January 10, 2024
Children from occupied Ukraine sent to train Belarusian army
A group of Ukrainian children who recently arrived in Belarus from occupied Ukraine were sent for “emergency survival training” by the Belarusian military, Belarusian state television reported on Wednesday.
Thirty-five children from the Russian-occupied town of Antratsyt in eastern Ukraine are reportedly being held in a sanatorium in the eastern Belarusian city of Mogilev under the care of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
State television station Belarus 1 said the military was “teaching children how to act in extreme situations,” such as how to deal with fires, and broadcast footage of children with Russian flags sewn on their sleeves.
Both Ukrainian and Belarusian rebels claim that Russia’s ally Belarus is carrying out large-scale illegal deportations of Ukrainian children to their territory in a campaign to indoctrinate children as pro-Russian. are doing.
A recent study by Yale University found that more than 2,400 Ukrainian children between the ages of 6 and 17 were brought to Belarus from four regions of Ukraine that are partially occupied by Russian forces. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s prosecutor general is investigating Belarus for the alleged deportation of more than 19,000 children.
“The Belarusian authorities do not hide the fact that children are being brainwashed,” Pavel Latushka, a former Belarusian culture minister turned opposition activist, told The Associated Press, adding that Ukrainian children are being “re-educated and They are being brainwashed,” he added. Pro-Russian faction.
Ukrainian authorities said they were investigating the children’s deportation as a possible genocide.
In March, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and children’s rights ombudsman Maria Rybova-Belova on suspicion of war crimes related to the illegal deportation and transfer of children from Ukraine to Russia. . Moscow rejected the charges.
