The hidden perpetrators of the Kremlin’s attack on Ukrainian children

A little-known legal entity, the Union State of Russia and Belarus, helps bring Ukrainian children to Belarus for political indoctrination. Its officials have so far escaped prosecution.

Two and a half years into the heinous full-scale Russian military invasion of Ukraine, shocking information about the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children from the occupied territories continues to emerge. Thanks largely to the relentless efforts of Ukrainian human rights defenders in calling the world’s attention to this crime, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Russian president Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova—Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights—holding them responsible.

However, Ukrainian human rights defenders have highlighted a critical omission in the ICC’s warrants: the absence of Russia’s most significant accomplices. Among them are the officials of the Union State of Russia and Belarus, a little-known entity that frames the alliance between the Russian and Belarusian regimes. The Union State’s Russian and Belarusian officials play a central role in financing and organizing the displacement, indoctrination, reeducation, and militarization of thousands of Ukrainian children, which continues today.

Freedom House has been working closely with two Ukrainian rights organizations—ZMINA and the Regional Center for Human Rights (RCHR)—that are determined to hold authorities accountable for their role in the large-scale political indoctrination of Ukrainian children, including at locations inside Belarus. Drawing on open and closed sources, they have produced a report establishing clear evidence of the Union State’s culpability that has been submitted to the ICC. Two independent Belarusian civil society organizations—Viasna and the BELPOL—provided crucial research and data to the effort.

Forced ideological reeducation

This new research by Freedom House and its Ukrainian and Belarusian civil society partners reveals that, while the displacement of Ukrainian children from their homeland to Belarus is in itself a tragedy and an egregious human rights violation, even more horrors unfold once they arrive inside the country. In many cases, the Belarusian regime and its GONGOs (government-controlled organizations that are designed to look like truly independent nongovernmental organizations) took Ukrainian children without obtaining consent from their legal guardians or relevant Ukrainian institutions. Many of these children are orphans. Even in cases where parents or other legal guardians provided consent, the severe political repression by the Russian occupying authorities means that it is extremely challenging to ascertain the extent to which this consent was freely given.

Once inside Belarus, the children are subjected to a chilling program of indoctrination, reeducation, and militarization. In one example, Belarusian authorities forced Ukrainian children displaced from Melitopol—a Ukrainian city under Russian occupation—to participate in a class on how to operate a Kalashnikov rifle as part of a project called “Protecting the Borders of the Motherland.” They have also forced girls who had been transported to Belarus from occupied Luhansk to perform Russian patriotic songs during public celebrations on Victory Day—a World War II commemoration Putin has used to promote the invasion of Ukraine. The children have also appeared on Belarusian state-run television in propagandistic interviews where they are forced to describe shelling of their homes in Ukraine and other traumatic experiences, often causing them to break down in tears.

Billed as “rehabilitation” or even “recreation,” these programs, implemented by state-run Belarusian schools and military-patriotic camps, aim to eradicate children’s Ukrainian identity by teaching them that they are “children of Russia” and that Ukraine is run by “Nazis.” Perhaps most disturbingly, this system prepares and encourages Ukrainian children, when they reach adulthood, to join the Russian army to fight against their own country.

A hidden perpetrator

The Union State of Russia and Belarus is among a number of supranational entities the Russian regime has spearheaded in an effort to maintain political, economic, and military preeminence in the region since the fall of the Soviet Union. Established in 1999, its stated objective is to deepen economic and defense cooperation between the two countries, but its real purpose is to provide the Russian regime with leverage over its neighbor. For example, in exchange for propping up his government amid nationwide protests against the rigged 2020 election, the Kremlin pressured self-proclaimed Belarusian president Alyaksandr Lukashenka, under the framework of the Union State, to sign an agreement in 2021 paving the way for Belarus’s further integration with Russia. The pact was extensive, encompassing 28 sectors including banking, taxation, and energy.

Our research has revealed that since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Union State and its top officials—who include Lukashenka and senior Russian politicians— have played a critical role in financing the displacement, indoctrination, reeducation, and militarization of Ukrainian children. The part of its budget dedicated to “humanitarian aid” in fact refers to funding programs for Ukrainian children like the ones described above. Since 2022, the Union State has allocated more than $500,000 for the children’s transportation and accommodation. The Union State has also lent its political support to the so-called “rehabilitation” camps that aim to teach Ukrainian children to hate their homeland and to love, and in many cases, fight for, the very country that is invading it.

Holding the Union State accountable

Freedom House and its Ukrainian partners are determined to hold the Union State and its officials accountable for crimes against Ukrainian children. On Friday, September 13, Freedom House, ZMINA and RCHR submitted a case to the ICC, calling upon it to investigate the displacement, reeducation, and militarization of Ukrainian children facilitated by the Union State, and to issue arrest warrants for the entity’s key officials—Lukashenka, as well as the Russian politician Dmitry Mezentsev, the Union State’s secretary of state, and Russian prime minister Mikhail Mishustin, the chairman of its Council of Ministers.

While the Russian regime is the ultimate perpetrator of these crimes, it would not be able to commit them on such a massive scale—nor would its officials be able to dodge international sanctions—without the infrastructure and finances of the Union State. Ukrainian rights human defenders are bravely shining a spotlight on this issue. It is up to those of us who support Ukraine’s fight for freedom and who stand for the rights of its most vulnerable citizens to amplify their efforts, and ensure that the international community recognizes the Union State’s complicity and holds its officials accountable.

The full report resulting from the joint project conducted by Freedom House, ZMINA, RCHR, Viasna, and BELPOL will be released publicly on October 4

Source: Freedom House