Seryozha Kravchuk ended up in the children's home after being taken from Beryslav in 2022. Russian military had evacuated his family there beforehand. In autumn 2022 the boy found himself in Pechory, a small town in Pskov Region near the Estonian border. He lived there for almost a year, and his mother could not see him. This case is among those that Ukraine and a number of international organisations regard as part of the problem of deporting Ukrainian children to Russian territory and placing them in Russian institutions. Moscow rejects this approach.
Viktoria Ivleva learned about the boy on 18 June. Together with Kyiv notary Oleksiy Pyvovarov, she tracked down his mother, Galina Kravchuk. The journalist and the notary helped the mother gather documents confirming kinship, but further steps required someone who could act on the ground. That person was Grigory Mikhnоv-Vaitenko, a priest of the Apostolic Orthodox Church. This small community stands outside the main structures of the Russian Orthodox Church. He has recently headed the St Petersburg Centre for Assistance to Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons.
The priest called the children's home administration. They replied that they were ready to hand the son over to his mother if she brought documents proving kinship. This answer determined the further route. On 25 July Galina Kravchuk and Viktoria Ivleva left Kyiv. The journey went through Lviv, Uzhhorod, Budapest, Warsaw, Tallinn and Narva. The border between Estonia and Russia was the final leg, and the mother had to cross it alone.
The Border and Conversations in the Queue
On the Russian side, border guards questioned Galina Kravchuk for about six hours. They called the children's home and Mikhnоv-Vaitenko himself. For a mother who had not seen her son for almost a year, these hours were the hardest ordeal. Document checks and clarification of the trip's circumstances proceeded slowly, but in the end she was allowed through.
The priest himself drove the mother and son from Pechory to the border. A bicycle lay in the car's boot. The governor of Pskov Region had managed to give it to the boy as part of the 'Yolka Zhelaniy' campaign. Such campaigns are usually timed to New Year holidays and provide gifts for children from care institutions. The gift became for Seryozha one of the last reminders of life in the children's home.
Ivleva later called Mikhnоv-Vaitenko 'one of the kindest and most fearless people' she knew in Russia. The boy said what he wanted most: 'I wanted to go home. I just haven't seen home for so long.' These words explain well why the whole chain of actions, from calls to the children's home to the border check, rested on one desire of the child to return.
What Happened Next
Seryozha Kravchuk returned to Davydov Brod on 31 July 2023. Almost five months later, in December of the same year, Viktoria Ivleva told his story on Radio Svoboda. Radio Svoboda is the Russian service of the American media group Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The publication became one of the few detailed accounts of how assistance works for families divided by border and war when official channels fail.
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