Hundreds of kids from east Ukraine stranded in Russia camps

By LORI HINNANT, EVGENIY MALOLETKA and VASILISA STEPANENKO
Associated Press

IZIUM, Ukraine (AP) — Hundreds of children from eastern Ukraine are stranded in Russian summer camps, on the wrong side of a front line that shifted after they were bused away for what was supposed to be holiday. Parents in the occupied towns of eastern Ukraine who sent their children to the camps are now desperately trying to get them back. At least 52 children in the town of Izium along with 250 more from other towns in the Kharkiv region left on buses in late August. A Ukrainian counteroffensive forced Russian troops into retreat in the Kharkiv region. The children — ages 9 to 16 — are stranded almost 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from home.