A BOY among up to 20,000 children rounded up by Vladimir Putin’s invaders was saved by his mum just days before he was to be sent to Russia for a forced adoption.
Twelve-year-old Kirill Sakalo was taken along with 80 others after being told they were going on a school trip to the coast.
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Desperate mum Natalia tried in vain for five months to track him down until a charity found the Crimean boarding house where he was held.
Save Ukraine arranged passports for Natalia, 42, and Kirill and planned and funded her 6,000-mile round trip that spanned four countries and two timezones.
In normal times it would take five hours to drive from Kherson — occupied on the first day of the war — to Yevpateriya. Instead it took six days.
Natalia went from Kherson — which by now had been liberated — to capital Kyiv where she boarded a train for Poland.
Next came Minsk, in Belarus, and a flight to Moscow.
Natalia and other worried parents then had a 1,200-mile road trip to Krasnodar, and over the bombed Kerch Bridge into Russian-annexed Crimea.
She was reunited with Kirill on April 3 — and was just in time.
Three more days would have marked six months since Kirill left home and he had been told that under Russian law that would make him eligible for compulsory adoption.
Holding back tears, Natalia told The Sun: “At first, I didn’t recognise him. He had grown so much, he was so tall and his hair was long like a rock star.
“Hugging him again was the best feeling in the world.”
The group returned with 31 kids — taking the total so far rescued from Russian soil by Save Ukraine to 96.
Tragically, two children had to be left behind because their grandmother had died of natural causes on April 2 on the final leg of the journey.
Save Ukraine said the camp authorities refused to hand over the grandchildren.
The Sakalo family’s nightmare had begun in October after Kirill went on the two-week school trip for pupils aged from six to 16.
Teachers texted that they were staying a few more days — then a few more. One by one the four teachers left.
On the days Kirill was allowed to use his mobile phone, he asked Natalia and his gran Tatiana, 73, to get him home. He had never spent a night away before.
Kirill was then moved to a boarding house in Luchysty. Classes were taught in Russian and he was made to sing the Russian anthem in front of visiting TV crews.
He said: “They were always punishing us — forcing us to walk in circles for hours.”
The man in charge wore body armour and a helmet, though they were 100 miles from the front line.
Kirill recalled how the man one day announced: “Your parents do not want you. We are sending you to Russia to new ones.”
Meanwhile, Natalia and Tatiana had been frantically searching for help.
Troops who had seized Kherson were forced to flee and Russian guns were pounding their neighbourhood.
All but two families in their apartment block left, but Natalia and Tatiana dared not move away.
At the camp, Kirill hatched a perilous escape plan involving clambering over a wall, avoiding checkpoints and exploding mines by throwing bricks.
He called Tatiana, who persuaded him to hang on.
Now they share a one-room bedsit in a temporary shelter in Kyiv. Natalia said: “We don’t have a lot, but we have each other, we are together.”
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