Update from Ukraine | Bakhmut will be encircled soon | Ruzzia is in the deep problem

They must have been walking their dogs all day long.

Someone is getting paid well to post this daily propaganda.

Very well.

Assumptions are actually just presumptuous guesses & TYPICALLY WRONG! lol

The only thing George Soros cares about is money.
PARTLY TRUE. SOROS ACTUALLY IS GREEDY FOR POWER & CONTROL WHICH MONEY BUYS HIM

He is a convicted inside-trader in France.
1982 STAYS FREE ON HIS APPEALS OF CONVICTION FROM INTERNATIONAL COURT
SOROS

Most of his money comes from stealing the pension funds of more than 15 sovereign nations.

And you heartily approve.
SO VERY WRONG!
EVIL RECOGNIZES EVIL.
EVIL SOROS RECOGNIZES EVIL PUTIN!!

George Soros On Helping the Nazis During The Holocaust
George Soros Interview [1995]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGWizajL7tA
Is George Soros a Sociopath?
2:44; 3:32 confiscation, 4:20; 4:48 not difficult at all, 5:56, 6:00

Voiceover—When the Nazis occupied Budapest in 1944, George Soros’ father was a successful lawyer. He lived on an island in the Danube and liked to commute to work in a rowboat. But knowing there were problems ahead for the Jews, he decided to split his family up. He bought them forged papers and he bribed a government official to take 14-year-old George Soros in and swear that he was his Christian godson. But survival carried a heavy price tag. While hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews were being shipped off to the death camps, George Soros accompanied his phoney godfather on his appointed rounds, confiscating property from the Jews.
(Vintage footage of Jews walking in line; man dragging little boy in line)

KROFT: (Voiceover) These are pictures from 1944 of what happened to George Soros’ friends and neighbors.
(Vintage footage of women and men with bags over their shoulders walking; crowd by a train)

KROFT: (Voiceover) You’re a Hungarian Jew…

Mr. SOROS: (Voiceover) Mm-hmm.

KROFT: (Voiceover) …who escaped the Holocaust…
(Vintage footage of women walking by train)

Mr. SOROS: (Voiceover) Mm-hmm.
(Vintage footage of people getting on train)

KROFT: (Voiceover) …by–by posing as a Christian.

Mr. SOROS: (Voiceover) Right.
(Vintage footage of women helping each other get on train; train door closing with people in boxcar)

KROFT: (Voiceover) And you watched lots of people get shipped off to the death camps.

Mr. SOROS: Right. I was 14 years old. And I would say that that’s when my character was made.

KROFT: In what way?

Mr. SOROS: That one should think ahead. One should understand and–and anticipate events and when–when one is threatened. It was a tremendous threat of evil. I mean, it was a–a very personal experience of evil.

KROFT: My understanding is that you went out with this protector of yours who swore that you were his adopted godson.

Mr. SOROS: Yes. Yes.

KROFT: Went out, in fact, and helped in the confiscation of property from the Jews.

Mr. SOROS: Yes. That’s right. Yes.

KROFT: I mean, that’s–that sounds like an experience that would send lots of people to the psychiatric couch for many, many years. Was it difficult?

Mr. SOROS: Not–not at all. Not at all. Maybe as a child you don’t–you don’t see the connection. But it was–it created no–no problem at all.

KROFT: No feeling of guilt?

Mr. SOROS: No.

KROFT: For example that, ‘I’m Jewish and here I am, watching these people go. I could just as easily be there. I should be there.’ None of that?

Mr. SOROS: Well, of course I c–I could be on the other side or I could be the one from whom the thing is being taken away. But there was no sense that I shouldn’t be there, because that was–well, actually, in a funny way, it’s just like in markets–that if I weren’t there–of course, I wasn’t doing it, but somebody else would–would–would be taking it away anyhow. And it was the–whether I was there or not, I was only a spectator, the property was being taken away. So the–I had no role in taking away that property. So I had no sense of guilt.

