Introduction
After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, one of the most barbaric practices was the mass deportation of Ukrainian children. Thousands of minors were forcibly taken to the Russian Federation, where they were deprived of their families, native culture, and language. The Kremlin recognized that preserving the identity of children meant preserving the nation's future. Therefore, deportation was the first stage, followed by systemic indoctrination—targeted education in the spirit of loyalty to the Putin regime. This policy combines deportation, assimilation, and indoctrination, forming a strategy of genocide aimed at the destruction of the Ukrainian people in the long term. From the point of view of international law, this is a war crime and a crime against humanity. From the point of view of political science, this is ethnocide and colonial socialization, reproducing the historical practices of empires and totalitarian regimes, now applied by Russia against Ukraine.
Genocide through education as a concept
In modern scientific literature, the concept of genocide through education is interpreted as a form of policy that does not physically destroy people but destroys their cultural and identity foundations by raising children in a foreign cultural paradigm. This phenomenon combines elements of assimilation, indoctrination, and demographic engineering.
It is essential to understand the term "assimilation". In political science, assimilation is defined as the process by which a minority group is absorbed into the dominant culture, resulting in the loss of their own language, traditions, religion, and sense of self-identification. If this process is carried out forcibly, it acquires the features of ethnocide. In the case of Ukraine, we see precisely forced assimilation: children are deprived of their native language and contacts with the cultural environment of their nation. They are immersed in the Russian political and cultural field.
Indoctrination is the second stage of the deportation of children
In our opinion, the term "indoctrination" in the context of military aggression against Ukraine should be formed as follows: Indoctrination in the context of Russian aggression is the imposition of an alien ideology on deported Ukrainian children, depriving them of their native language, history, and cultural environment, replacing all of this with Russian educational programs, symbols, and propaganda. Unlike education, indoctrination excludes critical thinking and is aimed at forming submissive and loyal citizens ready to perceive the war against Ukraine as “just”.
The strategic goal of indoctrination in the context of Russian aggression against Ukraine is to deprive deported children and youth in the occupied territories of their national identity and replace it with loyalty to the Kremlin. Torn from the Ukrainian cultural and linguistic space, they are subjected to Russification, symbolic and political socialization, and forced passportization, which should turn them into a generation that reproduces the values of the Putin regime. Indoctrination is becoming a key element of the genocidal strategy aimed at destroying the future of Ukraine as an independent nation.
The dictatorial regime of the Russian Federation has taken all the measures to isolate the deported children and also changed the curriculum in schools to make the formation of identity even more severe. Here is an incomplete list of documents that were developed by the state structures of the Russian Federation[1]:
- Concept of youth policy and educational activities for 2025–2027
- Indicators and mechanisms for implementing the educational activity program for 2023–2024
- Comprehensive plan to counter the ideology of terrorism and extremism in the Russian Federation for 2024–2028 (approved by the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, incoming document No. 01/01019 dated 16/01/2024)
- Methodological recommendations for conducting training sessions "Conversations about the important" for the 2023-2024 academic year
- Comprehensive program to counter the ideology of terrorism in the Russian Federation for 2024-2028
- Methodological recommendations for the prevention of the perception of destructive information disseminated by Ukrainian Special Services, neo-Nazis, and other destructive organizations (2024)
- Comprehensive plan to counter the ideology of terrorism and extremism (2023) (working version, the same content as paragraph 4, but with different details).
The dictatorial regime of the Russian Federation has included practically all mechanisms for indoctrinating children from the occupied territories. Let's take a look at what is contained in these documents.
The methodological recommendations of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation "Conversations about the Important" for 2023-2024 are one of the central instruments of indoctrination of schoolchildren in Russia and in the temporarily occupied territories. The image of the enemy is formed through educational programs in Ukraine, which is presented as an artificial and hostile entity holding "Russian lands". Russia is portrayed as a "defender country", and Ukraine is a source of "terrorist attacks" and "destruction of the world". An important place is occupied by the cult of "heroes of the SMO", the glorification of the war, and direct opposition: the Russian soldier is a defender, the Ukrainian is an aggressor. Mandatory rituals supplement this—the performance of the anthem, the raising of the flag, and the celebration of state dates —creating an association of loyalty to Russia as a norm. Thus, the recommendations turn the school into a mechanism for legitimizing aggression and reinforce the perception of Ukraine as an enemy in the minds of the younger generation.
