Olesia Bida

The documentary follows the story of Iryna's family (name changed), who fled Russian occupation to save her son from possible conscription. Before leaving, representatives of the occupation authorities pressured her to enroll her children in a local school, threatening to send them to an orphanage if she didn't. Another key figure in the investigation, Oksana (name changed), was promised a holiday in Crimea on the Black Sea coast by the occupying authorities. Instead, she was taken to a military training camp in Russia — part of a program established under Putin's initiative after 2022. At the camp, Oksana was taught to dig trenches, operate drones, and carry out tasks under the supervision of Russian military instructors, who in some cases fought in Russia's war against Ukraine.

In June 2023, there was an explosion at the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant. Several pieces of evidence showed that the Russian military, who were in control of the hydroelectric power plant at the time, had blown it up from the inside. The occupied east bank of Kherson Oblast suffered more than the west bank due to its geography, being lower down the river. Dozens of settlements and summer cottages, where thousands of people lived, were submerged in water. Representatives of the Russian occupying forces did not recognize the scale of the disaster and said that there was no need to evacuate civilians.

Journalists from The Kyiv Independent conducted an investigation and spoke with relatives and guardians whose children were on the verge of being sent to Russia. Bypassing the front line, their loved ones traveled through several European countries to Donetsk to pick up their children and prevent them from being transferred to Russian families. The journalists also identified a group of children who were deported to Russia last spring under the guise of a health retreat at the Polyany resort. They were promised to be returned in a month, but instead were placed in the care of Russian families. Ukrainian collaborators who remained working on the Russian side in 2014 were involved in the deportation of this group of children.

Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukrainian law enforcement agencies have recorded 292 cases of sexual violence by the Russian military. This figure likely represents just the tip of the iceberg. “He Came Back” is an investigative documentary about sexual crimes that were committed during the Russian occupation of Kyiv and Kherson oblasts in early 2022. Two women agreed to tell journalists from the Kyiv Independent’s War Crimes Investigations Unit about what they went through and how they are seeking justice.