Belarus is helping Russia erase the identities of children kidnapped from Ukraine

The Belarusian regime of the illegitimate president Oleksandr Lukashenko is complicit in Russia’s criminal policy of destroying the identity of Ukrainian children, as well as financing and organizing their relocation, re-education and militarization.

Points of attention

• Belarus under Lukashenko is complicit in Russia’s criminal policy of erasing the identities of Ukrainian children through relocation, re-education, and militarization.
• The report emphasizes the role of the Belarusian regime in aiding Russia’s erasure of Ukrainian identity, with Lukashenko personally creating conditions for the transfer of Ukrainian children to Belarus.
• Authorities exploit Ukrainian children for propaganda purposes, forcing them into photo and video materials to justify and legitimize their displacement, indoctrination, and militarization.
• The Belarusian regime replicates Russian practices by using the school system to indoctrinate and militarize Ukrainian children, implementing cultural programs to Russify them and erase their Ukrainian identity.
• The report calls for the International Criminal Court to take action against those responsible, including Lukashenko, Mishustin, and others, and provides recommendations for accountability measures against the Belarusian and Russian authorities.

Belarus helps Russia kidnap and militarize Ukrainian children

This is stated in the report “Stolen Childhood: How the Belarusian Regime Erases the Identity of Ukrainian Children Through Displacement, Re-education and Militarization”, which was jointly prepared by Freedom House, the ZMINA Center for Human Rights, the Regional Center for Human Rights, the Human Rights Center “Vyasna” and the Association of Former Law Enforcement Officers bodies of Belarus (BELPOL).

The forced transfer of Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied territories to Russia is part of the Kremlin’s policy of eradicating Ukrainian national and cultural identity. However, the role of the Belarusian regime and the Union State of Russia and Belarus in promoting and assisting this policy on Belarusian territory has not received due attention.

The report emphasizes that Lukashenko personally created the conditions for the transfer of Ukrainian children to Belarusian territory. The decree signed by him in 2021 on the “organization of recreation and rehabilitation of children from Donbas” created a precedent for the active participation of the Belarusian regime in the relocation, re-education and militarization of Ukrainian children.

The researchers of this report identified 2,219 children relocated to Belarus since 2021. Among them are children deprived of parental care, children with disabilities, children whose parents died as a result of hostilities, but also those who have parents or guardians. At least 27 Ukrainian children were later transferred from Belarus to Russia.

However, due to the actions of co-conspirators and individuals who try to hide the location and information about the children, it is currently unknown how many of them returned to the occupied territories of Ukraine.

The authors of the report emphasize that the Belarusian regime was more active in moving Ukrainian children to its territory during the 2022 and 2023 school years than in the summer of the same years, which indicates that it is using the school system to indoctrinate, re-educate and militarize Ukrainian children.

The Belarusian regime reproduces the measures taken by the Russian authorities in the occupied territories of Ukraine and in Russia for the systematic displacement, indoctrination and militarization of Ukrainian children. The Belarusian authorities publicly justify the transfer of Ukrainian children to Belarus as “rehabilitation” and “rest”, repeating verbatim the Russian rationale for the transfer and deportation of children. As in Russia, as part of this campaign, children are not only placed in camps or sanatoriums, but also enrolled in local schools, simultaneously implementing a “cultural program” aimed at Russifying children and erasing their Ukrainian identity.

In addition, Belarus follows the model of the Russian Federation on the militarization of minor Ukrainians, human rights defenders note. The country’s authorities force Ukrainian children to visit law enforcement agencies and military units, as well as to meet with representatives of the Belarusian military and youth military organizations.

The Belarusian and Russian regimes also exploit Ukrainian children for propaganda purposes. According to human rights defenders, the Belarusian authorities force Ukrainian children to appear in photo and video materials broadcast by state media in both countries in order to justify and legitimize their displacement, indoctrination and militarization. Authorities force children to appear in such content, despite their best interests, privacy and the possibility of re-traumatization.

The authorities of Belarus must be held accountable for the abduction of Ukrainian children

The report calls for the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for:

• the illegitimate president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko,

• State Secretary of the Union State of Russia and Belarus and Russian politician Dmitry Mezentsev,

• Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union State, Prime Minister of Russia Mykhailo Mishustin;

• Oleksiy Talai, a Belarusian Paralympic athlete and head of the foundation of the same name, which plays a central role in the project of relocating Ukrainian children to Belarus.

The report also contains recommendations for Ukrainian and foreign governments, international donors, civil society and the ICC on ways to hold the Belarusian and Russian authorities accountable.

It is noted that the findings are the result of an eight-month large-scale research using open and closed sources, conducted by Ukrainian and independent Belarusian civil society organizations, which was coordinated by Freedom House.

Source: Online.ua