In Louhansk in Ukraine, adolescence under Russian occupation – Liberation

On September 1, 2013, the day of the start of the school year, Ivan Sarancha, who entered the preparatory class in Louhansk, looked with a dreamy air a large Ukrainian flag floating in the school courtyard. It was the last year that the 7 -year -old child saw the yellow and blue flag in his hometown. In 2014, local separatists illegally seized this regional center in eastern Ukraine to form the People’s Republic of Louhansk (LNR), controlled by Russia. In October 2022, Vladimir Putin, in flagrant violation of international law, Integrated the region into the Russian Federation.

During the winter of 2025, Ivan, who became an 18 -year -old fellow with wide shoulders, after having cheated on his parents’ vigilance, escapes from the occupied region. Arrived in Kyiv, he saw the Ukrainian flag again, for the first time in eleven years. « I still can’t believe that I have succeeded », He said happily, installed in the premises of the NGO that welcomed it. He carries around a chain with a small trident, a Ukrainian national symbol.

Ivan grew up in an ordinary family. His father is a taxi driver, his mother with a seamstress. After the independence of Ukraine in 1991, they continued to live in the past, nostalgic for the Soviet Union and admitted