How Belarus helps transform Ukrainian children into Russian children: ZMINA and partners presented a report at the OSCE

The Human Rights Centre ZMINA, the Regional Center for Human Rights, the Human Rights Center “Viasna”, BelPol and Freedom House published the study “Stolen childhood: how the Belarusian regime is erasing Ukrainian children’s identity through displacement, re‑education, and militarization”. The presentation of the report took place on October 4 at the OSCE Warsaw Human Dimension Conference.

After the occupation of the Crimean peninsula and parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the Russian Federation began to implement a policy aimed at eradicating Ukrainian identity in the occupied regions, a policy whose scale and systematicity increased significantly with the beginning of the full-scale invasion. An integral part of this policy is the removal of Ukrainian children from the occupied territories to Russia and Belarus for “rehabilitation” in camps. Ukrainian children come under the influence of local education, as well as cultural and militarized activities, which are aimed at Russification and erasure of their Ukrainian identity.

Juri Jurkevits, Program Director of Freedom House in Ukraine, noted that other materials on this topic, particularly from Yale University and the Belarusian opposition, lacked one element: the Ukrainian perspective.

“This report was made by Freedom House in cooperation with Ukrainian and Belarusian organizations. In addition, on September 13, we sent a submission to the International Criminal Court,” Juri added.

BelPol – an association of former security forces of the Republic of Belarus who oppose the Lukashenko regime – provided their materials for the study.

“Our organization collects confidential data inside Belarus. Belarusians are suppressed and cannot protest, but they gave us sensitive information about Ukrainian children who were brought to Belarus. It is important for us that Ukraine knows about these children. We hope that justice will prevail and all the guilty, including Lukashenka, will be punished,” said Uladzimir Zhyhar, representative of BelPol.

As the Legal Analyst of the Human Rights Centre ZMINA, Onysiia Syniuk said, the basis of the report was the data of BelPol and open sources, which were jointly documented by “Viasna” and ZMINA based on the Berkeley Protocol and Mnemonic. At the same time, the researchers decided not to contact the victims in the occupied territories, so as not to expose them to danger.

“It all started even before the full-scale invasion, at least in 2021, when self-proclaimed Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko signed a decree on the relocation of a group of Ukrainian children,” she said.

According to Syniuk, from this moment until June 2024, ZMINA and its partners recorded data on the transfer of 2,219 Ukrainian children to Belarus. These are not the final numbers because children continue to be brought to camps under the guise of rehabilitation.

“At the same time, they call Ukrainian children Russian or children from new Russian territories, their national identity is erased,” Syniuk added.

According to the Human Rights Centre ZMINA, the largest number of children from the occupied territories and the largest groups were brought to Belarus “for rehabilitation” not in the summer, but during the school year, where they were taught according to Belarusian textbooks and subjected to militarization and Russian propaganda. In addition, they were used in television propaganda, traumatizing them with questions about the war, which made some children cry. Children were also asked whether they were ready to defend Russia when they grow up.

“It was important for us to find out what happened to Ukrainian children after they were transported to Belarus. After all, it is possible to return the child back, but on the way to steal his national essence, his identity. Lukashenka’s regime must bear the well-deserved punishment for this.” said Pavel Sapelko, Board Member of the Human Rights Center “Viasna”. 

As Onysiia Syniuk reported, several groups of people are responsible for the displacement, indoctrination and militarization of Ukrainian children.

First, these are representatives of the occupation authorities who prepared lists and sent Ukrainian children to Belarus for “rehabilitation”. Secondly, it is the self-proclaimed Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko and his henchmen, in particular, Oleksiy Talay, the Director of the charity fund of the same name, which organized the relocation of children, for which he received an order from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Thirdly, these are the leaders of the Union State of Russia and Belarus – an association that has its own organizational structure and budget, which, in particular, is used for moving children. Among them are Mikhail Mishustin and Dmitry Mezentsev.

Kateryna Rashevska, Lawyer at the Regional Center for Human Rights, noted that from a legal point of view, these actions are discriminatory persecution as a crime against humanity: “Indoctrination is a trauma for children because their country and the very fact of its existence are denied,” she noted. “The Russian and Belarusian authorities have a clear goal – to destroy the identity of Ukrainian children – and this motive is genocidal.“

You can read the report by following the link.

The presentation of the study in Ukraine will take place on October 10.