In Moscow, police prosecute a six-grader who asked questions about Ukraine – Russian media

KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO — MONDAY, 7 MARCH 2022, 18:08

In Moscow, police visited the home of a sixth-grader who asked about the war with Ukraine in a class and shouted "Glory to Ukraine!" during the break. The electricity supply to his apartment was cut off and his parents were summoned to the police station.

Source: Novaya Gazeta

Details: 12-year-old Kyrylo, who has Ukrainian roots, started asking his teacher questions about the "special operation" in Ukraine in a history lesson on March 4.

Kyrylo's quote: "I asked: 'Why did Putin start a [special operation] (apparently the boy said 'war', but the Russian media is forbidden to use that word - UP)?" The teacher replied "It was a special operation. I don't know exactly where our troops are now, but if they stopped halfway, Ukraine's aggression would continue." A small part of the class was on my side, they also asked questions.

The teacher said: "Experts from Ukraine and the United States are now posting fake information, saying that people are being beaten at protests. But protests must be coordinated." I asked, "How can a protest against the government's actions be coordinated with the government?" She didn't really give me an answer. After that, I asked the question, why would anyone start it at all and when will it all end? She said that Ukraine started it and it will end when Ukraine capitulates.

She also told us that Ukrainians thrive on Nazism, that first-grade school textbooks there say that Ukraine is a superpower. I have many friends from Ukraine. I asked them - they do not have this in their textbooks."

Details: After that, according to Kyrylo, he went to another lesson and shouted in the corridor: "Glory to Ukraine!" Some of the students sitting in the corridor responded with a slogan.

Kyrylo's mother says that she received a call on WhatsApp from an unfamiliar mobile phone and was invited to talk to the police about her son. She refused, and the caller told her they would  send her a summons.

The next morning, her son's class teacher called Kyrylo’s mother and invited her to come to the school. She explained that the juvenile inspectorate wanted to talk to her and her son.

Natalia went to the school and wrote a statement that she was taking her son out of the school "due to the fact that her child was being pressured and that intolerable conditions are being placed on his education" because of her political views. She put him in a taxi and took him to her workplace. She ran into a group of police officers at the school entrance.

The next day, on Sunday, Kyrylo was home alone. Two policemen started knocking on the door of his apartment, but Kyrylo did not open it. They knocked for about half an hour, then turned off the electricity in the apartment, left a note containing a  "summons for questioning" at the door and left. In the summons the date of the interrogation is illegible, and there is a threat to "take action" should she fail to appear.

Kyrylo believes that "the teachers are wrong."

"We are told that the people of Ukraine have been brainwashed, but it seems to me we’re the ones being brainwashed," the boy said.