Within days of Russia invading Ukraine in February last year, orphanage “mother” Nadiia Kudriavtseva told the nine children in her care to pack a single backpack of belongings and prepare to flee. “We could hear the explosions and feel the whole earth shaking,” she recalls. “At that moment we decided: it's time to leave.”
The children were among more than 50 children and young people aged two to 18 who were helped to leave Ukraine by small Scottish charity Dnipro Kids. They are understood to be the first and only group of care-experienced young people evacuated to the UK.
An estimated 100,000 Ukrainian children lived in care institutions before the war – one of the highest rates in Europe. The system of more than 700 state-run “orphanages” remains almost unchanged since it was established during the time of Soviet rule between 1922 and 1991.
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