Russia is deliberately seeking to replace the Ukrainian national identity of more than a million children in the occupied territories in Ukraine, an analysis of publicly available school textbooks and the state’s education policy shows, EFE reported on Monday, according to Agerpres.

“Since 2014, Russia has created a model of eliminating Ukrainian identity through its education system in Crimea. Now it is intensively applying the same measures in the recently occupied territories of Ukraine,” Anastasiya Vorobyova, an analyst at the Civic Education Center, told EFE. Almenda’.

Children are ready to fight and die for Russia

Russia seeks to destroy any connection of the local population with the rest of Ukraine and impose a Russian civic identity on them. Children are also exposed to aggressive militarization.

“They are being trained to serve in the Russian army, to be ready to fight and die for Russia,” Vorobyova emphasizes, noting that through instrumentalization, Russia has turned education into a powerful weapon in the fight against Ukraine.

A recent detailed analysis of Russian textbooks used in the occupied territories by Almenda and the Regional Center for Human Rights revealed a series of “grand narratives” aimed at influencing Ukrainian children.

Textbooks denying Ukraine’s sovereignty and threats

Textbooks systematically present Ukraine as part of Russia and deny its sovereignty. Ukrainians, who throughout history fought for the independence of their nation, are portrayed as “traitors.”

“The new history textbook, co-authored by Volodymyr Medynskyi (advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin), states that Ukraine is an ultra-nationalist state, that Ukrainians were invented by Austria-Hungary, that they are an “artificially created” ethnic group,” Vorobyova emphasizes.

At the same time, Russia’s territorial conquests and the assimilation of various peoples are presented in a positive light.

In the occupied territories, students are taught exclusively in Russian, and parents are categorically not recommended to leave their children in officially accessible Ukrainian classes.

“These parents risk being considered ‘disloyal,'” says the EFE interlocutor.

Some students go to Russian schools to enter online classes at their Ukrainian schools later that day.

But these families face serious threats, the director of one of these schools explains to EFE on the condition of anonymity to guarantee the safety of his students.

Students are being “forced to love Russia,” which is especially cynical given the destruction the invading army brought to their homes, she says.

The ability of children, especially the youngest, to resist these narratives is limited in an environment where any “pro-Ukrainian” opinion cannot circulate freely and where its expression can lead to the loss of a job, property or freedom.

How the erasure of national identity worked in Crimea

The consequences of such a policy can be catastrophic, says Vorobyova, who warns about the strong psychological impact of propaganda, especially on children.

In such regions as Crimea, this already has “fatal consequences”, says the quoted expert.

Some of the young Russian army soldiers who have died in combat since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion were just 12 years old when the Crimean peninsula was annexed more than nine years ago.

They “experienced first-hand the policy of destruction of Ukrainian identity, militarization and assimilation by the Russian Federation,” says the Almenda investigation.

Even their death becomes a tool of militarization, dozens of commemorative plaques are erected in educational institutions, and junior high school students are told that they should follow their example.

As in the case of the deportation of Ukrainian children, Russia is frankly “proud, not ashamed” of its policy, says Vorobyova.

According to her, this is facilitated by Russia’s conviction “that the Ukrainian state does not exist”, as well as the impunity of its actions in Chechnya, Georgia (2008) and Ukraine in 2014.

Russia’s policy towards children is a violation of international humanitarian law and a possible war crime, she emphasizes.

Vorobyova hopes that the evidence collected by “Almenda” and its partners in the coalition of Ukrainian public organizations “5AM Ukraine” will help bring to justice those responsible for the destruction of Ukrainian identity and create an effective mechanism to prevent similar cases in Ukraine. future.