Ombudsman: Russia launches some 70 paramilitary camps to “re-educate” Ukrainian

That’s according to Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, who spoke at the national telethon, Ukrinform reports.

In this way, he commented on the Russians setting up centers for "military-patriotic education" of Ukrainian children.

“Indeed, ‘education’ is compulsory. In fact, our children have no choice – whether to participate or not. Everyone is recorded, this is the official curriculum in Russia for Ukrainian children. I emphasize that it is Ukrainian children who are being enrolled in various military organizations and put through such ‘training’. The Russians are not just doing this consciously, they seek to raise a new generation of Russian military personnel from among Ukrainian children, who in the future, according to the Russians, will probably have to fight again against Ukraine or against other countries. ... As of now, we can say at least 70 such camps operate on the Russian territory, in the temporarily occupied territories, and in Crimea," Lubinets said.

Even girls are being taught to handle Kalashnikov assault rifle, sing Russian "patriotic" songs, and get ready for a military "career".

Russian propagandists "brainwash" children with statements as if Ukraine and the Ukrainian nation never existed, the ombudsman added.

"The Russians deliberately take action aimed at the forcible transfer of children from one ethnic group to another. This is one of the features of genocide as a war crime... Unfortunately, many international experts working on the issue of documenting war crimes still fail to find evidence of crimes against humanity that fall under the term of genocide. It seems to me that we as a state, I, as the Human Rights Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada, have provided so much evidence, concrete testimonies of children whom we have brought back from the Russian territory, where they were physically punished even for communicating in Ukrainian – in our opinion, this is not just a feature, it is direct evidence of Russia committing genocide against the Ukrainian people," Lubinets emphasized.

He noted that all the government’s efforts are aimed at ensuring that the Russians start to return Ukrainian children en masse. In addition, there are already new mechanisms for locating children across Russia.

"Regarding new mechanisms for finding children – yes, we have them. I cannot reveal any details, but the facts we are now receiving from the temporarily occupied territory and from the territory of the Russian Federation are broader, we have more evidence, information, we have the opportunity to document the involvement of Russian officials who have taken or are taking part in process of forcible deportation of Ukrainian children. We also draw up such lists. Perhaps in the future we will see new arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court, which will play a positive role in the process of bringing our Ukrainian children back," the ombudsman concluded.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska appealed to Antonio Guterres and the United Nations in general to help return abducted Ukrainian children from Russia.