Russia wants to take tens of thousands of Ukrainian children from occupied territories to Russia – ISW

Russian authorities are preparing to step up deportations of Ukrainian children to Russia over the summer, reinforcing another component of Russia's genocidal campaign in Ukraine.

Source: Institute for the Study of War (ISW)

Details: Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the so-called Luhansk People's Republic (a self-proclaimed and non-recognised quasi-state formation in Luhansk Oblast – ed.), said on 27 May that Russian regions would "host" more than 12,000 children from the occupied part of Luhansk Oblast during 2024.

Russian programme Useful Vacations will fund a trip for 40,000 children from occupied Ukraine who will "visit" Russia to participate in summer camps and educational activities.

Pasechnik also reported that summer children's camps in occupied Crimea and in Russia are preparing to "host" more than 600 children from occupied Ukraine over the summer, including the Ocean summer camp in Vladivostok, Primorsky Krai (which is closer to Alaska than Ukraine). 

The occupying Ministry of Labour of Kherson Oblast also announced that children from occupied Kherson Oblast would attend the Ocean camp to participate in an "educational, sports, and cultural programme".

Andrei Alekseenko, Russian-appointed senator of Kherson Oblast, said on 27 May that 575 children from occupied Kherson Oblast will attend three-week summer camps in occupied Crimea and the Russian Republic of Adygea.

The so-called Ministry of Education and Science of "LPR" reported that an unspecified number of teenagers from occupied Luhansk Oblast will attend a military-patriotic sports camp at the Avangard camp in Russia's Volgograd Oblast and receive training in military engineering, tactics, firefighting, parachuting, communications, national security, drone operations and tactical medicine.

Despite Russia's efforts to present the summer camps for Ukrainian children as temporary recreational and educational activities, they are a fundamental part of Russia's campaign to deport Ukrainians, including children, to Russia.

The forcible transfer of children from one group to another is a recognised act of genocide, and therefore Russia's multifaceted schemes to deport Ukrainian children to Russia can be classified as genocidal acts.

Ukrainian children who have been deported to Russia for such "holidays" or "summer camps" face Russification programmes aimed at isolating them from their Ukrainian families, language, culture and history.

Russian authorities are likely to intensify deportations throughout the summer under the guise of summer holidays, but these programmes are acts of genocide against the Ukrainian people, despite Russia's efforts to disguise them as temporary and positive educational opportunities.

Background:

• Recently, 13 more children were brought back to Ukraine with the help of Qatar.
• Also recently, a 17-year-old boy from the temporarily occupied part of Zaporizhzhia Oblast was brought back to Ukrainian-controlled territory.
• On 27 May, an 11-year-old boy who had been in the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk Oblast for more than two years was brought back to Ukrainian-controlled territory.

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