"Throw these mafia Ukrainians out of here!": a scandal erupts in Vietnam over Ukrainian orphans and their guardian

Recently, Ukrainian woman Olga Podusova said that she and the children she cares for were victims of violence by employees of a Vietnamese school that had previously accepted children for study during the war in Ukraine. She reported the incident on her Facebook page. Now this  page is closed, but the information published by Olga attracted our attention. UNN decided to find out what happened, what is the position of the parties to the conflict and whether Ukrainian diplomats are aware of the situation. 

Beating of children 

The incident reported by Olga in her post took place on April 17 in Ho Chi Minh City. According to the woman, she wanted to discuss the extension of her visa, which expires on May 16, with the director of the APU International School. The children have been in this school since November 2022. We are talking about 15 children in total, including one boy with autism. 

"The school principal, Mr. Tri Tran, hit me on the arm and pushed me. He started shouting that I was harassing him. Several of my children saw this and ran up to the principal screaming for them to let me go, while others filmed it on their phones. The head doctor, Binh Chanh, yelled at the guards: "Throw these mafia Ukrainians out of here!" The guards grabbed me and the seven children by the legs and stomach, pushed  and threw us out of the APU school," Olga wrote on her Facebook page.

Then, according to her, the children continued filming, after which the guards became furious and began chasing the children around the yard. Then, according to Olga's description, a real drama unfolded, in which the children were beaten by school staff. 

"Nastya hit her head and still continued to hide the phone with the video, but three men started kicking the girl, and then sat on top of her, all three of them knocked the phone out of her hands," she writes.

16-year-old Anastasia, who, according to Olga, has epilepsy, fainted from the beating. The guards also hit 14-year-old Khrystyna on the head with an umbrella cane, causing her to lose consciousness. During the incident, according to Podusova, the guards' actions also injured the other children who were with her. 

"Nastya was lying on the road near the gate on the territory of  school for 2 hours. The police called an ambulance, but the school did not let the ambulance leave the school grounds. The child stayed under the gate until nightfall," Olga writes.

According to Olga, the school opened the gates for the ambulance only after she called the wife of the Ukrainian ambassador. Olga then took the injured children to the hospital by taxi on her own. 

Olga posted photos and videos with her children - we do not publish them for ethical reasons. 

According to the guardian, the school administration called the Ukrainian ambassador to Vietnam, Oleksandr Haman, to defend themselves and slander her. 

"Mr. Haman responded to all my evidence about the beating of children and unsanitary conditions by saying that I was fine with it before. And then he started threatening me and sided with the school," Olga wrote. 

According to her, Haman told her to "keep quiet" because if she did, her children would be taken away from her, she would be deprived of custody  and she would be accused of embezzling public funds. 

Later, according to Olha, she and her children were not allowed to leave the school grounds at all.

"They didn't let us go, today they let us go for the powder. They took 3 phones from us, one of which had a bank application on it, and I'm actually without money, I buy with a barcode. No one tells us why they are not letting us go, no one talks to us. We come to the gate, and there is a lock," she says in a comment to UNN.

In a commentary to UNN, Olga Podusova said that such incidents had already happened to her and her children before.

"There have been similar situations before, they beat me and my children, and I even had to have surgery because of it. It happened last spring, but I endured it for the sake of the children," she says.

Olha says that the dormitory where she lives with her children is full of unsanitary conditions, mold, problems with water supply and fire safety.

"Water is poured on the children's bed, they wake up completely wet, after which they start coughing a lot and this has been repeatedly recorded by the school nurse," she writes.

When Olha complained, the director replied that they lived on the 4th floor and it would be very difficult to repair the pipes, so they should be patient.

The Ukrainian woman also complained that she had to pay all the financial expenses: cell phones, bicycles, school uniforms, and much more.

"I've been with these children for 14 years, what do I earn from them? I'm not a family-type orphanage, I have no salary, no seniority, and all our money goes to medicine," she complains.

Olha says that they are now waiting for the consul's decision, because they cannot leave Vietnam because they simply do not have the money.

Interestingly, a month before the incident, Podusova gave an interview in which she said that they were treated well in Vietnam.

