The Office of the Prosecutor General, together with the Security Service of Ukraine, reported suspicion against the organizer of the forced transportation of children from the temporarily occupied part of Mykolaiv region. This concerns a military officer of the Russian Federation who was in charge of the relocation of 15 students from the Novopetrivka Special School of the Mykolaiv Regional Council, who were later deported to Russia.

During the occupation of the village of Novopetrivka, 15 children remained at the school: ten were deprived of parental care, three were orphans, and two were in difficult life circumstances. The children were under the care of the principal and her husband, who tried to ensure their safety and minimal living conditions.

Russian soldiers, including the suspect, frequently visited the school from the beginning of the occupation, checking the premises and counting the children. In July 2022, they learned that the principal wanted to evacuate the children to territory controlled by Ukraine. At that time, the suspect, along with soldiers, interrogated her under the threat of weapons and left a guard at the school, and the next day he ordered the forcible transportation of 15 children, the principal, and her husband to the village of Stepanivka in the Kherson region, where they were held for about three months.

In October 2022, two collaborators, together with Russian military personnel, organized the further transportation of the children: first by boat across the Dnipro to Oleshky, then by bus to Armyansk, and finally by train from Dzhankoy to Anapa in the Krasnodar Krai. There, the children were placed in one of the children's institutions.

In Russia, the children were forced to sing the anthem of the aggressor country, participate in propaganda events, and were prohibited from speaking Ukrainian and using national symbols. This was accompanied by constant psychological pressure and the imposition of pro-Russian views.

The investigation has proven that there were no real grounds for the "evacuation": there were supplies of food, medicines, and shelters at the school, and no hostilities were taking place nearby at that time.

The organizer of this crime turned out to be a serviceman of military unit No. 42091 of the 2nd Air Assault Battalion of the 108th Regiment of the 7th Air Assault Division of the 58th Army of the Southern Military District of the Russian Federation. He has been notified of suspicion for violating the laws and customs of war, committed in conspiracy by a group of individuals (Part 2 of Article 28, Part 1 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

Earlier, for the same episode, an indictment was already submitted to the court regarding three individuals: one serviceman of the Russian Armed Forces and two collaborators from the Kherson region. The collected evidence indicates that the suspect was indeed the organizer and coordinator of all actions related to the illegal transportation of children.

Thanks to the efforts of Ukrainian law enforcement, volunteers, and international partners, all 15 children were later managed to be transported from the territory of Russia and returned home as part of the Bring Kids Back UA initiative.