Age 17, from Nova Kakhovka
Under false pretenses, Valeriia’s guardian and grandmother consented for Russian soldiers to take her to a re-education camp in Crimea. After being inundated with Russian propaganda for two months, Valeriia was allowed to leave with another relative who lived in Russian-occupied territory. Valeriia spent most of her journey drawing suspicions as an unaccompanied minor. By pretending to only possess a Russian passport, she was permitted to cross the border.

Age 18, from Mariupol
Bohdan and two friends — all orphans — were kidnapped at gunpoint by Russian soldiers, who took the minors to Moscow. As assigned, he lived with an adoptive family until he started receiving draft notices from the Russian Army. Russian officials publicized Bohdan as a dedicated supporter of Russia, and kept his runaway attempts secret, until allowing him to return home on his 18 th birthday.

Age 12, from Niu-York
Along with her mother and brother, Yana survived a missile attack that killed 60 people at the Kramatorsk Railway Station. Both of Yana’s legs were amputated, and her family traveled to San Diego, California so she could be fitted with prosthetics. Two years after sustaining her injuries, Yana returned to the U.S. to complete a 5K race in Boston, Massachusetts.

Age 8, from Lviv
In the city of Vinnytsia, Roman survived an attack that killed 29 people, including his mother. He sustained burns on almost 40 percent of his body, and part of his recovery took place in Germany. Following more than 30 surgeries, Roman plays the accordion again and also devotes time to a new hobby: ballroom dancing.

Age 7, from Odesa
A promising athlete, Sasha nearly lost her life when she and her mother were victims of a missile that exploded in the Odesa region. Her body sustained so many shrapnel wounds and bone breaks that doctors amputated her left leg and sent her to Austria for three months of physical rehabilitation. Fitted with a bionic prosthetic, she is back to doing split leaps and tumbling passes as a competitive rhythmic gymnast.

Age 17, from Velykyi Burluk
When their parents died, Sergey and his little sister, Kristina, came into the care of a loving foster family full of Ukrainian military veterans. The full-scale invasion meant months without electricity, and Sergey tagged along with the Russian soldiers who gave him a uniform and bullets. In occupied Velykyi Burluk, he used the money he earned at a carwash to make trips to the border. On his fourth trip, his cover was blown, but he was allowed to cross once border patrol guards had stripped him, beaten him and held him in custody for six hours.

Age 14, from Pylna
A sleepover at her cousins’ house turned terrible when Veronika and her relatives endured days of shelling until they took the lone open route, to Russia. Suspicious of Veronika’s mother’s military service in Ukraine, Russian officals held the child captive for 14 months, subjecting her to invasive medical exams so that, under duress, she might falsify a rape accusation against her friend (she refused). Nina Vlasova raised global awareness of her daughter’s plight in a testimony to the UN Security Council, and Veronika’s grandmother was allowed to retrieve her — once they completed a photo-op with Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova.

Age 18, from Melitopol
In April 2022, Vladislav was at a checkpoint en route to meet his father when guards looked at his phone and saw social media footage of former Russian soldiers who had been arrested for opposing the war. For the next 48 days, he was held at a police station and forced to clean up evidence of torture and violence, including the aftermath of his roommate’s suicide attempt. Then Vladislav was placed in a hotel and forbidden to leave, until a sudden reunion with his father on Day 42. The following summer, in Switzerland, he participated in a panel at the Summit on Peace in Ukraine, and met President Volodymyr Zelensky.