Ukrainian blogger finds a child deported from Ukraine via Russian videochat

A video has been circulating on social media in which a Ukrainian woman talks to a man who says he is currently in Chechnya.

A young boy sitting next to the man says "Slava Ukraini!" (Glory to Ukraine!) in the beginning of the call.

When the woman asks the man where he is, he responds saying he does not understand Ukrainian.

screenshot from the video

The young boy then translated the question into Russian for him, making the woman realise that the child understands Ukrainian and is likely to be from Ukraine.

When the woman tries to find out where the boy is from, he looks into the camera, frightened, and fails to say anything.

The man later says that the child is from Kyiv.

Other male voices heard in the background are laughing loudly and saying that they will "take Kyiv".

At first, information appeared on social media stating that the boy was Ivan Malinovskyi, 8, who disappeared in Kherson Oblast in October 2022.

Later, Magnolia Child Search Service denied that the boy in the video was Ivan Malinovskyi.

"We have carefully checked the available information and contacted Ivan’s mother, who continues to search for him. She confirmed that the boy in the video was not her son, not Ivan Malynovskyi," the search service said.

The Znaity Svoikh (Find Your People) project, another search service, told Ukrainska Pravda that the boy’s relatives recognised him in the video.

They were given information about the video by the police. Ukrainska Pravda asked the police to confirm this.

Ukrainska Pravda also asked Dmytro Lubinets, Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, about the details of the case but has yet to receive a response.

An earlier report stated that around 400 forcibly deported Ukrainian children have been handed over to Russian families.

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