"Despite the fact that we are in such a distant and unfamiliar country for most Ukrainians, we feel comfortable here. Vietnamese people are very polite and friendly, they treat children very well. I don't know Vietnamese, but I don't feel like a stranger here," she said in interview.  

School position 

 "APU  International School" is an international private school, with an American curriculum, both Americans and Vietnamese teachers, and Vietnamese owners.

"To date, APU International Schools has privately subsidized more than $461,000 for 15 Ukrainian children and their guardian, Ms. Olga Podusova. From Monday to Friday, the children attend school from 07:30 to 15:30. They also receive free school uniforms and books. Three full meals a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner) are provided, except on Saturdays and Sundays, when the school cafeteria is closed. At this time, meals are ordered specifically for children. The level of educational services, including accommodation and meals, is equal to, if not higher than, that of students from Vietnam, Korea and the United States of America," the school said. 

According to the school's administration, the school voluntarily opened its doors and offered support to 14 children "deprived of parental care" and 1 child with autism (along with his guardian), including scholarships to cover tuition, room and board for each child, an average of $1,800 per child per month. 

The children have been in the institution since November 2022. 

UNN has a letter sent by the school administration to the Ukrainian ambassador to Vietnam.

In this letter, the administration, in particular, comments on the situation with the beating:

"Ms. Olga Podusova used intimidation tactics to force the school to continue sponsoring her visa to Vietnam, and she sent a message to the head demanding 800 USD per month for her to rent a villa on the beach. The reason she made this request is that she does not like the dormitory provided by the school. Throughout the day on April 16, 2024, Ms. Podusova walked the corridors pointing her camera phone at staff members, demanding that the school support the extension of her visa to Vietnam. Ms. Podusova visited the Human Resources Department at least 6 times and began videotaping one of the Human Resources staff members, Ms. Nhut Thi Nguyen, then walked across the hall and burst into the office of Ms. Anh-Nhi Nvin (Chief Risk Management Office) to argue with another member of the Executive Staff who was having a conference with Ms. Nvin. When Ms. Nwin calmly and kindly asked her to leave the office if she did not have an appointment, Ms. Podusova did as she was asked. Four hours later, however, Ms. Podusova began sending unsolicited text messages to Ms. Nwin's number, claiming that she had raised her voice and that Ms. Nwin needed "education.

The school provided its video 

Representatives of APU International School also said in the letter that Olga left the children unattended, physically abused and exploited them. They cite several situations:

• September 2023: About a year after their arrival, teachers at the primary school began to notice signs of physical abuse of one of the children. The signs of abuse were not an isolated incident and were noticed by more than one teacher. When they tried to question the children, they refused to talk.
• From November 2023 to April 2024: Olga Podusova left the children unattended at least 4 times in the evening - from 21:00 to late midnight.
  
• From November 2023 to April 2024: Olga Podusova took underage children to a local Russian bar after school hours and forced them to "work" at the bar from 4:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. This resulted in the children falling asleep during class the next day. In addition, these children would get to the Russian bar by bicycle on a major highway, where there were no bike lanes. According to the school administrators, "This is incredibly dangerous, given the number of 18-wheel trucks and double-decker tourist buses that have traveled on this highway. However, when questioned, Ms. Podusova casually justified her danger to children and called it an "internship" for underage children to go to an establishment that serves alcohol." 

The school says that because of such incidents, they began to strictly enforce a curfew at 9 p.m. sharp. According to the letter, this angered Olha, who demanded "free" time to be able to leave her children unattended.

"She frequents dance classes and nightclubs. When she was unable to enjoy her weekly dance club escapades, Ms. Podusova cited a "mental disorder" because she was "locked up" in a "prison." When school guards stood their ground and prevented Ms. Podusova from returning to school after 9 p.m., she shouted "rape". Once, when she returned only after 1:00 a.m. and was not allowed to enter the school, she forced her children to leave and slept with them on the sidewalk until 4:00 a.m.," APU International School said.

What outside observers and the Ukrainian diaspora say 

The situation is being actively discussed on social media. It turns out that Olga and her children have already attracted attention. 

