PR, beatings and pregnancy. Slidstvo.info – about the lives of orphans evacuated to Turkey

Orphans evacuated from the Dnipro region to Turkey were subjected to psychological and physical violence, and two underage girls returned to Ukraine pregnant by hotel staff. This is stated in the investigation Slidstvo.info.

The media writes that at the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, about 3,500 orphans lived in the Dnipro region. Millionaire businessman Ruslan Shostak, founder of the EVA and VARUS networks, was in charge of their evacuation.

He said that he was approached by the head of the Dnipro Regional State Administration and asked to take children out of boarding schools. This was the beginning of the Childhood Without War project, under which the entrepreneur evacuated several thousand children to Turkey.

Shostak said that the Turkish authorities had given guarantees of the children's safety and full return to their homeland. Nine airplanes were rented for the evacuation, which departed from Romania. Each of them carried 200 people.

The investigation says that orphans were forced to participate in commercials for the Shostak Foundation and posted the videos on social media.

To which the entrepreneur replied that the project was not without its drawbacks. But he said it was the largest project in the world to evacuate children after World War II. Shostak assured that the children were filmed and photographed with the permission of the embassy and consulate.

The journalists also found out that the orphans were subjected to psychological and physical violence. In particular, minors complained of being beaten by their caregivers. Seven children who were in Turkey confirmed these facts.

The media received a report on the visit of representatives of the Ombudsman's Office to hotels in Turkey in March 2024, where Ukrainian children were staying.

"According to the Ukrainian consul, over the past two months, the number of requests from representatives of the foundation to allow unauthorized persons to enter the hotel has increased significantly. The foundation explained this by the need to "showcase children from Ukraine" to conduct fundraising campaigns to support them on the foundation's accounts, as well as to communicate with people outside the institution," the journalist quoted the document.

The report also says that the foundation's staff had daily contact and unimpeded access to places of education and residence around the clock. This "makes it possible for possible sexual crimes against children and the use of violence," the journalist was quoted as saying.

In addition, Slidstvo.info learned that two underage Ukrainian girls (15 and 17 years old) became pregnant by Turkish citizens who worked in hotels. The investigation says that the educators knew that the girls were communicating with adult men. Upon learning of the pregnancy, they were returned from Turkey to Ukraine.

Commenting on this, Shostak said that the foundation was not responsible for the evacuated children. At the same time, the educators told reporters that they had complained to the foundation about the hotel staff, but there was no response.

At the end of 2024, all the children were returned from Turkey to Ukraine. Shostak explained that they could not stay in hotels all the time. The businessman believes that this problem should be solved by the state.

As a result of the monitoring visit, law enforcement officers opened criminal proceedings for "improper performance of duties to protect the life and health of children." However, the proceedings were later closed.

Officials of the Dnipro region, the former and current Turkish Ombudsman, the Ministry of Family and Social Services, and the Turkish Embassy in Ukraine did not respond to any of the journalists' requests.

• On October 2, 2024, Lubinets reported that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the occupiers took out of Ukraine more than 20,000 children.
• On November 20, 2025, the Security Service of Ukraine announced suspicion of five Russian occupiers involved in the deportation of 367 Ukrainian children to Russia.