20 armed soldiers arrived and gave a day to pack-up: another Russian suspect appeared in the case of deportation of children from Mykolaiv region

Children from a Mykolaiv educational institution at the time of their release from detention in the Russian Federation and relocation to Tbilisi, 2022. Photo: Slidstvo.info

The Security Service of Ukraine has served a notice of suspicion to Russian serviceman Kakhaberi Karbai of abducting 15 children from a boarding school during the occupation of Mykolaiv region in 2022.

The text of the suspicion, dated 11 November, was published on the website of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine.

During the occupation of Snihurivka district, the village of Novopetrivka, home to an orphanage that ensures the rights of children with special educational needs, came under the control of the Russian army. At the time, there were 15 children in the institution.

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Unidentified by the pre-trial investigation, persons from the political and military leadership of the Russian Federation intended to forcibly transfer Ukrainian children between the territories of Ukraine and Russia for further adoption or placement under guardianship.

The abduction involved a soldier of the 108th Air Assault Regiment, Kakhaberi Karbai («Kaha») and a soldier of the Motorised Cossack Brigade, Dzhabrail Yusupov («Gabriel»), the latter of whom was suspected exactly one year ago. They were looking for children who had been left without parental care or were in boarding schools, preventing them from leaving or evacuating to the territory controlled by Ukraine, and subsequently controlling their transportation to the Russian Federation.

In March, they arrived at the institution together with other unidentified persons to introduce themselves that they would control the village. And in April, the director Nataliia Lutsyk was approached with a proposal to move the children to Crimea. However, she refused and began to look for ways to leave the occupation. Later, 20 armed Russian soldiers arrived at the institution and said that everyone was being taken to the occupied Kherson region. They gave them a day to pack their belongings.

On 15 July 2022, they took the children, accompanied by Nataliia Lutsyk and her husband, to a facility in the village of Stepanivka in the Kherson region, where they stayed until 19 October. The deportation was later facilitated by the Deputy Minister of the occupation Ministry of Youth Policy and Sports in Kherson Oblast, Heorhii Tambovtsev, and the Rector of Kherson State Agrarian and Economic University, Yevheniia Chernyshova.

Chernyshova personally came to Stepanivka to pick up the children. They were brought to Kherson, put on a boat and transported to Oleshky, and then to Dzhankoi in occupied Crimea. From Crimea, the children were taken in a separate carriage to the Russian city of Anapa and accommodated in the sanatorium «Pearl of Russia».

They managed to return only on 17 November with the help of the TEMI Charitable Union. The children and their accompanying persons were evacuated to Tbilisi, Georgia, where they were protected by volunteers until 29 October 2025.

Kakhaberi Karbai was served a notice of suspicion under Part 2 of Article 28, Part 1 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

As a reminder, eight children from the Novopetrivka boarding school were returned to Ukraine after three years in Georgia. The Mykolaiv Regional Regional Administration NikVesti said that the children are currently undergoing rehabilitation in a Kyiv institution.

What about the children from the Novopetrivka boarding school?

During the occupation, 16 children were taken from Novopetrivka boarding school. All of them, according to the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, later ended up in Georgia. The children were taken to Georgia by the director of the institution, Nataliia Lutsyk.

In July 2023, journalists from «Slidstvo.Info» identified the abductors of orphans who were taken to the Russian Federation during the occupation of Snihuriv district from the Novopetrivka boarding school.

In March 2024, the Security Service of Ukraine collected evidence against two more citizens involved in the deportation of Mykolaiv children to Russia.

Last year, one of the children was taken from Georgia to the United States by her foster mother, American Bethany White, who adopted 16-year-old Yulia. The process began in 2020, but all bureaucratic issues were completed only on 23 February 2022. So Yuliia, along with 14 other children, met the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in the village of Novopetrivka. Now she is with her new family in the United States.

Subsequently, law enforcement officers served a notice of suspicion on the commander of the department of the 205th separate motorised rifle brigade of the Russian armed forces, Dzhabrail Yusupov, call sign «Gabriel». According to the case file, it was under his command that the military abducted 15 children. It should be noted that, in addition, Dzhabrail Yusupov also participated in the abduction and torture of civilians. In early August 2025, Ukrainian investigators completed an investigation into the abduction of children. According to the Prosecutor General, the evidence will be used both in Ukrainian courts and international institutions.