Children from boarding schools in the Dnepropetrovsk region, who were evacuated to Turkey after the start of a full-scale war, did not have access to education and medicine, were subjected to physical and psychological violence by teachers, and were forced to appear in promotional videos to raise money for a private foundation. The monitoring group of the Office of the Ukrainian Ombudsman came to these conclusions, according to the investigation of the “Investigation” project.. Info"

The children were evacuated to Turkey in the spring of 2022 with the agreement of the Dnepropetrovsk OVA with the assistance of the Ukrainian Consulate in Antalya and the charitable organization “Ruslan Shostak Charitable Foundation”. Most of them lived in the Larisa Hotel in 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 Ukrainian children did not have full access to education - the hotel had one educational class for 25 students, although there were about 200 children living there. The rest studied in rooms without appropriate conditions.

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Moreover, as noted by the Ombudsman’s Office, tablets for lessons could be taken away from children if their behavior was assessed as unsatisfactory or they refused to participate in the Foundation’s fundraising campaigns. Also, according to the report, the Ruslan Shostak Foundation limited the access of Turkish authorities to children and involved minors in collecting funds for the Foundation’s accounts..

Representatives of the Foundation and accompanying persons of the children stopped providing the necessary information (to the Turkish authorities, the Red Cross, UNICEF), limited the access of psychologists and social workers to minors, and also stopped taking them for medical examinations and almost completely limited any medical assistance to children. The foundation insisted that it did not need additional support, because it regularly carried out fundraising activities (with the participation of minor children of all ages), which it kept in its own accounts,” the report says.

Founder of the Foundation Ruslan Shostak, with whom Slidstvo journalists spoke. Info, denies these data from the report, however, several pupils of the boarding school evacuated to Turkey confirmed that children who did not want to participate in the recording of promotional videos were punished.

The report of the Ombudsman’s Office also 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 report also mentions that teachers abused children with disabilities, “beating them with phone chargers and wet clothes.”.

Also, the report of the Ombudsman’s Office pointed out the likelihood of non-compliance with safety standards for children, since the Foundation often asked for the admission of unauthorized persons, seemingly potential sponsors, to the hotel territory, as well as the Foundation’s lack of criteria for selecting personnel and monitoring their activities.

In particular, the report mentions cases of sexual relations between underage girls and Turks who worked at the hotel - two girls became pregnant and gave birth to children from the hotel staff. The report also mentions an incident in which two teenage boys ran away from a hotel and robbed a local store.. After this, in December last year, all the children were returned to Ukraine.

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After the visit of the team from the Ombudsman’s Office, the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office opened criminal proceedings for improper performance of duties to protect the life and health of children, but a year later the criminal case was closed allegedly due to lack of evidence.

Moreover, among the employees of the institution, only senior teacher Alexander Titov, who, according to the report, used physical violence against children, was demoted to the status of physical education teacher. But the head of the foundation, Ruslan Shostak, received the “Order of Merit, III degree” from the President of Ukraine.

In " Info"