VOICEOVER – Of course most of us here are already aware of Mr. Soros’ highly questionable actions during the Nazi occupation. (Though the public at large undoubtedly has a different perspective, if they know anything about his earlier days at all.)

But the statements he made in this interview to my mind are quite chilling.
He forgives himself everything. He says that if he hadn’t done it somebody else would have.

All of which would seem to indicate that Mr. Soros has no conscience. A lack of conscience is said to be a common symptom of sociopaths.
[END OF TRANSCRIPT]

When asked the direct question by Kroft whether he “Went out, in fact, and helped in the confiscation of property from the Jews.” Soros replied “Yes. That’s right. Yes.” Although later he makes the claim “I had no role in taking away that property,” it seems to be in the context that, as he says himself, [if] “I wasn’t doing it, but somebody else would–would–would be taking it away anyhow”

And Marxist Sociopaths know how to use this trick
George Orwell described this phenomenon in his amazing novel, 1984, as DoubleSpeak.

REMEMBER: As Kong Zi (Confucius) wrote 2,500 years ago, “When words lose their meaning, people lose their freedom.”

The place is quite frankly, leveled.

[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 125 (Friday, September 29, 2006)]

[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 125 (Friday, September 29, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1917-E1918]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

THE GUILT-FREE RECORD OF GEORGE SOROS

______

HON. MARK E. SOUDER

of indiana

in the house of representatives

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, George Soros is one of the most
controversial figures in American politics, and I think it is important
for American families to focus on what George Soros has said about
himself, what George Soros has said about his objectives, and where
George Soros has spent his money to influence public opinion. Supreme
Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis once wrote that ``the best disinfectant
is sunshine,'' and it is in that spirit that I submit ``The Guilt-Free
Record of George Soros'' to be printed in the Congressional Record.