Concept of youth policy and educational activities for 2025–2027
The document outlines the strategy for educational work in Russian educational institutions, with key principles including patriotism, spiritual and moral values, and civic identity. Educational activities are described as a mission to form "value attitudes of Russian youth that correspond to the civilizational specifics of Russia," which implies a rigid ideological framework. The text reinforces the image of the enemy, which includes not only Ukraine but also the "hostile West," opposed to Russia as a source of alien ideas and a threat to national security. Ukraine, in this context, is presented as an "instrument of Western influence," and Russia itself is a stronghold of traditional values and sovereignty.
Any alternative points of view are designated as unsafe and harmful to young people. To achieve these goals, the document provides for indoctrination tools: mandatory "memory lessons" and meetings with veterans, where war and service to the state are glorified; symbolic socialization through state attributes (flag, anthem, memorable dates); involving students in youth movements and projects where the activity is presented as “voluntary”, but is actually used for political mobilization; creating student media and radio to broadcast a single propaganda narrative; consolidating the role of curators and teachers as ideological mentors who form the “correct civic position”. This document institutionalizes the system of education, where educational and cultural practices become mechanisms of political mobilization. Its strategic goal is to instill in young people a sustainable loyalty to the Russian state through the cultivation of an image of the enemy in the form of Ukraine and the hostile West, while simultaneously glorifying Russian identity and militarized patriotism.
The instructional and methodological letter of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation and the Institute for Education Development of the Russian Academy of Education, "Features of the organization of social, educational and ideological work in educational institutions for the 2023/2024 academic year," establishes a course for the systemic indoctrination of schoolchildren and students. The key element is military-patriotic education: the position of heads of military educational work is introduced, ensuring the interaction of schools with military units, the participation of children in military ceremonies, and the formation of readiness for service.
A symbolic indoctrination complements this—mandatory raising of the flag, performance of the anthem, and honoring of "heroes of the SMO." A special emphasis is placed on resistance to "negative information impacts", which, in fact, reinforces the image of the enemy—Ukraine and the "hostile West". For this purpose, "lessons in critical perception of information", patriotic clubs, monitoring of social networks, and creation of a network of propaganda media are prescribed. Thus, the school is transformed into an instrument of political and military mobilization, where children are taught subordination, militarization, and a perception of Ukraine and the West as enemies.
Comprehensive plan to counter the ideology of terrorism in the Russian Federation for 2024–2028
The document, approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin, enshrines a systemic policy of education and information control directly related to indoctrination. The central goal is to form an "anti-terrorist worldview" among young people, including those in the occupied territories of Ukraine. Ukrainian nationalism, Ukrainian Special Services, "neo-Nazism", as well as the hostile West and its propaganda centers are designated as "the enemy". Indoctrination tools include adjustments to school programs and manuals, "courage lessons" and meetings with the military, cultural and sports events with mandatory patriotic content, projects such as "Hero's Desk", mass renaming of schools and streets in honor of the military men.
The control of the information space plays a significant role—the creation of "anti-terrorist content", blocking and deleting pro-Ukrainian and Western materials, as well as monitoring the social media accounts of schoolchildren and students. Special emphasis is placed on involving children and adolescents in paramilitary movements and instilling "traditional values". This plan formalizes a strategy of political integration of the occupied territories through education and control, where Ukraine and the West are fixed as the enemy, and Russian youth policy is turned into an instrument of long-term indoctrination.
Methodological recommendations for the prevention of perception of destructive information (Moscow, Rostov-on-Don, 2024)
The document is aimed at developing resistance to “destructive information” in young people, reinforcing the image of the enemy—Ukraine, Ukrainian nationalism, and the “hostile West”. Ukraine is presented as "a center of radical nationalism and a springboard for Western intelligence services, and its armed forces and volunteer battalions as a key threat to Russia."
