Russia subjecting 1.6 million Ukraine children to military brainwashing: OSCE report

VIENNA - Around 1.6 million young Ukrainians are being forced by Russia into a system of military indoctrination that could amount to a crime against humanity, according to OSCE-mandated independent experts.

Their report, presented on July 9 at the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Vienna, found that Russia had installed a systematic programme to bring young people into the army in areas seized by Russian forces from Kyiv.

French researcher Herve Ascensio said that children, parents and teachers alike were targeted if they attempted to maintain their Ukrainian identity.

“We think... that this system of indoctrination and militarisation may amount to the crime against humanity of persecution,” he said.

According to Latvian expert Elina Steinerte, the pro-Kremlin authorities sent draft letters to call up Ukrainians in the occupied territories to the army at a younger age than in Russia itself.

“We interviewed young adults who have left their families behind” to escape conscription, she said.

The report, seen by AFP, details the training camps and classes on handling weapons and drones imposed on Ukrainian children.

It also documents several cases of young adults being drafted and then sent to the front line.

The report recommends putting the issue of children on the table in any talks on ending the conflict and calls for the opening of humanitarian corridors to allow families to reunite.

While Ukraine had already put in some programmes to re-integrate children returned from Russia, there’s “a big job to be done”, Steinerte said.

The experts estimate that some 1.6 million children living in the Crimean peninsula, occupied by Russia since 2014, or in eastern Ukrainian regions partially controlled by Russia, are at risk.

Kyiv believes that 20,610 children have been taken to Russian territory.

The report is the fruit of the Moscow Mechanism, a process triggered by the OSCE’s 41 states on May 14 to allow independent experts to investigate grave human rights abuses in the conflict.

It was the sixth mission of this sort in Ukraine since 2022, when Russia’s invasion began.

As part of their work, the experts conducted interviews and fieldwork in Ukraine from June 6 to 11.

Russia did not co-operate. AFP