The Guilt-Free Record of George Soros

``I am basically there to--to make money. I cannot and do
not look at the social consequences of--of what I do.''
George Soros, commenting on being blamed for the financial
collapse of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan and Russia.
``He can move world financial markets simply by voicing an
opinion or destabilize a government by buying and selling its
currency . . . [W]hen he saw cracks in the Asia boom, he
began selling the currency in Thailand. Traders in Hong Kong
followed suit, triggering a financial crisis that plunged
much of Asia into a depression. (``George Soros,'' 60 Minutes
interview transcript, December 20, 1998)
``I don't feel guilty. Because I'm engaged in an amoral
activity which is not meant to have anything to do with
guilt.'' George Soros, commenting on his actions in the
currency markets. (``George Soros,'' 60 Minutes interview
transcript, December 20, 1998)
Soros Convicted of Insider-Trading, Ordered to Pay $2.8
million. ``George Soros's bid to overturn an insider-trading
conviction has been rejected by France's highest appeals
court, ending the billionaire's fight to erase a legal stain
on his 40-year investing career. The Court of Cassation, the
tribunal of last resort in France, ended its review of a
March 2005 judgment that Soros broke insider-trading laws
when he bought Societe Generale SA shares in 1988 with the
knowledge that the bank might be a takeover target. Soros had
been ordered to pay back 2.2 million euros ($2.8 million) in
gains.'' (Gabriele Parussini, ``Soros Insider-Trading
Conviction Upheld by Paris Appeals Court,'' Bloomberg, June
14, 2006)
Soros: ``No Sense of Guilt'' for Confiscating Property from
Jews in Nazi-occupied Budapest. ``But there was no sense that
I shouldn't be there, because that was--well, actually, in a
funny way, it's just like in markets--that if I weren't
there--of course, I wasn't doing it, but somebody else would
. . . be taking it away anyhow . . . whether I was there or
not, I was only a spectator, the property was being taken
away. So the--I had no role in taking away that property. So
I had no sense of guilt.'' (``George Soros,'' 60 Minutes
interview transcript, December 20, 1998)
Extended quotation from the 60 Minutes transcript follows:
``When the Nazis occupied Budapest in 1944, George Soros'
father was a successful lawyer. He lived on an island in the
Danube and liked to commute to work in a rowboat. But knowing
there were problems ahead for the Jews, he decided to split
his family up. He bought them forged papers and he bribed a
government official to take 14-year-old George Soros in and
swear that he was his Christian godson. But survival carried
a heavy price tag. While hundreds of thousands of Hungarian
Jews were being shipped off to the death camps, George Soros
accompanied his phony godfather on his appointed rounds,
confiscating property from the Jews.
(Vintage footage of Jews walking in line; man dragging
little boy in line)
KROFT: (Voiceover) These are pictures from 1944 of what
happened to George Soros' friends and neighbors.
(Vintage footage of women and men with bags over their
shoulders walking; crowd by a train)
KROFT: (Voiceover) You're a Hungarian Jew . . .
Mr. SOROS: (Voiceover) Mm-hmm.
KROFT: (Voiceover) . . . who escaped the Holocaust . . .
(Vintage footage of women walking by train)
Mr. SOROS: (Voiceover) Mm-hmm.
(Vintage footage of people getting on train)
KROFT: (Voiceover) . . . by--by posing as a Christian.
Mr. SOROS: (Voiceover) Right.
(Vintage footage of women helping each other get on train;
train door closing with people in boxcar)
KROFT: (Voiceover) And you watched lots of people get
shipped off to the death camps.
Mr. SOROS: Right. I was 14 years old. And I would say that
that's when my character was made.
KROFT: In what way?
Mr. SOROS: That one should think ahead. One should
understand and--and anticipate events and when--when one is
threatened. It was a tremendous threat of evil. I mean, it
was a--a very personal experience of evil.
KROFT: My understanding is that you went out with this
protector of yours who swore that you were his adopted
godson.
Mr. SOROS: Yes. Yes.
KROFT: Went out, in fact, and helped in the confiscation of
property from the Jews.
Mr. SOROS: Yes. That's right. Yes.
KROFT: I mean, that's--that sounds like an experience that
would send lots of people to the psychiatric couch for many,
many years. Was it difficult?
Mr. SOROS: Not--not at all. Not at all. Maybe as a child
you don't--you don't see the connection. But it was--it
created no--no problem at all.
KROFT: No feeling of guilt?
Mr. SOROS: No.
KROFT: For example that, ``I'm Jewish and here I am,
watching these people go. I could just as easily be there. I