Indoctrination tools include monitoring students’ social networks and conducting lessons in a game-like format, such as mock trials: staging of trials of “Ukrainian nationalists”, where the verdict is always "guilty"; debates and disputes: discussions on the topic "Who is threatening peace: Russia or Ukraine?", where Ukraine is presented as guilty of the war; role-playing games: checking documents and “identifying Kyiv agents” and historical and patriotic quests: searching for “traces of Ukrainian Nazis” and restoring “historical truth”.
All practices are complemented by the glorification of “participants of the SMO” and an emphasis on “traditional values.” As a result, the educational system is transformed into a channel of constant indoctrination, where children are forced to accept the perception: “Russia is a victim of aggression”, “Ukraine and the West are the enemy”.
Strategy for the Development of Unmanned Aviation in the Russian Federation for the Period up to 2030 and for the Prospects up to 2035
The document records the involvement of children and teenagers, including those deported from the occupied territories of Ukraine, in training in the field of unmanned aviation through the "Quantorium" technology parks, clubs, and camps. Under the guise of "educational projects", a system of early militarization is being formed: by 2030, it is planned to train more than 150 thousand UAV specialists, and by 2035, to create a whole personnel integrated into the army and defense industry.
The final analysis of the documents shows that education and youth policy in the Russian Federation have been turned into an instrument of indoctrination. The single image of the enemy is Ukraine and the West, while Russia is presented as a "victim and defender". Narratives, rituals (such as the flag, anthem, and cult of "heroes of the SMO"), game lessons (including courts, debates, and quests), and military training, including training in the use of drones, are employed. Indoctrination becomes the second stage of the Russian Federation's policy—the creation of a "loyal citizen", which leads to the third stage—military dogmatism, that is, preparing children for war.
Military Dogmatism, a term coined by Pavlo Lysiansky and Vira Yastrebov, is an ideological system actively used by Russia to justify military aggression against Ukraine. It aims to instill dogmatic attitudes in the public consciousness regarding the necessity of war, the glorification of the military, and the “justice” of violent resolution of political conflicts. This approach excludes alternative views and forms a cult of war as an inevitable means of achieving national goals.
Deportation as the foundation of assimilation and indoctrination
The mass deportation of Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied territories was the first systematic step in Russia's genocidal policy. Both children from orphanages and children with their parents were subjected to displacement. Collaborationist "courts" were used to do this, depriving parents of their rights without a real assessment of the circumstances. Under the guise of "evacuation" or "treatment", children were forcibly separated from their national environment. The key role in legitimizing the process was played by Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian President's Commissioner for Children's Rights, who became the public face of the campaign. However, sources indicate that Anna Kuznetsova, a former children's ombudsman, is the architect of the strategy, having developed the conceptual basis for the deportations and the propaganda justification.
Since October 2023, she has been waging an aggressive campaign accusing Ukraine of "black transplantology"—an attempt to shift responsibility onto the victim. Children taken to Russia and remaining in the occupied territories are subjected to educational Russification (confiscation of Ukrainian textbooks, instruction only in Russian, imperial narratives), symbolic indoctrination (daily anthem, rising of the flag, celebration of Russian dates), cultural displacement (marginalization of Ukrainian traditions, replacing them with Russian practices) and political indoctrination ("lessons of courage", meetings with the military, "SMO" museums). Documentary assimilation occupies a special place: children are given Russian passports, birth certificates are changed, and upon adoption, data on biological parents disappear. Forced passportization is enshrined as a mandatory procedure, legally turning a child into a citizen of the Russian Federation and almost eliminating the possibility of return.
Why do children become the primary target, and how is this connected to historical practices?
