Genocide continues: the Russian Federation plans to deport thousands of children from Ukraine in the summer - ISW

According to analysts, the invaders will export Ukrainian children to the so-called military-patriotic camps, where they will learn how to manage drones and tactical medicine. In the summer, Russian invaders are preparing to intensify the deportation of Ukrainian children, exacerbating another aspect of the Russian genocide campaign in Ukraine. This is stated in the report by the Institute of War Study (ISW) for May 28.

The head of the occupation administration of Lugansk region Leonid Pasichnyk stated that Russian regions will "accept" more than 12 thousand children from the region. In general, the Russian program "Useful Vacations" funds a trip for 40,000 children from occupied Ukraine who will "visit" summer camps and educational events in Russia. In occupied Crimea and in Russia, more than 600 children from the uncontrolled regions of Ukraine are being prepared during the summer.

This is the Ocean Summer Camp in Vladivostok. It is closer to Alaska than to Ukraine, analysts said. In turn, the occupation "Ministry of Labor" of the Kherson region also announced that the children would go to the Ocean camp for participation in "educational, sports and cultural program".

On May 27, the head of the occupation "government" of Kherson region Andriy Alekseenko announced that 575 children will visit the three -week summer camps in the occupied Crimea and in the Russian Republic of Adigay. The trip is funded by "one of the subjects of the Russian Federation". The number of teenagers from the occupied Luhansk region, who will go to the military-patriotic sports camp on the basis of the Avangard camp in the Volgograd region, has not yet been identified.

There, children are planning to teach military engineering, tactics, fire, parachute, communication, national security, drone exploitation and tactical medicine. ISW analysts emphasized that, despite Russia's attempts to present summer camps for Ukrainian children as temporary recreation and educational measures, they are an important element of the Russian campaign for deportation of Ukrainians, including children, to Russia.

"The forced movement of children from one group to another is a recognized act of genocide, and therefore the multifaceted scheme of Russia on deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia can be qualified as acts of genocide," the Institute of War Study noted. Children from Ukraine who have been deported to Russia to such "vacations" or "summer camps" are subject to Russification programs that provide isolation from their families, their mother tongue, culture and history.

"The Russian authorities will probably increase efforts to deport over the summer under the guise of summer holidays, but these programs are acts of genocide against the Ukrainian people, despite Russia's attempts to mask them as temporary and positive educational opportunities," - said in ISW. We will remind, from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine more than 20 thousand children were taken to Russia.