should be there.'' None of that?
Mr. SOROS: Well, of course I c--I could be on the other
side or I could be the one from whom the thing is being taken
away. But there was no sense that I shouldn't be there,
because that was--well, actually, in a funny way, it's just
like in markets--that if I weren't there--of course, I wasn't
doing it, but somebody else would--would--would be taking it
away anyhow. And it was the--whether I was there or not, I
was only a spectator, the property was being taken away. So
the--I had no role in taking away that property. So I had
no sense of guilt.'' (``George Soros,'' 60 Minutes
interview transcript, December 20, 1998).
Soros Said That President Bush's Statements Remind Him of
Nazi Slogans. `` `When I hear Bush say, `You're either with
us or against us,' it reminds me of the Germans.' It conjures
up memories, he said, of Nazi slogans on the walls, Der Feind
Hort mit (`The enemy is listening'). `My experiences under
Nazi and Soviet rule have sensitized me,' he said in a soft
Hungarian accent.' '' (Laura Blumenfeld, ``Soros's Deep
Pockets vs. Bush,'' The Washington Post, November 11, 2003).
Soros Is the Primary Financier of Left-Wing Causes. Tax
records of Soros' Open Society Institute show contributions
of: $4.41 million to the American Civil Liberties Union and
its state affiliates; $500,000 to the Pro-Choice Education
Project to launch a (pro-abortion rights) ``public education
and media strategy;'' $100,000 to Catholics for a Free
Choice, an allegedly Catholic group that advocates for
abortion rights; $100,000 to the Death Penalty Information
Center, an organization that works against capital
punishment; $100,000 to the Pennsylvania Coalition to Save
Lives Now ``to support needle exchange programs,'' $80,000
over three years to the Gay Straight Alliance Network, to
promote ``a traveling photo documentary exhibit by lesbian,
gay, transgender, queer and questioning youth;'' $35,000 to
the Abortion Access Project. (Jeff Johnson, ``George Soros''
$30M Welfare Check,'' CNSNews.com, April 26, 2005).
The Soros Prostitution Agenda. Open Society Institute
(OSI), a foundation funded and controlled by George Soros,
sued the United States Agency for International Development
(USAID) ``over requirement that recipients of federal AIDS
grants pledge to oppose prostitution. The group would be the
second charity to challenge the policy, which AIDS activists
say stigmatizes prostitutes and makes it harder to fight the
disease.'' In June 2006, Open Society Institute published a
study entitled ``Sex Workers Health and Rights: Where is the
Funding?'' The report highlighted the role of OSI and various
Soros foundations, in financing ``a large number of sex
workers organizations'' and attacked the Bush Administration
policy for refusing to fund such groups. OSI received at
least $30 million between 1998 and 2003 from the federal
government, mostly from the State Department. (Wall Street
Journal, September 23, 2005; Open Society Institute webpages,
http://www.soros.org/initiatives/health/focus/sharp/news/
usaid_20050923,: http://www.soros.org/initiatives/health/
focus/sharp/articles_publications/publications
where_20060719/where.pdf
Soros Called the War on Drugs a ``Fantasy'' and More
Harmful Than Drugs Themselves. ``Tilting the balance against
the drug warriors side is a short piece by Howard Fineman on
the activities of George Soros. The billionaire financier,
who calls the drug war `a fantasy' and says it does more harm
to America than drugs themselves, has spent big money pushing
his position that we should treat drug abuse as a medical
problem, not a criminal one.'' (Bill Steigerwald, ``Newsweek
Wants A Drug Debate,'' Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 30,
1997).
Soros is Major Financier Behind Drug Legalization Groups.
In 1994, Soros pledged $4 million over five years to the
Lindesmith Center, a pro-marijuana legalization think-tank
that merged with the Drug Policy Foundation to form the Drug
Policy Alliance, which supports legalization of marijuana for
``medical'' purposes, repealing mandatory minimum sentences
for drug offenses, ending imprisonment for drug possession.
(Neil Hrab, ``George Soros' Social Agenda for America,''
Capital Research Center's Foundation Watch, http://
www.capitalresearch.org/pubs/pdf/x3770435801.pdf)
Soros Heavily Financed Drug Legalization Efforts For
Marijuana. ``And the award for best supporting role goes to
billionaire George Soros, the Daddy Warbucks of drug
legalization. He doesn't reside in either state [Arizona or
California], but he bankrolled both efforts. . . . Most money
used to buy misleading TV ads for both referenda came from
out of state. In Arizona, as of the most

