STORY: The children, aged 5 to 15, are set to spend two weeks in the sanatoriums in Crimea's Yevpatoria area, before returning to their parents.

Not all of them will be able to return to their native towns and villages, though.

More than 15 months after President Vladimir Putin sent his army into Ukraine, Belgorod and its surrounding region are feeling the blowback from Moscow's "special military operation" more painfully than any other part of Russia. Shelling in the area has been almost daily in recent weeks.