CNN uncovered more details this week about a teen girl from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol who spoke on stage at a pro-war rally attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on February 22.
The girl, named Anna, was seen getting emotional and then encouraged by an organizer to hug a uniformed man described as her rescuer.
The group of children, who were also described as being rescued from eastern Ukraine, were ushered to hug the man.
CNN's Melissa Bell reported that Anna's mother, a single parent of three, was killed in besieged Mariupol after leaving a basement shelter.
Bell said she was able to track down a family member and a woman who sheltered in the city for weeks with Anna.
The woman was shocked and burst into tears at one point, Bell said, telling CNN "this is a child, and what's being done to her is simply completely inhumane."
Bell also reported that the girl has faced abuse online for her appearance.
Anna has been "several times over a victim of this war," the woman said.
"It's an extraordinary story of a child completely unprotected, and open to very public abuse ever since," Bell said.
According to a new report released in mid-February, the Russian government has been operating a network of camps where it has held thousands of Ukrainian children and undertaken a campaign of political re-education.
Watch here:Russia is to blame for anime-inspired teen gangs brawling in the streets of Ukraine, Kyiv says
Ukrainian authorities are accusing Russia of trying to export an unlikely phenomenon: teenage gangs inspired by a Japanese anime game who are taking to the streets for mass brawls.
These gangs have become known as “Redan PMC,” combining the name of a Japanese anime character with the acronym for Private Military Company, made infamous by the Wagner mercenary group.
They appear to have started in Moscow as a vehicle for teenagers to fight organized gangs of football fans. The teenagers organize through Telegram channels and turn up at designated venues as flash mobs. A recent video showed a running battle at a shopping mall in the Russian capital. Russian news agencies also reported a brawl at a subway station in Moscow.
Redan gangs have also begun appearing on the streets of several Ukrainian cities – giving more work to an already overstretched police force. Groups of teenagers have gathered in the capital, Kyiv, as well as Lviv and Kharkiv; a 16-year-old alleged ringleader was detained in Dnipro.
Redan’s emergence has even gotten the Kremlin talking. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday it was important to stop “illegal actions," referring to the gangs as a "pseudo-subculture" that "does nothing good for our youth.”
But Ukraine’s national police claim the Russians are trying to export Redan’s negative influence to Ukrainian teenagers through a disinformation campaign on Telegram channels.
Read more here.This map shows the latest state of control in Ukraine