[[Page E1918]]

recent reporting date (May 31), of $300,490 contributed to
support Prop. 200, only $490 came from in state. The
remaining $300,000 came from out of state, $200,000 of it
from the Drug Policy Foundation--a pet charity of George
Soros'--and the other $100,000 came directly from Soros
himself.'' (Joseph A. Califano Jr., ``Pro-Drug Campaigns'
Hidden Agenda,'' Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 22, 1996)
Soros Helped Finance a Pro-Marijuana Children's Book. ``Dr.
Robert Newman, served on the Board of Directors for the Drug
Policy Foundation as early as 1997, and presently serves on
the board of directors with another minority witness, Rev.
Edwin Sanders, of the Drug Policy Alliance (the new name of
the Drug Policy Foundation since its merger with the
aforementioned Lindesmith Center). The Drug Policy Alliance
describes itself as ``the nation's leading organization
working to end the war on drugs.'' Along with its major donor
George Soros, it helped produce It's Just a Plant, a
promarijuana children's book. I will be very interested in
learning from the witnesses today what they believe U.S.
Government policy should be with respect to financing heroin
distribution, safe-injection facilities, and how-to manuals
like H Is For Heroin, published by the Harm Reduction
Coalition, and children's books on smoking marijuana,
produced with the help of the organization run by two of the
minority's witnesses today.'' (Mark Souder, opening
statement, ``Harm Reduction or Harm Maintenance: Is There
Such a Thing as Safe Drug Abuse?'', hearing before the
Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human
Resources, February 16, 2005, http://www.dpna.org/resources/
current/02-16-5c.htm; http://www.justaplant.com)
Soros and Two Friends give $450,000 to ``take apart
[California's] criminal justice system one step at a time.''
``International financier George Soros and two other wealthy
donors have contributed a total of $450,000 for a November
ballot measure that would alter California's tough three
strikes sentencing law . . . The donation marks the third
time that this trio has backed criminal justice measures
in California. In 1996, the three gave money to pass
Proposition 215, which sought to legalize marijuana for
medical uses. In 2000, they supported the successful
Proposition 36, which diverts drug offenders from prison
to treatment.'' (Bill Ainsworth, ``$450,000 to help try to
weaken law,'' San Diego Union-Tribune, September 14,
2004.)
Soros Effort To Infiltrate the U.S. Conservative Movement.
``The scheduled Friday CPAC event on ``A Conservative Drug
Policy'' was to feature a mini-debate between Ethan Nadelmann
of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and Calvina Fay. The
``moderator,'' hardly unbiased, was scheduled to be Rob
Kampia of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). The Soros Open
Society Institute has given the DPA millions of dollars,
including $2.5 million in 2004 alone. MPP has been funded by
Soros as well as Peter Lewis, chairman of the Progressive
Corporation, who was arrested in New Zealand several years
ago after customs officers found marijuana in his luggage.
Lewis, who gave $340,000 to MPP in 2004, is also a major
funder of the ACLU.'' (Mark Souder, Congressional Record,
insertion in the record of article by Cliff Kincaid, February
8, 2006, http://reform.house.gov/CJDPHR/News/
DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=39349)
Soros Support of Lynne Stewart, Lawyer to Terrorists.
``George Soros funds many controversial projects, some
extreme projects. One quick example is the $20,000 that went
from his Open Society Institute to the Lynne Stewart Legal
Committee. Lynne Stewart was the attorney who represented the
blind sheik who was involved in the first bombing of the
World Trade Centers and was later convicted for aiding and
abetting his activities while in prison.'' (Peter Flaherty of
the National Legal and Policy Center, O'Reilly Factor, May
20, 2005, relying on Open Society Institute IRS Form 990
filings. Byron York, ``Soros Funded Stewart Defense,''
National Review, February 17, 2005.)
Soros Attacks ``War on Terror,'' Compares Bush
Administration to Nazis. Soros told an audience at the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, ``We are working
with a very false frame when we talk about a `war on terror,'
and yet it is universally accepted.'' He added, ``President
Bush is exploiting it even further ahead of these elections .
. . I would voice my concerns about the similarities between
this administration and the Nazis and communist regimes.''
(Monisha Bansal, ``Soros Slams Terror 'War,' Compares White
House to Nazis,'' CNSNews.com, September 15, 2006.)
Soros To Encourage a U.S./Europe Split. ``Soros, the
Hungarian-American financier who has historically invested
his billions in encouraging democracy in eastern block
countries, is turning his attention to Western Europe because
he thinks the EU is failing. Soros is to invest hundreds of
millions of dollars in foundations, the first of which will
be either in London or Paris.'' Soros: ``The practical
message for Europeans is that the world really needs a strong
European Union with a mission which is different to America's
priorities.'' (Rupert Stein, ``Soros lays foundations to
restore EU purpose,'' The Scotsman, July 15, 2006.)