In the context of Russian aggression, children have become the main target of deportation and subsequent indoctrination, which is explained by both their vulnerability and strategic importance for the Kremlin. In political science, children are considered the group most susceptible to socialization. While adults can maintain their identity and resist, children are more easily integrated into a new environment and begin to perceive it as "natural". For Moscow, this ensures a long-term effect—over the years, assimilated children become bearers of imposed values, future voters, and citizens ready to support imperial policy. An additional element of this strategy is the use of the propaganda image of "caring for children".
Adoption and the rhetoric of a "humanitarian mission" are presented as a moral justification for the occupation, creating the illusion of "protection" and "salvation". In reality, through children, the long-term destruction of the nation is carried out. By depriving the Ukrainian people of their next generation, Russia undermines the foundation of Ukrainian statehood. This practice has direct historical analogs. In the Soviet Union, the deportations of Crimean Tatars, Chechens, and Ingush were accompanied by forced Russification and the upbringing of children in a foreign cultural environment.
Colonial empires acted similarly: in Canada, children of indigenous peoples were sent to boarding schools, where they were deprived of their native language and torn away from their families; in Australia, the so-called “stolen generation” of aborigines arose, subjected to forced assimilation. All of these cases are now recognized as criminal practices with signs of genocide.
Conclusion
The deportation of Ukrainian children and their subsequent assimilation through educational Russification, symbolic and political indoctrination, cultural displacement, and forced passportization form a systemic mechanism for the destruction of Ukrainian identity. The legal consolidation of the child in the Russian legal field makes this process virtually irreversible, and ideological programming is aimed at suppressing any ties with Ukrainian culture and the state. However, this strategy is not limited to assimilation. The next stage is military dogmatism—imposing on children the image of "heroes of the SMO", conducting "lessons of courage", participation in paramilitary organizations, and the obligatory perception of war as a natural state. Thus, the upbringing of a loyal citizen is smoothly transformed into the formation of a "soldier of the system", ready to serve the interests of the Kremlin and consider the war against Ukraine and the "hostile West" as a norm of life.
About the authors
Pavel Lysiansky: PhD in political science, Director of the Institute for Strategic Research and Security, Laureate of the German French Prize for the Protection of Human Rights and the Rule of Law.
Vira Yastrebova: PhD in political science, Director of the NGO "Eastern Human Rights Group", a lawyer.
Deportation of Ukrainian children:
Adoption, passportization, and education as instruments of genocide
Pavel Lysiansky, Vira Yastrebova, and Liza Denisova
After the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia launched a systematic policy of deporting Ukrainian children from the occupied territories. Under the guise of "evacuation" and "humanitarian aid," they were taken en masse deep into Russia. According to official data from Kyiv, at least 19,546 children were kidnapped, and only 1,345 were returned as of June 1, 2025. Many of them have a history of passing through filtration camps, loss of loved ones, pressure, physical violence, and imposition of someone else's identity.
It is worth noting that after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian presidential representative for children's rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, the technology of deporting Ukrainian children has completely changed. This is primarily because the reputation of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is whitewashed. Detailed information about the deportation of Ukrainian children is presented in an analytical report of the Eastern Human Rights Group and the Institute for Strategic Research and Security.
Despite the number of children deported to the Russian Federation declared by international organizations, it can be said with certainty that this is only a part of the children who were assuredly identified through statements from parents and relatives in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. The deportation of Ukrainian children is still taking place in the occupied territories of Ukraine, but only according to a different algorithm. This algorithm was developed with the aim of Putin escaping responsibility, so additional structures were involved in the process of deporting children, and corresponding "commissions" were created.
It is worth noting that in the occupied territories in 2023 and 2024, so-called "orphan data banks" were established. By 2024, these data banks had already been connected to the federal data bank of the Russian Federation. To replenish these data banks with orphans, special commissions were created to observe the rights of minors, which visited different families and monitored the presence of children within them. Thus, such commissions were created:
June 27, 2024—the so-called “People’s Council” of the “LPR” adopted the law “On commissions for minors and the protection of their rights in the LPR”, which establishes the procedure for creating such commissions at various levels.
March 7, 2024—the so-called "Government" of the occupied part of Donetsk Oblast adopted Resolution No. 23‑4 of March 7, 2024, "On the creation of the 'Republican interdepartmental commission on minors and the protection of their rights'."
