Occupation authorities to send 400 Ukrainian children to Russia for mandatory 'exchange' program
Approximately 400 Ukrainian children will be sent to Russia from occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast for a mandatory "exchange" program by year's end, the Center for National Resistance (CNR) reported on Nov. 27.
"The CNR analysts note that such trips take place in conditions of a complete lack of transparency and control mechanisms. Parents have no opportunity to influence the organization of such exchanges," the report reads.
The Ukrainian children will be sent to Russia's Yaroslavl Oblast for what Russian officials claim is an "interregional exchange" consisting of educational and sports activities.
"However, behind the facade of tourist rhetoric, another meaning is hidden — the systematic and controlled movement of Ukrainian children deep into the territory of the Russian Federation," the CNR reports.
Moscow has forcibly abducted Ukrainian children from occupied territories to Russia, in violation of international law and prompting arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Over 500 schools in Ukraine's occupied territories have been fully integrated into the Russian education system with mandatory propaganda classes.
In an October interview, Lvova-Belova described how she "took in" a 15-year-old boy named Filip from Mariupol, the city Russia demolished and occupied early in the war.
She admitted that the abducted child "did not want to go to Russia" and said that he was "annoyed by Moscow and Russia," but she managed to re-educate him.