Pardon mea culpa: **not 1982**

The case stems from Soros’s 1988 purchase of stock in the French bank Societe Generale, which had been recently privatized. In Dec 21, 2002, after a 14-year investigation, George Soros was convicted of insider trading.

As far as I know this is the first time in my life that I agree with this Soros a hole.

Update from Ukraine | Bakhmut is Back | Ruzzia is in the Deep Doodoo

As far as I know it’s doubtful you have two brain cells in a row.

LET US ALL REMEMBER

You would certainly be an expert on the use of slander.

TOTALLY AGREE! Soros is evil

But, remembering: ‘Even a broken clock is right twice a day!’

Ukraine calls it a counter offensive.
The only reason you counter is to take back what you don’t have.

“expert on the use of slander”

Absolutely correct.

Unfortunately, I am constantly victimized by your slander.
Easy to forgive because your response typically is reactionary not reasoned.

The counter-offensive is a strategic response initially done by the defending force engaging the aggressors force to disrupt their offensive operations and to regain control.

Clausewitz considered the counter-offensive as the most efficient means of forcing the attacker to abandon offensive plans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-offensive#cite_ref-1

VIDEOS

1. Russia’s Great Ammo Depot Destroyed! Ukrainian Forces Advancing South
Infinity
427K subscribers
Jul 5, 2023 7:00 p.m. EDT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-Hwi0EhKp0

2. Putin Loses the War! A large group of russian soldiers were caught in their trenches near Svatove!
Oracle Eyes
467K subscribers
Jul 5, 2023 10:00 p.m. EDT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5evO4bFtHn8

Ukraine is winning! They can not be stopped! Retake Bakmut—a city of ruins and graves. Push on! Once the real offensive starts it will be one victory after another. Russian conscripts can not fight. War will be over by September. Who needs no F-16 when you face stupid, brain dead Russians. Every Russian will be out of glorious Ukraine by Christmas. Freedom for all Ukraine! Then NATO Membership and the push to Moscow to arrest Putin for his many war crimes! A forty foot statue of Joe Biden will be built in Kiev.

VIDEOS

1. WE WERE GIVEN OLD EQUIPMENT AND TOLD TO GO ON THE OFFENSIVE | @Zolkin Volodymyr
Zolkin Volodymyr
7-5-2023 3:00 p.m. EDT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pr4Dy56POU

2. Ukrainian strike destroys Russian position in Makiivka
The Sun
4.15M subscribers
Jul 5, 2023 6:00 p.m. EDT
Ukrainian strike destroys Russian warehouse full of ammunition for anti-aircraft guns in Makiivka.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_maZ6gBzYYg

ARTICLE

‘It was hell.’ Mother speaks of rescuing her child from Russian captivity
The Kyiv Independent
Daria Shulzhenko
June 16, 2023 1:19 AM 8 min read

Kherson resident Tetiana Bodak did not see her 17-year-old son Vladyslav for eight months after he was abducted by Russian troops. It took Bodak a long and complicated trip across Russia and occupied Ukrainian territories to rescue him.

On Oct. 8, Tetiana Bodak was busy organizing a funeral for her mother, who was killed by a Russian attack in then-occupied Kherson Oblast, when she got an unexpected and very emotional phone call from her son.

“Mom, I’m in Oleshky (a Russian-occupied settlement in Kherson Oblast). On the way to Crimea,” she heard him saying.

Bodak’s confusion turned into fear the moment her 17-year-old son Vladyslav provided details.

“He told me he was ordered to go to the Druzhba camp in (Russian-occupied) Yevpatoriia,” Bodak told the Kyiv Independent.

He said that he was called and told there was some kind of evacuation, according to Bodak. Russians came for Vladyslav at home and took him away, she said.