"On her Facebook page, Olya was gently asking for money from her followers, not revealing the real picture and saying that they suddenly felt sick at the school where they had spent 17 months. But if you think that this is the first conflict and that the language barrier is to blame, then almost the same story happened in Poland. At the beginning of the war, Olya also drew the attention of Polish guardianship services to herself and her inadequate extortionate behavior, and there, too, the question of depriving her of her guardianship rights arose," writes Olya's subscriber.

In addition, there is information about Olha and the Ukrainian diaspora in Vietnam. 

"There is a large community of Ukrainians in Da Nang. We offered to help, to come, to look into it, to send an interpreter, etc. She blocks us and deletes our comments. She doesn't need the help she claims, she just needs someone to raise money for her, it's not clear why and it's not clear where the $25,000 came from," the comments read.

One of the representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora offered Olga free translation services to resolve the conflict, as she did not understand English, but she ignored the offer.

We also found a person in the comments who was allegedly directly involved in Olga's communication with the school and the embassy. 

"I helped with communication between the school and Olha, the school and the Ukrainian embassy, and the carriers at the initial stage. It was stated that the school provided tuition, flight, accommodation on the school grounds, meals, school uniforms and textbooks for the children for the period of study at the school. I personally checked with Olga about the financial situation to meet my and my children's needs, but this issue was perceived aggressively," Iryna Shevchuk wrote under Olga's post.

Eventually, all negative comments were removed. When asked by UNN why Olga deleted the comments, she answered as follows:

As for the fact that I block some people, first of all, I don't know who they are, and secondly, they write a lot, and then it turns out that they are people from the school, so I am careful about this situation and don't trust anyone.

How the Embassy of Ukraine reacts 

In order to have a complete picture of the situation, UNN contacted the Ambassador of Ukraine to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Olexander Haman.

"We received a message from the school because there was a conflict initiated by Olga Podusova. There was no direct appeal from Olga to us about this situation. It was only later that I tried to talk to her and somehow resolve what happened," Haman told UNN, commenting on the beating that took place on April 17.

He added that a consul has already arrived to see Olga and they are trying to resolve  the situation.

According to him, during his communication with Olha, she never reported that her children were beaten or beaten. Her only complaint was that she did not want to live in the dormitory and asked to rent a villa.

He also  commented on the funding situation. According to him, it is not true that Olga financed everything on her own.

"A month ago, we appealed to our guardianship authorities in Odesa region to help us resolve some issues, as there were already some disagreements. It turned out that Ms. Podusova received some money for the children and was their official guardian. It is not true that Olha took over all the financing of the children. Their stay in Vietnam, schooling, accommodation, meals, school uniforms and books -  all of this was purchased at the expense of sponsors. If we are talking about some additional things, such as candy, for example, then maybe she bought it for them, at the expense of the fees that she periodically announced on Facebook or other social networks," Haman said.

He believes that this conflict has gone too far, so they are working to bring the children back to Ukraine.

"Given that the conflict has gone too far, the school has refused to continue the program to assist the Podusova children. We have officially appealed to  Ukrainian guardianship authorities to ensure the children's return to Ukraine, and we hope that this will happen very soon. We are working on this, because there are 15 children, it will not be enough to accompany Olga alone, and as far as I know, Olga has no desire to return to Ukraine," he added.

Haman also explained that he was not sure what to make of the accusations made by the school:

"These cases will be investigated by the guardianship authorities in Ukraine, where the question will be raised whether they will remain guardians after such situations or not." 

"The fact that she says that she and her children are not being released to Ukraine is not true. In the coming days, the children will be returned to Ukraine, where the guardianship authorities will decide their fate," he concluded.

We also learned that this is not the first time Olga has been involved in a scandal.

In 2021, Olga Podusova stated on social media that she was deliberately not given the children she had taken custody of so that they would remain in the boarding school system. She even organized a rally near the center for psychological and social rehabilitation in Odesa, where the children were being held.

The head of the regional children's service, Natalia Utupina, then reported that Podusova  had filed a refusal to register the children in order to find potential adoptive families.

UNN will keep the situation under control, because the main thing in this situation is children, their safety and health.