Kira Obedinsky was a happy, adored 12-year-old girl before Russia’s assault on Ukraine began. She has become an unsuspecting player in Moscow’s propaganda war, orphaned, wounded, and alone in a Russian-controlled hospital in eastern Ukraine.

When Obedinsky was a child, her mother died. Yevhen Obedinsky, a former captain of Ukraine’s national water polo team, was shot and murdered on March 17 when Russian soldiers pushed their way into Mariupol, Ukraine’s southeastern metropolis.
Kira and her father’s girlfriend attempted to depart the city on foot with neighbours a few days later. Kira was transported to a hospital in the Donetsk area, which is held by Moscow-backed rebels, after she was injured by a landmine blast.

Oleksander, Kira’s grandfather, is now afraid he may never see her again. He said he received a phone call from a representative of the Donetsk separatist government, inviting him to fly to Donetsk to claim her, which he stated was impossible due to the fighting.

He claims he spoke with the hospital and was informed Kira will be transported to a Russian orphanage.
The Russian government claims to have assisted in the movement of at least 60,000 Ukrainians across the Russian border to safety. Around 40,000 people have been moved against their will, according to the Ukrainian government, which has described it as kidnapping and forced expulsion.

Since Russian soldiers entered Ukraine on February 24, approximately 433,000 Ukrainian refugees have landed in Russia, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Thousands of people have been forcefully deported to Russia, according to Ukrainian officials, after Russian forces prevented safe access to Ukrainian-controlled territory and transferred evacuees without their will to far-flung districts of Russia.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has accused Russia of driving refugees from Mariupol into Russia.

“Hundreds of thousands, if not tens of thousands, were compelled to flee in the direction of the Russian Federation, and we have no idea where they are because they left no paper trail,” the president told CNN.

“Several thousand children are among them, and we want to know what happened to them. Whether or if they are healthy. Regrettably, there isn’t any information available about this.”
Moscow has scoffed at reports of forced deportations, claiming that Ukraine is obstructing its efforts to “evacuate” people to Russia.
However, according to a number of Ukrainians, they were given just two options: go to Russia or die.

Thousands of Ukrainian citizens are being processed through so-called “filtration camps,” where they are biometrically scanned and their phones and documents taken before being transferred to Russia, according to Ukrainian and US authorities and independent human-rights monitors.
The Russians have also confiscated Kira’s documents, according to Oleksander, and she will be given new ones in Russia.

The video shows Kira talking enthusiastically about how she’s occasionally permitted to phone her grandfather, despite the fact that the Russian media has consistently minimised the horror of the crisis in Ukraine.

According to one Russian TV host, this is “evidence” that she wasn’t kidnapped, and the story is yet another “Ukrainian fabrication.”
Oleksander, meantime, has received an audio message from Kira, encouraging him not to weep. However, the little girl, who has lost her family, freedom, and home as a result of Russia’s war, is unable to hold back her sorrow.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you,” she says. “I’m in the mood to cry.”