Like thousands of other children in the occupied territories of Ukraine, Vladyslav became a victim of one of the darkest and most discussed outcomes of Russia’s full-scale war — the forced deportation of Ukrainian children.

According to the Ukrainian national database, about 19,500 Ukrainian children have been abducted from the occupied territories and sent to other Russian-controlled areas or Russia since last February.

Ukrainian authorities say that to abduct and deport Ukrainian children, Russian troops sometimes kill the parents or take children from their families. Children are also sometimes kidnapped directly from orphanages in occupied settlements or separated from their parents in so-called filtration camps in Russia.

In other cases, children are ordered to go to “recreational camps” for vacations or medical treatment — which was the case for Bodak’s son Vladyslav.

The boy was told he would spend only 10 days there. Instead, he was kept away from home for over eight months.

Vladyslav spent two months at a recreational camp in Russian-occupied Crimea and six months at an educational facility in the occupied settlement of Lazurne, Kherson Oblast.

He was forced to sing the Russian anthem and punished for his pro-Ukrainian stance.
Explainer: What we know about Russia’s deportation of Ukrainian children

Brining children home from Russia is beyond challenging, according to Ukrainian charities and authorities involved in such missions. As of mid-June, only 373 children have been brought back.

To bring Vladyslav back to Ukraine, his mother underwent multiple interrogations by the Russian military and spent almost two days locked in a prison cell.

“It was hell,” she says.
The worst was yet to come

Bodak was pregnant with her sixth child when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last February.

Just days later, her home town, the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, was occupied by Russian troops. Bodak didn’t want to try to evacuate with five children and while pregnant.

In late June, she gave birth to a baby girl, Stefania.

“I had to hide the baby so that she didn’t get a Russian birth certificate,” she says.

Luckily, Bodak found a hospital that managed to issue Ukrainian documents.

Though the family spent most of their time at home, they could not avoid unwanted encounters with the Russian troops.

A Russian-installed official, accompanied by two soldiers, came to the family’s home one day: “We strongly recommend you to send your children to schools,” Bodak recalls him saying.

She knew that the Russian occupiers had introduced a Russian curriculum at the schools and did not want to send her kids there. When the armed soldiers appeared at her home, Bodak knew she no longer had a choice.

Then, just a month before Ukrainian troops liberated Kherson, a Russian attack on Kherson Oblast killed her mother.

Bodak says Russian troops launched an airstrike at civilian cars and a bus driving near a bridge not far from the village of Darivka, located just 20 kilometers northwest of Kherson, on Oct. 7.

Ukrainian media also reported the attack on that day, saying that at least five people were killed and five were wounded.

Bodak says her mother was hospitalized only two hours after the attack as “Russian troops did not let ambulances arrive at the site.”

Her mother died at a hospital on Oct. 8.

“It was very difficult,” she says, as her voice trembles. “I had to take custody of my younger brother so that no one would take him away from me.”

At a moment of great despair and heart-wrenching grief, Bodak received that terrifying call from her son: The “on the way to Crimea” call.

On the same day, Kirill Stremousov, who then served as a deputy head of Russia’s illegal occupation government in Kherson Oblast, claimed they were taking children along with their parents and elderly people to occupied Crimea, as well as Russian Rostov and Krasnodar Krai oblasts for a couple of weeks, Russian government-controlled RIA Novosti news site reported.

Vladyslav learned about the order to go to the camp from a phone call from his school. He was picked up by Russian forces at home. Along with his classmates, he was put on a ferry across the Dnipro River and then on a bus to Crimea. Bodak was in touch with Vladyslav the entire time.

In the Druzhba camp, mornings started with the Russian anthem, according to Bodak. Her son told her the food was not good there and that they did sports and other activities as in any summer camp.

However, everything Ukrainian, including the language, was banned there.

