Belarus became an accomplice to Russian crimes and displaced at least 2,219 Ukrainian children from the occupied territories to the territory of Belarus from 2021 to June 2024. Moreover, Aleksandr Lukashenko personally laid the groundwork for the displacement of Ukrainian children and the criminal policy of militarization and eradication of Ukrainian identity. Human rights defenders called for the arrest of those responsible for these crimes.
This became known on Oct.10 during the presentation of the report “Stolen childhood: how the Belarusian regime is erasing Ukrainian children’s identity through displacement, re‑education, and militarization.”
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The research was carried out by Human Rights Centre ZMINA, Regional Centre for Human Rights, human rights organization Viasna and BelPol with the support of Freedom House. This report is the first to use data on the displaced Ukrainian children, which became known through contacts within Belarus. The researchers tracked the path of the displaced children and their fate after their displacement.
According to human rights defenders, Russia had been taking and changing the identity of Ukrainian children even before the start of the full-scale war, and after 2022, it began to do it even more actively. However, little was known about the role of Belarus in such a planned system.
“We learned that at least 2,219 of our children were displaced to Belarus between 2021 and June 2024. And although these actions are justified as “recreation,” the largest groups of children are displaced to Belarus during the school year to facilitate their involvement in local schools. In addition, at least 27 children who were in camps in Belarus were later transferred to Russian camps,” comments Onysiia Syniuk, legal analyst at Human Rights Centre ZMINA
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Human rights defenders say that such a consistent displacement of children, including their transfer between camps in Belarus and Russia, is evidence of a planned policy of indoctrination of children and the eradication of Ukrainian identity. The actions of Belarus are part of the Russian system and reproduce Russian practices of crimes against children.
According to the lawyer of the Regional Centre for Human Rights Kateryna Rashevska, they managed to identify 18 re-education camps in Belarus. They are part of a network of 67 institutions in the Russian Federation and 13 in the occupied territories.
Children are also subject to hostile narratives outside of camps and schools. For example, the Belarusian state identifies Ukrainian children in Belarus as “Russians” and recognizes the Russian citizenship imposed on them, while Belarusian state media refer to them as “young and new citizens of Russia.” Belarusian public figures and officials who promote anti-Ukrainian and pro-Russian ideology often perform for Ukrainian children during events.
Ukrainian children are also exploited in criminal propaganda. In particular, on Belarusian television, children call the full-scale invasion of Ukraine a ‘special military operation’ and call themselves “Russian children.” The children claim that “Ukrainian soldiers are chaotically shelling the city,” “Mariupol is beginning to revive” and “Russia is saving us.” In addition, the filming takes place with a violation of privacy, and the stories often contain personal data of children.
Militarization is another criminal practice aimed at training and recruiting children for future service in Russian military organizations. And during their stay in Belarus, children meet with law enforcement agencies, the military or paramilitary youth organizations of Belarus.
“Already militarized in the occupied territories, Ukrainian children, unfortunately, are also becoming agents of influence on their peers. For example, cadets from the Zakharchenko Corps, which is a military educational institution for school-age children in occupied Donetsk, are actively involved in trips to Belarus and serve as an “example” and propaganda for other children to join military educational institutions and youth movements,” says Onysiia Syniuk. The human rights defender believes that this practice deprives Ukrainian children of their identity and nationality.
“All these facts show that Ukrainian children have become victims of a crime against humanity in the form of persecution, both on the basis of age and belonging to the Ukrainian national group, and due to the particular vulnerability of children and their stay in occupation. The cumulative effect of all violations of children's rights, given the serious consequences for mental and physical health, reaches the threshold of inhuman treatment, and the children themselves need not only to be returned, but also to be rehabilitated and reintegrated into Ukrainian society,” comments Kateryna Rashevska.
Human rights defenders are convinced that Aleksandr Lukashenko personally created the conditions for the displacement of Ukrainian children to Belarusian territory, and the Union State of Russia and Belarus plays an important role in financing and organizing the displacement and re-education of Ukrainian children. State Secretary of the Union State Dmitry Mezentsev and Chairman of the Council of Ministers Mikhail Mishustin are directly involved in the relocation of children. In 2022 and 2023, the Union State allocated more than $500,000 for the removal of children from Donbas under the guise of “humanitarian aid.” Aliaksei Talai, a Belarusian Paralympic athlete and head of the Aliaksei Talai Foundation, is also actively involved in the transfer of children to camps in the country, organizing a “cultural program” for them and financing the process. He is a supporter of Lukashenko and Putin, has close ties with representatives of the regimes of these states and is associated with the Zakharchenko Cadet Corps.
Human rights defenders have already submitted evidence of the Belarusian regime's crimes against Ukrainian children to the ICC. They also demanded the issuance of arrest warrants for Aleksandr Lukashenko, Dmitry Mezentsev, Mikhail Mishustin and Aliaksei Talai.
Yurii Yurkevych, Program Director of Freedom House Ukraine, said that experts have already presented this report abroad in a number of countries, emphasizing that the fate of more than one and a half million children in the occupation is unknown, but they are also under constant pressure from the occupation regime. The information from this report will also serve as a basis for further cooperation with other governments, as well as with the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The report is available in Ukrainian and English.
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