Poems about "Ukrainian Nazism" and videos of tortured Ukrainian troops: how Russian propaganda works in schools under occupation

Russian forces have turned schools in temporarily occupied Luhansk Oblast into bases for their military operations, forcing children to attend ideological classes and watch videos of captured Ukrainian soldiers.

Source: an analytical report by the East SOS charity on violations of international humanitarian law in Ukraine's education sector

Details: The Russian occupying authorities have set out to convince children that committing war crimes against Ukraine's Armed Forces is acceptable and even commendable, while also attempting to erode the children's Ukrainian identity.

Children in the temporarily occupied territories have been required to receive education according to Russian standards since 2014. This practice has undergone significant expansion and widespread adoption since 2022.

Quote from a woman in the report: "I think it was 2017. Russian soldiers from the so-called 'Donetsk People's Republic' (DPR) came to our school. We were all gathered in the assembly hall. And they showed us a video on the projector – there was a terrorist forcing Ukrainian soldiers at Donetsk airport to kneel, cut the Ukrainian flag chevron off their sleeves and chew it.

We were so little, and they forced us to watch it. I can still remember it clearly. We must have been about nine or ten years old."

Details: The Russian occupation authorities developed special teaching materials for schools in temporarily occupied territories. In 2022, these materials were distributed to schools in Kherson. Teachers were required to justify the legality of the Russian occupation on the first day of the school year.

Ukrainian was taught as a foreign language once a week. In temporarily occupied Luhansk Oblast, parents were required to submit statements requesting a reduction in the time their children spent studying Ukrainian.

Quote from respondents in the report: "Ukrainian was eliminated immediately. A message from the parents' chat was forwarded to the teachers. It said you had to write a statement saying that you wanted Ukrainian to be taught for just one hour a week. And these statements were written.

They [the Russians] carried on using Ukrainian textbooks until the end of 2022, but they forced [the students] to speak Russian at school."

Details: The Russian occupation authorities pushed the Russification of children in the temporarily occupied territories, introducing Russian language and literature lessons as extracurricular activities. This meant that students were forced to learn Ukrainian secretly. In addition, children and young people from temporarily occupied territories have been secretly studying remotely at Ukrainian schools since the full-scale invasion began.

Schoolchildren have been forced to go on trips to sites celebrating the so-called "Great Patriotic War" (the Russian term for Nazi Germany's 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union) and to attend events commemorating Russian service members killed in the so-called "Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics" since 2014. Children have also been compelled to take part in celebrations marking significant dates in Russia's history.

Quote from respondents in the report: "The whole school was there, and students from other schools were even brought in by bus. They escorted us to the 'Memorial to the Defenders of Donbas'. Russian flags had appeared there. The purpose of this event was to pay tribute to the memory of those who died in the 'liberation' of Donbas.

But it wasn't presented as a World War II liberation; instead, they drew parallels with what is happening today. It was 2021, there were Russian flags everywhere, and a boy of eight or nine came on stage to read out a poem about 'Ukrainian Nazism'."

Details: The Russians have also imposed religious teachings from the Russian Orthodox Church on children and introduced "Conversations about Important Things" [a compulsory school subject in Russia that presents the government's official line on various topics]. The respondents said students were continually being told how much Russia does for Donbas and the people who live there.

Russian soldiers would also attend these lessons, spreading false information about the war and attempting to convince the children that the Armed Forces of Ukraine were deliberately striking civilian infrastructure in Ukrainian cities.

The occupying authorities also promoted service in the Russian armed forces and fostered a distorted view of the war among young people, portraying war crimes and the killing of Ukrainians as normal and even heroic.

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