She was 16 when Russians put her on a bus shortly after 8AM one morning in the main square of her home town of Nova Kakhovka in south-east Ukraine in October 2022.
They told her and her grandmother, with whom she lived, she'd be back in two weeks.
But she had turned 17 by the time she walked alone through fields, feeling scared, back into Ukrainian-controlled territory one evening almost a year later in August 2023.
That's how Valeriia Sydorova became one of some 19,500 chi...
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Already a member? Login hereAndrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.
Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.