Russia is militarizing children in the temporarily occupied territories of еру Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Lyudmyla Denisova, Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights [ombudswoman], has made this announcement today.
According to her, the opening of a Cossack cadet corps for 400 people is planned in Starobilsk. This will be the largest institution of this type in the temporarily occupied territory of the Luhansk region. In addition, the occupiers intend to open cadet corps and classes in Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk.
“As of the end of 2021, there were 62 cadet classes in the temporarily occupied territory of the Luhansk region, with more than 1,200 children, and two cadet corps with 417 children,” Denisova said.
According to the ombudswoman, some of the graduates of the cadet corps have already died. “In particular, in early April 2022, Andriy Dehtyarenko, a graduate of the Republican Cossack Cadet Corps named after Marshal of Aviation Alexander Yefimov (Lugansk city), a 2017 graduate, died while performing the ‘combat missions’ set by the occupiers,” added Lyudmila Denisova.
The ombudswoman asked the UN Commission of Inquiry into Human Rights during the russian military invasion of Ukraine to consider these violations of children’s rights by russia.
In the occupied by russia Crimea, teachers were ordered to line up students in corridors or on the streets and force them to sing the Russian national anthem and teach children about “war heroes.” Students must participate in the flash mob “I'm not ashamed to be Russian".