Belarus took at least 2,219 Ukrainian children from their homes: it re-educates, militarizes and uses them in propaganda

Belarus became complicit in Russian crimes and moved at least 2,219 Ukrainian children from the occupied territories to the territory of Belarus from 2021 to June 2024. Moreover, Aleksandr Lukashenko personally laid the foundation for the deportation of Ukrainian children as well as the criminal policy of militarization and destruction of Ukrainian identity. Human rights activists called for the arrest of the persons responsible for these crimes.

This became known on October 10, 2024, during the presentation of the report “Stolen Childhood: How the Belarusian regime erases the identity of Ukrainian children through relocation, re-education and militarization.”

The Human Rights Centre ZMINA, the Regional Center for Human Rights, the Belarusian human rights organizations “Vyasna” and BelPol worked on the research with the support of Freedom House. For the first time, data on deported Ukrainian children, who became known due to contacts inside Belarus, were used in this report. Researchers tracked the path of displaced children and their fate after removal.

As human rights activists point out, Russia physically took and changed the identity of Ukrainian children even before the start of a full-scale war, and after 2022 it began to do it even more actively. However, little was known about the role of Belarus in such a planned system.

“We learned that at least 2,219 of our children were moved to Belarus between 2021 and June 2024. And although these actions are justified by “rest”, the largest groups of children in Belarus are moved during the school year – to make it easier for them to study in local schools. In addition, at least 27 children who were in camps in Belarus were later transported to Russian camps,” commented Legal Analyst of the Human Rights Centre ZMINA Onysiia Syniuk.

Human rights activists say that such a consistent movement of children, in particular, and their “circulation” between camps in the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation indicates a planned policy of indoctrination of children and the eradication of Ukrainian identity. The actions of Belarus are part of the Russian system and reproduce Russian practices of crimes against children.

As the Lawyer of the Regional Center for Human Rights Kateryna Rashevska noted, it was possible to identify 18 re-education camps in Belarus. They are part of a network of 67 institutions in the Russian Federation and 13 in the occupied territories.

Children are in hostile narratives and outside camps and schools. For example, the Belarusian state identifies Ukrainian children in Belarus as “Russians” and recognizes the Russian citizenship imposed on them, while Belarusian state media refer to them as “young and new citizens of Russia.” Also, during the events, Belarusian public figures and officials who promote anti-Ukrainian and pro-Russian ideology often speak in front of Ukrainian children.

Ukrainian children are also exploited in criminal propaganda. In particular, children call the full-scale invasion of Ukraine a “special military operation” and themselves “Russian children” on Belarusian television. The children claim that “Ukrainian militants are randomly shelling the city”, “Mariupol is starting to revive” and “Russia is saving us”. In addition, filming takes place with a violation of privacy, and the stories often include children’s personal data.

Militarization is another criminal practice aimed at training and recruiting children for future service in Russian military organizations. During the children’s stay in Belarus, they meet with law enforcement agencies and military or paramilitary youth organizations in Belarus.

Onysiia Syniuk

“Ukrainian children already militarized in the occupied territories, unfortunately, themselves become agents of influence on their peers. For example, cadets from the Zakharchenko corps, which is a military educational institution for school-aged children in occupied Donetsk, actively participate in trips to Belarus and serve as an “example” and propaganda for joining military educational institutions and youth movements for other children,” Syniuk said. This practice deprives Ukrainian children of their identity and nationality, the human rights activist is convinced.

“All these facts show that Ukrainian children suffered from a crime against humanity in the form of persecution, both on the basis of age and belonging to the Ukrainian national group, and in connection with the special vulnerability of children and their stay in the occupation. The cumulative effect of all violations of children’s rights, given the serious consequences for mental and physical health, reaches the threshold of inhumane treatment, and the children themselves need not only return, but also rehabilitation and reintegration within Ukrainian society,” comments Kateryna Rashevska.

Human rights activists are convinced that Aleksandr Lukashenko personally created conditions for the transfer of Ukrainian children to Belarusian territory, and the Union State of Russia and Belarus play an important role in financing and organizing the transfer and re-education of Ukrainian children. State Secretary of the Union State Dmitry Mezentsev and Chairman of the Council of Ministers Mikhail Mishustin are directly involved in the movement of children. In 2022 and 2023, the Union State allocated more than 500,000 US dollars for export under the guise of “humanitarian aid to children from Donbas”. Aliaksei Talai, a Belarusian Paralympic athlete and head of the Aliaksei Talai Foundation, also takes an active part in taking children to camps in the country, organizes a “cultural program” for them and finances this process. He is a supporter of Lukashenko and Putin, has close ties with representatives of the regimes of these states and is associated with the Zakharchenko Cadet Corps.

Kateryna Rashevska

Human rights defenders have already submitted evidence of the Belarusian regime’s crimes against Ukrainian children to the ICC. They also demand the issuance of warrants for the arrest of Aleksandr Lukashenko, Dmitry Mezentsev, Mikhail Mishustin, and Aliaksei Talai.

Juri Jurkevits, Program Director of Freedom House Ukraine, said that experts have already presented this report abroad in several countries, emphasizing that the fate of more than one and a half million children under occupation is unknown, but they are also under constant pressure from the occupation regime. Also, the information from this report will become the basis for further cooperation with the governments of other countries, as well as with the Office of the Prosecutor General and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

You can read the report in Ukrainian and English here.

You can watch the video from the presentation at the link.