Russia training Ukrainian kids to fight against their homeland: Study

Project to indoctrinate kids from occupied territory found to be far larger than thought

- Andrew E. Kramer

Russia's secretive programme of reeducation and military and police training for Ukrainian children from occupied territories is far larger than estimated earlier, war crime investigators at Yale University said in a study released on Sept 16.

Russian policies towards Ukrainian war orphans and children separated from their parents in areas controlled by the Russian army have outraged Ukrainians and prompted investigations of war crimes. One such case led the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for President Vladimir Putin and a top aide.

Investigators have examined instances in which Ukrainian parents were killed by the Russian army in its invasion and their children were subsequently educated in Russian language and culture. In other cases, Ukrainian children were put up for adoption or placed in foster care with Russian families.

Children from Ukraine have been put in schools and cadet academies with military training oriented towards the fight against their own homeland, the Yale study found.

Russian law enforcement agencies have also run programmes to care for Ukrainian children, it found.

The study, by the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health, documented at least 210 sites in Russia and in occupied areas that hold Ukrainian children. Among them are military cadet schools; camps with a Russian nationalist orientation; and Russian Orthodox monasteries, schools, summer camps, orphanages and hospitals.