Russia has abducted 50 high school children from occupied Lysychansk in Luhansk Oblast to Russia’a Tatarstan region, the National Resistance Center, an organization operated by Ukraine's Special Forces, reported on Feb. 2.
Russia offered forcibly deported Ukrainian children a scholarship at local universities if they passed the final exams in Russia. National Resistance Center said Russian abduction of Ukrainian children aims "to assimilate the youth."
Thousands of children from Ukraine’s Russia-occupied territories are thought to have been subjected to forced deportation to Russia. On Jan. 18, Daria Herasymchuk, Ukraine’s presidential advisor for children’s rights and rehabilitation, reported that Russia had abducted almost 14,000 Ukrainian children. Only 125 of them have been returned to Ukraine.