February 15, 2023—in the temporarily occupied territories of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast, in particular, in Berdyansk, the occupation authorities created "commissions on minors". The media noted this as a mechanism for putting pressure on the local population.
On July 11, 2024, the Kherson occupation administration adopted a law on commissions for minors and the protection of their rights. This is the legislative basis for the further work of such bodies.
These commissions were created as an additional mechanism for deprivation of parental rights. It is worth noting that the formed occupation system, mainly from Russian judges, in 2023, began to massively issue sentences for deprivation of parental rights at the direction of the occupation administrations. However, the judicial system lacked certain official procedures. For this purpose, occupation "commissions for the protection of the rights of minors" were created. Upon examination of the dates, they are almost identical and were created in the same year, 2024.
How do the occupations "commissions" and "courts" work? Occupation "commissions" make targeted visits to apartments where children live with grandparents or older sisters. This situation arises because parents are often forced to leave their families behind to work in other countries. The "commission" records that the child does not live in a full-fledged family, draws up a corresponding act, and submits it to the "court". Then the "court" approves the decision based on the act created. Then the child is removed from the family and transferred to boarding schools, where orphans are kept, or temporary detention centers for orphans. For example, in the occupied territory of Donetsk Oblast, there are the Donetsk social shelter for children and teenagers (used as a temporary place for orphans and children removed from their families), the Makiivka center for social and psychological rehabilitation of children, and the Snizhne shelter for minors. These structures are used as transit points: children recognized as orphans or “left without parental care” are placed there before being further taken to Russia or transferred to the care of Russian families.
In the occupied territories, the Russian list of grounds for deprivation of parental rights is formally in effect, but in practice, it is expanded and distorted for political purposes. Thus, parents' refusal to send their children to school according to the Russian curriculum is qualified as "failure to fulfill parenting responsibilities", studying in a Ukrainian online school is interpreted as "evasion of upbringing and education", expressing a pro-Ukrainian position or a family's participation in protests can be formalized as "mental abuse of a child" or " failure to ensure safety", and parents' refusal to allow children to participate in "Yunarmiya" events, camps or patriotic events related to the so-called "SMO" is used as a basis for pressure through the juvenile affairs commissions. The key feature of applying these norms in the context of occupation is that, in Russia, deprivation of parental rights is considered an extreme measure and requires a court decision. In contrast, in the occupied territories, threats of deprivation are used as an instrument of pressure, often without judicial procedures. The mechanisms themselves are transformed into a means of isolating children, taking them to the Russian Federation, and subsequently transferring them to Russian families.
A special role in the forced adoption of children is played by the so-called "data banks", where children and their data are put on display as a commodity. Citizens of the Russian Federation who want to adopt children from the occupied territories come to them. Still, first they undergo a specific training in schools for adoptive parents, where the emphasis is on the ideological and political education of children. Here are the dates of their creation:
In the occupied part of Luhansk Oblast: "All-Russian database of orphans" with the first profiles of children illegally taken from Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts appeared in October 2022. Most of the first 285 such profiles were added in October and November 2022. In August 2025, an online database of Ukrainian orphans became available on the website of the “Ministry of Education and Science,” including names, photographs, descriptions of character and hobbies, as well as the ability to filter by physical characteristics and preferences of potential adoptive parents.
In the occupied part of Donetsk Oblast, the decision to create a database of orphans in the "DPR" was announced in July 2022. The discussion was about joint work with Russia to systematically resolve issues of family placement of children.
In the occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Oblasts, the Russian Federal Database of Orphans has added profiles of children evacuated from the occupied territories (including Kherson and Zaporizhzhia) in October and November 2022. New profiles were added periodically in 2023.
