Russia has launched 12 youth propagandistic movements to militarize Ukrainian children in partially occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukrinform reported on July 24, citing the head of the local police, Artem Kysko.
Over 19,500 children have been confirmed as abducted by Russia since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and nearly 800 of them have been brought back home, according to Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
In June, investigators of the international human rights organization Human Rights Watch revealed numerous violations by Russia of the global right of children to education in the occupied territories.
The violations included introducing its own education system, spreading anti-Ukrainian propaganda, and military training.
The Russian proxies conduct propaganda activities among children and youth in the cities of Melitopol and Berdiansk, according to Kysko.
Kysko added that Russian President Vladimir Putin has a person in charge who goes to the occupied territories once a week and controls how these movements develop.
"They (Russian proxies) are militarizing their youth organizations, training children to kill," said Kysko.
Ukrainian law enforcement officers are working to identify the people involved in establishing such movements, charge them in absentia with committing criminal offenses, and then bring them to justice, according to Kysko.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova and Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 17, 2023, over the deportation of Ukrainian children.
Putin previously praised Lvova-Belova for her work overseeing the deportation of Ukrainian children, portraying it as a so-called "humanitarian effort" to "protect Russian citizens."
Some children who were abducted and deported to Russia were possibly put up for adoption on a government-linked adoption site, according to an investigation released by the Financial Times (FT) on June 12.
Ukrainian children who have been forcibly deported to Russia are subject to systemic re-education efforts by Russian authorities, according to a report published by the Guardian on Feb. 4.
Kateryna Hodunova
