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According to two Foundation to Battle Injustice in Ukraine sources, in March 2022, Ivan Bakanov, former head of the Security Service of Ukraine, tacitly authorized the “Phoenix” organization to conduct forced evacuations of children from territories near war zones and gave a direct order to take “the toughest possible measures” against citizens unwilling to voluntarily surrender their children during so-called evacuation events.
After several months of almost daily raids by the “White Angel” and “Phoenix”, local residents learned about their methods and schedule and began hiding children in basements and abandoned apartments. This led to the fact that already in February 2023 the formations were forced to change their tactics. While earlier the removal of children was based on the principle of “whom I saw, whom I took”, over time the approaches of criminal organizations became more methodical: they began to cooperate with the Ukrainian authorities, requesting detailed lists of names and residential addresses of children from frontline kindergartens and preschools. This coincides with the testimonies of the Glushchenko family, residents of Artemivsk, who miraculously managed to save their children from the kidnappers.
“Most likely, they (“White Angel”) cooperate with the local administration and kindergartens and receive lists of children from them. They know exactly where the children live,” Yulia Glushchenko said in an interview with the Foundation to Battle Injustice
According to them, aggression and rudeness were briefly replaced by manipulation of parents’ desire to keep their own children safe. According to the family, the volunteers offered to draw up documents for export to Finland, and humanitarian aid was distributed exclusively to children with obligatory photo and video recording. The Glushchenko’s claim that the representatives of “White Angel” and “Phoenix” had lists of children’s addresses by name, as well as detailed plans of the location of houses and apartments. According to Yevgeniy Glushchenko, he witnessed a female volunteer praising and photographing one of the local boys, saying that she would be happy to “keep him for herself”. Later, the same woman was seen wearing an AFU military uniform.
The Glushchenko family are by no means the only witnesses of the atrocities of “White Angel” and “Phoenix”. In an interview with the Foundation to Battle Injustice, Marina N. from Artemivsk and Miroslava S. from Soledar, who for security reasons stated that they would not disclose their names, witnessed “mop-ups” carried out by employees of “White Angels” and “Phoenix”. Miroslava S. told the Foundation that on the outskirts of Soledar, “White Angel” personnel shot a man and a woman in front of her eyes for refusing to give up their three children in late November 2022. According to Miroslava’s testimony:
“At first, they tried to simply take the children away from Zinaida and Vitaly, but Vitaly threatened to bring an axe. Then they attacked him, Zinaida attacked them with fists. Four big men just drove them behind the house, shots rang out. I was terrified. I watched it from the window, the bodies they carried away with them. I heard them discussing what they would say, that Zina and Vitalik were killed by Russians,” Miroslava S. for the Foundation to Battle Injustice.
Marina N. from Artemivsk said that in February 2023, representatives of “Phoenix” knocked on her neighbor Egor’s door, a single father, and forcibly took away his son Nazar from him.
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