on it. And thank God,” says Kasyanova.

At the same time, she was unable to investigate the reaction of the Dnepropetrovsk civil-military administration, which issued permission to export these children abroad. In addition, according to Shostak, the OVGA itself turned to his foundation for help.

Kasyanova also noted that she lacked the position of the Ministry of Social Policy, the State Service for Children, and the National Social Service. After all, since March 15, 2022, all approvals for groups of children to leave Ukraine were given by these structures. According to her, it was impossible to just take a large group of children and go abroad..

“Generally speaking, the war continues, charitable foundations and public organizations are taking children somewhere, somewhere they are trying to organize certain events for them. All of them are now required to undergo training on the prevention of abuse of children and youth (Child and Youth Guarding). This is the standard of any organization in humanitarian work,” says Kasyanova.

[see_also ids\u003d"

Therefore, according to her, organizations that fund such activities must check whether employees are aware of the relevant policies, and most importantly, whether they apply them. If no one knows about them, then those who will be with the children are first taught. After all, Kasyanova emphasizes, you cannot protect a child from war, but not from violence.

The first lady of Ukraine, Elena Zelenskaya, even came to Turkey to negotiate the placement of children from the Dnepropetrovsk region. But Kasyanov does not believe that the president’s wife is responsible for the situation that occurred with the children abroad. They say that a lot has been done to ensure that Ukrainian children are accepted in other countries..

“I think this is a normal practice when the first lady in a war tries to create certain conditions so that children have the opportunity to go to a safe place. Well, besides, this is an opportunity for fundraising,” adds Kasyanova.

Conditions were monitored during the children's stay in Turkey. Kasyanova indicated that she herself was a member of the Coordination Headquarters for the Protection of Children's Rights in Wartime.

" And after that nothing happened. Only after monitoring by the Ombudsman’s Office was it decided to promptly return these children to Ukraine, since problems with access to education, medical services and much more were identified. But they really didn’t communicate this widely,” said the head of the Ukrainian Network for Children’s Rights..

[see_also ids\u003d"

Let us remind you that the children were evacuated to Turkey in the spring of 2022 by agreement of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration with the assistance of the Ukrainian Consulate in Antalya and the charitable organization " Most of them lived in the Larisa Hotel in the city of Beldebi. In March 2024, 11 Ukrainian officials from the Ombudsman's Office and the authorities of the Dnipropetrovsk region visited the children and found that for two years they had not had full access to education - the hotel had one educational class for 25 students, although about 200 children lived there. The rest studied in rooms without proper conditions.

It also turned out that children could be taken away with tablets for lessons, and the Shostak Foundation restricted Turkish authorities’ access to minor Ukrainians and involved the latter in collecting funds into their accounts.

Among other things, the report mentions the facts of “the use of physical violence and psychological pressure by educators and representatives of the Shostak Foundation is systemic in nature.”. The document also talks about cases of sexual relations between underage girls and Turks who worked at the hotel. In particular, two girls became pregnant and gave birth to children from the hotel staff.