Ukraine returns 11 children from Russia
Nearly 6,000 Ukrainian children evacuated or forcibly removed from occupied territories will start school in Russia on September 1 as part of the Kremlin’s “re-education” programme, Russian officials have reported.
The Ministry of General and Vocational Education of the Rostov Region, which neighbours the Donbas and southeastern Ukraine, announced this week that it will host thousands of new children at the start of the first school term.
Last year, nearly 3,000 children (at least) were forcibly resettled and enrolled in Russian schools. Thousands more will now join them this year.
While some pro-Russian Ukrainians will have made the move voluntarily, the vast majority have been relocated against their will, sometimes without their parents.
Russian children’s commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova has said that more than 700,000 Ukrainian children have been taken from Ukraine to Russia since the start of the full-scale invasion.
READ MORE Putin targeting schoolchildren in occupied territories with propaganda
A statement published on August 29 from the education ministry in Rostov read: “To date, 5.7 thousand children have been enrolled in schools in the region.
“The rest of the students refused to study in schools in the Rostov region in connection with distance learning in schools in new regions and Ukraine.”
These quotes were reprinted by Tavriya TV, a propagandistic news channel opened in Kherson last August. The new channel is part of a propaganda drive in Kherson that Russia hopes will help cement its hold over the southern Ukrainian city.
Anton Alikhanov, the governor of Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave, said journalists from his city would come to Kherson to “help” the new channel find the right message.
Don’t miss…
Russia forces hundreds of kidnapped Ukrainian kids into ‘patriotic training'[REPORT]
Ukrainian children duck and scream as Russian missile strikes[VIDEO]
Putin sidelines top university candidates for children of Russian soldiers[REVEAL]
Reports of children “refusing to study in schools” likely masks an attempt to avoid the brainwashing attempts of the Kremlin in education, which Ukrianians believe is tantamount to genocide.
In the absence of free places in schools at the place of residence, children will be enrolled in nearby schools, the Ministry added in its latest update.
A US-backed report by Yale University researchers published earlier this year found that Russia was holding at least 6,000 Ukrainian children in “re-education” camps.
Yale University researchers said they had identified at least 43 camps and other facilities, part of a “large-scale systematic network” operated by Moscow since its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
“The primary purpose of the camp facilities we’ve identified appears to be political re-education,” Nathaniel Raymond, one of the researchers, said in a briefing to reporters.
We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info
The youngest child identified in the Russian programme was just four months old, and some camps were giving military training to children as young as 14 years, Mr Raymond added.
Reports suggest students have been instructed to learn the Russian national anthem while being taught about the unsubstantiated prevalence of Ukrainian Nazism, which the Kremlin has cited as its justification for the “special military operation”.
Russian children’s commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova has said that more than 700,000 Ukrainian children have been taken from Ukraine to Russia. On March 17, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Lvova-Belova.
They were charged with being responsible for the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, which is a war crime under international legislation.
Source: Read Full Article