One of the most dangerous in the world: Ukrainian children in occupation secretly founded a book club - The Guardian

To spread: teenagers have to be careful and only three meetings: Ukrainian books have been recognized as "extremist" and can be sentenced to 5 years for their storage. Ukrainian teenagers who live in one of the temporarily occupied cities where the Russians massively destroyed books in local libraries, at risk of persecution and even imprisonment, founded a secret book club where they gather to discuss Ukrainian literature.

Young enthusiastic families can also be affected, as Russians may deprive parental rights for such actions. This was told by British writer Peter Pomerantsev and Ukrainian author Alina Dichman on March 22 for The Guardian. Collections of a secret book club take place in apartment premises. Before that, the participants carefully check whether the windows are closed and whether the spy is hidden nearby, which can expose their activities.

The names of the involved and the city where the Ukrainian Book Club are organized are not revealed in the publication for security reasons. The girl who founded the book organization is called Mariyka and write that she is 17 years old. Young Ukrainians have to act very carefully and be inventive to find the necessary literature.

They came up with a way out in the actual absence of paper books: they look for sources on the Internet and process electronic versions, and then carefully "clean" the search stories. Such actions are not simply done by teenagers: the fact is that the local occupation authorities sometimes remove digital devices from the Ukrainian population to check them for signs of viewing "extremist" content.

The Guardian also states that parents who allow children to study under the Ukrainian program online in the occupied city can get rid of parental rights. Another danger lies in the fact that there are many informants around the Russian special services. The fact that the occupying power is destroying Ukrainian books became known shortly after the start of a full -scale invasion.

In November 2023, the public reported that there were almost no Ukrainian literature left in the territories of the temporarily occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions: almost everything was destroyed by the invaders. Instead, the Russians bring their literature to temporarily occupied territories, including textbooks and manuals that make Ukrainian children study in occupation.