In the case of the adoption of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine, the so-called "school for foster parents" is used not only as a pedagogical course but also as a tool for political and ideological training. Future guardians and adoptive parents are specially trained to form "correct patriotic education" in the child, emphasizing that Russia is their only homeland. The program includes modules on the rejection of Ukrainian identity and language, highlighting the need to "rid children of the Ukrainian worldview" and raise them as loyal citizens of Russia. Foster parents undergo a kind of political filtration: their readiness to support the state line, participate in patriotic actions, demonstrate loyalty to the "SMO", and raise the child in the spirit of "traditional values" is checked. Thus, schools for foster parents perform not only an educational function, but also an ideological one, turning into an element of the system of Russification and assimilation of children taken from the occupied territories. It is also important to note that completing this school is a mandatory condition for adopting a child from the occupied territories.
In the process of deporting Ukrainian children and distributing them to Russian families, there have been multiple cases where the children they adopted were returned due to their health. Here is a specific example. In September 2022, Russian politicians Sergei Mironov and Inna Varlamova illegally took two babies—a girl, Margarita Prokopenko, and a boy, Ilya Vaschenko—from the Kherson orphanage. They kept the girl, changing her name and documents to "Marina Mironova".
And the boy, who was diagnosed with an illness, was "returned" and actually thrown out of the family, having been abandoned on October 17, 2022. Varlamova complained to her relatives in correspondence that she was "foisted a poor-quality child." Since then, Ilya's whereabouts have been unknown, which confirms that the child was not only kidnapped but also subsequently abandoned due to his health. This case is a documented example of how Russian adoptive parents not only illegally appropriate Ukrainian children but also allow themselves to abandon them if the child does not meet their expectations. This highlights the punitive and utilitarian nature of the practice of adopting children from the occupied territories.
For this purpose, by decree of the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Mishustin, the practice of medical filtration for orphans from the occupied territory of Ukraine was introduced. By order of the Government of the Russian Federation dated October 22, 2022, No. 3116-r, the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation was instructed to organize in-depth preventive medical examinations of the child population in the occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk "People's Republics", as well as the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Oblasts. More than 353 million rubles were allocated from the reserve fund for these purposes, while it was planned to examine at least 82 thousand children from November 1 to December 31, 2022.
Formally, the document was presented as a social protection measure, but, in fact, it consolidated the practice of mass medical filtration of orphans and children left without parental care. These examinations performed several functions at once: they allowed the formation of medical files for the inclusion of children in databases and preparation for adoption into Russian families.
Additionally, they became a tool for distinguishing between “healthy” and “sick” children. Thus, medical examinations turned into a sorting mechanism, where the presence of diseases actually became the basis for abandoning a child. It was in this logic that high-profile cases occurred, when Russian politicians, having kidnapped Ukrainian children, kept healthy babies, and “returned” children with diseases or concealed their subsequent fate. Consequently, order No. 3116-r is not only an administrative act on financing, but also a legal confirmation that Russia has systemically introduced the practice of medical filtration of children from the occupied territories, which has become part of the general policy of their deportation, assimilation, and selection for subsequent placement in loyal families.
This policy is based on a combination of administrative and ideological mechanisms. In the occupied territories, there are courts that deprive parents of their rights due to poverty, debt, or living conditions. In Berdyansk, Kherson, and Donetsk Oblasts, dozens of children were recognized as "orphans" even though their parents were still alive. Thus, they ended up in boarding schools and then in the Russian guardianship system. This infrastructure enabled the quick launch of adoption processes. For example, the Latyntsev family from Novosibirsk adopted four orphans from Donetsk Oblast, who immediately received Russian passports.
In Crimea, Olga Dorokhina adopted a girl from Kherson, taken out during the “evacuation.” Larisa, a resident of Novosibirsk, took a boy from Luhansk Oblast, even though he still had relatives. To legitimize its actions, the Kremlin actively uses the rhetoric of "humanitarian aid." Official statements talk about “saving orphans,” “caring for Russians,” or “improving children’s health.” Russian media publish stories about “ordinary families” taking in “abandoned Ukrainian children.” In this way, crime is presented as a noble mission, and society is taught to perceive deportation as an act of virtue.
