When 9-year-old Olenka arrived at our Hope and Healing Center, she was terrified. After spending a third of her life under occupation, every loud sound made her cover her head with her hands.

Thanks to Save Ukraine, more than 900 children have already been rescued from Russia and the temporarily occupied territories.

Now, families with young children have access to a place designed to help them grow, heal, and thrive from the very beginning.

We have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine — an important step that strengthens the joint efforts of the government and civil society in locating, protecting, and returning Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.

At 16, Yaryna should be preparing for her school graduation, thinking about university, and dreaming of a future in a free Ukraine. Instead, she spent her final school years under Russian occupation — in her half-destroyed hometown of Mariupol, where every day has been a fight to survive.

Will the road still be passable? Can we make it through before the next shelling begins?
For Save Ukraine’s evacuation teams, these are not hypothetical questions — they are the reality of every mission. Every day, our teams risk their lives to rescue people trapped near the frontline.

So far, Save Ukraine has rescued over 900 children from Russia and occupied territories. But thousands more are still waiting to be saved.

Every day, Dmytro heard explosions and saw destruction. But what terrified him most was not the shelling — it was the thought of Russian occupation. He was caring for his seriously ill father and used this as the reason he couldn’t attend a Russian school or join “community activities” organized by the occupiers.

When we first met Zlata, she was just over a year old. She didn’t respond when called by name, didn’t react to voices, and didn’t reach out to the other children around her. Her parents were worried — could these be the early “red flags” of autism? But Khrystyna, a specialist from our Early Intervention Program, supported the family and advised them to undergo a medical examination.