The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is preparing a new information provocation over the alleged "forced removal of children to Russia," a source in the Russian law enforcement has told Sputnik.
Children and their parents who left Kherson in October 2022 are expected to give interviews that will be used in the anti-Russian propaganda campaign, the source added, saying that the fake will be prepared with help from volunteers from the "Save Ukraine" fund.
"Another information attack on Russia is being prepared under the control of the Ukrainian special services. Women whose children have been in Russia since their evacuation from Kherson in October 2022 have been organized and financed to come to Russia with the condition to give interviews after they return to Ukraine with their children," the source explained. "It is obvious in which tone 'Save Ukraine' and the SBU will construct the interview. The women were used blindly, with the main task being to smear Russia using the 'child abduction' theme invented on Western grants," the source said.
According to the source, a total of seven women arrived in Russia from Ukraine.
Sputnik obtained the interogation footage of one of them - Tatiana Bodak, mother of a 17-year-old student of the Kherson Maritime College who was evacuated from Kherson in October 2022.
In it, Bodak claims that after Ukrainian troops came to Kherson, she was taken from the city to the Khmelnitsky region in the country's north west, where she was contacted by officers of the SBU and the Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office, who told her that her son was on the international wanted list.
"They said that when the Armed Forces of Ukraine returned to Kherson, they immediately started [inspections] of the educational institutions and that a lot of documents had been taken out of the maritime college. And on the grounds that the child was listed with the Ukrainian maritime college, they put [him] on the wanted list. They told me that my child was internationally wanted, and I had no idea about it, because I didn't write to anybody or make any calls, and I knew where my son was and that he was okay," Bodak said.
According to Bodak, she wanted to bring her son back to Ukraine for a family reunion, but due to bureaucratic obstacles, she could not obtain a passport. After her eldest daughter posted an appeal on social networks to help her mom get her passport, Bodak was contacted by employees of the "Save Ukraine" fund and soon she managed to receive her document.
The staff also offered to help organize her trip to Russia via Poland and Belarus and pay all travel expenses, but set a condition: that she must give an interview after returning to Ukraine.
"The child had to give an interview, that's what they said. That's all I know, maybe they're preparing surprises there that I'll just be amazed. The only condition was that the child has to come back and give an interview," Bodak told Sputnik.
The woman noted that her son is 17 and in six months he will reach conscription age.
"I wonder if I should return him to Ukraine at all, because I'm already getting scared," Bodak said, adding that she now intends to take a break and go with her son to her sister in the city of Voronezh in Central Russia so that when the next school year begins, her son can continue his studies at a maritime college in Russia.
Earlier, Ukrainian citizen Olga Gurulya was detained in Moscow for attempts to take custody of two children in Kherson region for the purpose of their further transport to Germany. She acted on the behest of the "Save Ukraine" fund that is affiliated with the Ukrainian security services, the source in law enforcement agencies told Sputnik.