This rhetoric performs several functions at once:
- Creates an image of Russia as a “saving state” for the domestic audience
- Serves as an instrument of international propaganda, creating the appearance of humanity and a “response” to accusations of genocide
- It has a psychological impact on the children themselves, instilling in them the idea that Ukraine has “abandoned” them, and that only Russia demonstrates concern
- It also intensifies the demographic crisis.
However, the deportation of Ukrainian children is not limited to the practices of adoption and changing their legal status. It is part of the Kremlin’s strategic policy aimed at forming loyal generations. Children, artificially isolated from the Ukrainian cultural and linguistic context, are integrated into the Russian social environment, including families, educational institutions, and educational programs. As a result, they receive new documents, form a changed identity, and assimilate the imposed historical memory.
This process addresses several problems simultaneously. Firstly, it has a demographic dimension, helping to reduce the number of Ukrainian children in the occupied territories. Secondly, it implements an assimilation effect, ensuring Russification and education within the framework of the Russian cultural and ideological paradigm. Thirdly, it pursues a political goal—the preparation of a new generation of citizens loyal to the Russian state and its political regime.
These practices can be defined as a strategy of ethnocidal socialization, in which children become objects of conscious political and ideological engineering. The key tool of this strategy is systemic ideological processing. In the occupied territories, so-called “courage lessons” are regularly held with the participation of the military, during which the image of Ukraine as an enemy is imposed on children, and military death “for the Motherland” is glorified. An additional element is the numerous military-patriotic clubs (for example, “Zastava-58” and “Patriots of Donbas”), within which teenagers are taught how to handle weapons and observe military discipline. More than 70 schools have been transformed into cadet classes, where schoolchildren wear military uniforms, undergo drill training, and study history as interpreted by Russian curricula.
Even the institution of foster families is included in this system. In several Russian regions (in particular, in the Omsk and Moscow Oblasts), potential adoptive parents are required to take specialized courses dedicated to raising deported Ukrainian children. These methodological materials emphasize the need for the child to renounce his Ukrainian identity completely and to reinforce the “correct” interpretation of the events of the war. Thus, the institution of the family is used as a continuation of state propaganda and assimilation policy.
Such pressure often has tragic consequences. Teenager Alexander Yakushchenko from the Kherson Oblast, deprived of documents and the opportunity to return home, committed suicide in the Krasnodar Oblast. The boarding school "Rostok" has repeatedly recorded escapes of children who could not withstand the conditions. These stories show that it is not only about a forced change of citizenship, but also about a deep trauma associated with the loss of connection with the homeland.
International law clearly classifies such actions as a crime. The Geneva Conventions and the Convention on the Rights of the Child prohibit the transfer and adoption of children from occupied territories. The UN Genocide Convention defines the forced transfer of children to another national group as a form of genocide. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova for organizing these practices, and the European Parliament recognized the deportation and assimilation of Ukrainian children as elements of genocide. Evidence of cases of deprivation of parental rights in occupation courts is the following:
Conclusion
The deportation of Ukrainian children by Russia is an instrument of genocidal policy that combines legal, administrative, and ideological mechanisms. The creation of commissions on minors, the involvement of regional and federal "data banks," and the practice of depriving parents of parental rights on trumped-up grounds ensure the systematic nature of the process.
Adoption and guardianship are transformed not into protection of the child, but into a means of Russification, breaking identity and preparing a "loyal generation". This process is accompanied by medical filtration, ideological indoctrination in schools, and the imposition of "traditional values". Thus, we are talking not only about the forced displacement of children, but also about a comprehensive program of assimilation and destruction of Ukrainian national identity. Taken together, such actions correspond to the definition of genocide enshrined in international law.
About the authors:
Pavel Lysiansky: PhD in political science, Director of the Institute for Strategic Research and Security, Laureate of the German French Prize for the Protection of Human Rights and the Rule of Law.
Vira Yastrebova: PhD in political science, Director of the NGO "Eastern Human Rights Group", a lawyer.
Liza Denisova: Political scientist and expert at the Institute for Strategic Research and Security.
[1] Links to all listed documents.
