04.04.2025, 10:44

The destruction of the national identity of Ukrainian children in the TOT is taking place according to the "Crimean scenario"

Russia is deliberately implementing a policy of destroying the national identity of children in the occupied territories of Ukraine. This conclusion was reached by experts of the Center for Civic Education "Almenda", who have been studying the situation in the TOT since September 30, 2022. It was from that time that these territories were illegally "incorporated" into Russia, and Russian federal legislation began to apply to them

Maria Sulyalina, head of the Almenda Center for Human Rights, demonstrated the scale of re-education of children through the number of participants in youth movements, cadet classes in the TOT, figures illustrating the situation with access to the Ukrainian language and the annual increase in the Russian federal budget for youth policy.

She gave an example that in just a short period from the end of the 2023-2024 school year, the number of cadet classes in the occupied Crimea increased by 63: from 197 to 260 classes. And the amount of funds planned for young people this year is more than 70 billion rubles

"Crimean scenario" of destroying national identity in children and youth in the TOT is "a policy that was developed and implemented in the occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. It is a policy of Russification, indoctrination and militarization," Almenda researchers note in their analytical report.

Valentyna Potapova, Head of National Advocacy at Almenda, additionally emphasized the challenges that children under occupation have to overcome in order to maintain their connection with Ukraine in the educational and cultural environment, and outlined the main actions that the state should ultimately take

Among them: implementation of a systemic state policy on access to education for TOT,development of state programs to support return to the government-controlled territory, in education and reintegration assistance, andconsolidation of efforts of key change agents: government, CSOs, and international partners.

The authors of the report note: "Russification is aimed at the purposeful destruction of the Ukrainian component in education and the ousting of the Ukrainian language from public circulation. Indoctrination is aimed at imposing Russian civic identity. Militarization includes propaganda of the culture of war and fostering motivation to serve in the armed forces of the Russian Federation."

The implementation of this "Crimean scenario" by the occupiers is confirmed by Russian officials

"At the beginning of 2024, the head of the Russian Ministry of Education, Sergei Kravtsov, reported that "work is actively underway to support educational organizations" of the so-called "new regions", and it is planned to implement their "maximum integration" into the Russian education system within two years," the study says.

The "Crimean scenario" is being implemented by all the authorities of the Russian Federation, the occupation authorities in the TOT of Ukraine and all public organizations and religious institutions aimed at educating children and youth. The destruction of Ukrainian identity is taking place both through formal education and informal education - through youth and children's movements and an extensive network of camps.

According to the researchers, the scale of the disaster is too great: about 1 million 600 thousand children live in the TOT, which now make up about 20% of the territory of Ukraine, including the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, as well as parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions

Anastasia Vorobyova, an expert involved and author of the report, spoke about changes in Russian legislation that indicate the aggressor country's serious intentions towards the younger generation in the occupied territories

Among the key ones:

▪️зміни in the law on education and youth policy,

▪️заходи on forced passportization,

▪️прийняття strategy for countering extremism. In 2024, for example, it was legalized to involve children in sewing clothes for the Russian military, assembling drones in schools as part of the "labor educational process."

"In the above-mentioned strategy of countering extremism, Ukraine itself is the main source of extremist threats that needs to be eliminated," the expert noted.

According to human rights activists, Russia has not only launched a full-scale war against Ukraine, but also expanded its plans to capture the minds (and sometimes even the lives) of children and youth in the occupied territories.

To do this, new laws are being adopted at the legislative level to facilitate the implementation of crimes, a network of forms of indoctrination and militarization is being built that covers all areas of a child's life, and funds are being allocated, sparing no expense, just like missiles. In the midst of all this, the question arises: what is our response? Are we ready to give away 1.6 million Ukrainian children for nothing?