One day Bodak learned that Vladyslav had “torn down the Russian flag and hung underwear in its place.” As punishment, he was locked in an isolated room with only a bed, toilet, and a shower inside for five days.

“Children were locked there for being pro-Ukrainian,” Bodak says.

Vladyslav also told her the camp’s staff had done “evacuation” drills in case Ukrainian Armed Forces entered the facility.

When the camp season was over, Vladyslav and four other children from Kherson were transferred to the occupied part of Kherson Oblast instead of their home town, which had already been liberated by Ukraine. For the next six months, they were forced to stay and study at a school in Russian-occupied Lazurne.

According to Bodak, around 50 children from different occupied or formerly occupied areas of Ukraine were also there. The conditions in Lazurne were better than in the Crimean camp, but the rules were the same.

“It was forbidden (for children) to say anything about Ukraine, only how good Russia was,” Bodak says.

Vladyslav told his mother they were provided with “good and expensive” clothes and shoes and were paid 1,500 Russian rubles (around $18) as a monthly “scholarship.” Bodak says it was Russia’s way to bribe the children.
So close, and yet so far away

The entire time her son was in the Lazurne camp, Bodak was trying to find a way to get him out. She knew that even though Lazurne was so close to Kherson – about 100 kilometers south – it would be impossible to get to the Russian-occupied part of Kherson Oblast from the Ukrainian-controlled one, and she didn’t have enough money for the long trip through Russia and back.

Fortunately, the Ukrainian non-governmental organization Save Ukraine, which helps bring back Ukrainian children from Russian captivity, agreed to assist Bodak. The NGO funds the trips and provides guidance to the parents.

Bodak and six other mothers of deported children were remotely guided by the volunteers throughout the complicated trip.

At first, Bodak says she endured a three-hour-long interrogation at the Belarus border. Then, she had to travel through Russia to Crimea and then to occupied Lazurne. The whole trip there and back to Ukraine took around 15 days, Bodak says.

Since she had all the needed documents proving she was Vladyaslav’s mother, the Russian-controlled school agreed to let him go.

Volunteers helped them find a place to spend the night in Lazurne. But soon as they got there, the moment of happiness of being reunited after long months of separation was interrupted by Russian Security Service (FSB) officers. “Don’t you have something to tell us?” Bodak says they told her.

They put a bag over her head and then locked her in a basement cell in an unknown location. Bodak says she was offered to take a polygraph test there.

“I agreed. I had nothing to fear because I was just a mother who came to take her child back home,” she says.

But it wasn’t that easy. Bodak says Russian officers asked many questions about Save Ukraine and its volunteers and that the interrogation lasted for hours. She spent almost two days in the basement.

“They released us on the condition that my son and I had to give an interview praising Russia and saying how bad Ukraine was,” Bodak says. Left with no choice, they agreed.

She also says they were offered a “certificate for an apartment in Russia” and 100,000 rubles ($1,200) if they agreed not to return to Ukraine.
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Although she felt beyond happy to finally be reunited with her son, Bodak knew that leaving Russia would be just as big of a challenge for them. And she was right.

As they traveled to Russia’s Smolensk Oblast to cross the border with Belarus, Russian border guards refused to let them pass. Traveling an additional hundreds of kilometers, the two decided to try their luck in the neighboring Pskov Oblast, which borders Latvia.

When Russia finally let the two go, they “ran away as fast as they could,” Bodak says.

“I was standing at the (Latvian) border checkpoint crying,” Bodak recalls. “I still feared Russia would somehow bring us back and take my son away again.”

The family now lives in the western Ukrainian Khmelnytskyi Oblast, where they moved upon the liberation of Kherson in November to escape Russia’s continuous shelling of the city.

There, Bodak’s husband was drafted into the Armed Forces. He is now fighting for Ukraine’s victory over Russia.

Though that victory may still be far ahead, Bodak is glad she managed to win her personal battle against Moscow: She returned her son home, safe and sound.