The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine emphasizes the importance of the newly released Report by the Mission of Experts of the OSCE Moscow Mechanism "On Violations and Abuses of International Humanitarian, Human Rights and Criminal Law related to the Militarization and Indoctrination of Ukrainian Children by the Russian Federation".
The MFA of Ukraine expresses gratitude to the 41 OSCE participating States for invocating the Moscow Mechanism in close cooperation with Ukraine as well as to the independent experts — Professor Hervé Ascension, Dr. Elina Steinerte, and Professor Stefan Wolff – for their work.
This document is a tangible contribution by the OSCE to coordinated international actions aimed at ensuring the future accountability of the aggressor state.
The Report, prepared by the Mission of Independent Experts of the OSCE Moscow Mechanism, yet again clearly indicates that the Russian Federation’s crimes against Ukrainian children are not random or fragmented. These crimes are a targeted state policy aimed at erasing Ukrainian national identity, forcing Russification, changing the children’s national and family ties, militarizing them, and preparing them for service to the occupier.
Unsurprisingly, the Russian Federation refused to cooperate with the OSCE Mission of experts. Such a conduct is yet another confirmation of the fact that Moscow has no arguments to justify its actions. Instead, the aggressor state tries to conceal crimes, hinder the establishment of the truth, and evade responsibility.
The facts established by the Mission show that the Russian Federation has established a targeted system that integrates education legislation, youth policy, family law, citizenship, and so-called efforts to counter "extremism" and "terrorism". This system is used to suppress any form of Ukrainian national identity, language, historical memory, and affiliation with Ukraine.
The Report confirms, inter alia, that the Russian Federation:
– Forcibly integrates Ukrainian children in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories into the Russian educational curriculum;
- Eliminates the Ukrainian language from the educational process, replaces Ukrainian textbooks and curricula with Russian ones, and portrays Ukrainian national identity as a threat;
- Imposes Russian national symbols, propagandist narratives, and justification of the war against Ukraine on Ukrainian children — from kindergarten to high school;
– Engages Ukrainian children in military-patriotic education, propaganda, and support for the war against Ukraine, through lessons, cadet classes, youth movements, camps, and paramilitary organizations;
– Introduces elements of weapons handling, drone operation, tactical medicine, and military service preparation into the school curricula;
– Prepares Ukrainian boys across temporarily occupied territories for conscription into combat or assisting units of the occupying power;
– Coerces parents, educators, and children to participate in the system through threats, persecution, denial of access to education, social services, medical assistance, and mobility rights.
The mission concluded that actions of the Russian Federation may constitute numerous breaches of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, in particular violations of the Hague Regulations of 1907, the Fourth Geneva Convention, and the UNCRC.
Furthermore, the experts determined that systematic indoctrination and militarization of Ukrainian children may amount to a crime against humanity in the form of persecution, committed against Ukrainian children on discriminatory grounds, as part of a wider systemic attack. The Report indicates that the deportation and forced displacement of Ukrainian children may constitute a crime against humanity (as well as war crimes) in the form of deportation and forced displacement of the population.
MFA reiterates that forced transition of children from one national group to another may constitute an act of genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
We are convinced that there can be no just and lasting peace until Ukrainian children remain under the control of the state that has abducted them, changed their identity, and that prepares them for war against their own Motherland.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue its determined work on international platforms, including the United Nations, OSCE, and Council of Europe, as well as under Ukraine-initiated formats such as the International Coalition for the return of Ukrainian children, aimed at implementing the Bring Kids Back UA initiative of the President of Ukraine, halting Russia's crimes against Ukrainian children, return of every child home, restoration of children’s rights, and bringing all those responsible for these crimes to justice.