Children, mostly orphans, who were stranded in a sanatorium in Mariupol, a Ukrainian port besieged by Russian forces, have been evacuated to one of the two capitals of pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, their authorities said on Sunday. close to AFP.

A total of 19 children and adolescents, aged four to 17, lived for about two weeks in the frozen basements of this sanatorium, which specializes in the treatment of pulmonary diseases, Russian missiles having fallen not far from the establishment.

"I don't know how to get them back now"

Living in the Donetsk region, in towns not far from Mariupol (southeast), they had been sent to this sanatorium before the outbreak of the Russian offensive on February 24.

Olga Lopatkina, the guardian of six of these children, had called for their evacuation to Europe where she is currently taking refuge.

But on Sunday, one of them called her to tell her they had been taken to Donetsk, the capital of a rebel "republic" currently under Russian control, she told AFP , stating that they had been placed in a hospital there.

"I don't know how to get them back now," said Olga Lopatkina, adding that the conversation was quick and no adult contacted her to inform her of the children's current whereabouts.

Children from orphanages in the Donetsk region

Alexei Volochchuk, a relative of a sanatorium employee who had taken refuge there for a while before being able to leave Mariupol, told AFP that Russian soldiers had prevented their evacuation to Zaporizhie, a city controlled by Ukrainian troops. .

According to him, a local elected official arrived to take the children in an ambulance via a humanitarian corridor, but during an inspection at a checkpoint in Berdyansk, the Russian military decided to send them to Donetsk because that they were from that region.

AFP was unable to contact the sanatorium as all communications were virtually cut off in Mariupol.

Most of the children came from the orphanages located in the Donetsk region, but from its part which escaped the control of the separatists of the “Donetsk People's Republic” (DNR).

The tuberculosis charity, Stop TB, headquartered in Geneva, told AFP of its concern about the fate of these children, its executive director saying she was "desperate" in the face of the difficulties of their evacuation. combat areas.

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