In the occupied territories, the Russians “filter” Ukrainian children
The Russian military is subjecting Ukrainian children under occupation to medical screening. The health database is used for further deportation.
This was reported by the lawyer, director of the public organization “Eastern Human Rights Group” Vira Yastrebova.
According to her, over the past two weeks, intensified processes of medical screening of children have been recorded in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. As the human rights defender specified, if earlier such measures were applied to orphans, now the invaders have taken care of children studying in schools and attending kindergartens.
This filtering is enforced.
“Passing this specific medical examination is mandatory. Then all this data about the state of health is entered into a separate database, which is then used for further deportation. The Russian Federation demonstrates a fascist approach – children who have an excellent state of health are used for deportation , which give hope in education,” said Yastrebova.
According to her, children with disabilities or illnesses are left in temporarily uncontrolled territories, and only healthy children are involved in deportation, who are then “transformed” into Russians through passporting. In particular, after filtering, children who have reached the age of 14 are transferred to the relevant institution according to the lists – for the registration of Russian passports.
“Thus, the Russian Federation is trying to rid Ukraine of Ukrainians by forcing them to obtain Russian citizenship. Nevertheless, cases of parents’ refusal to change their documents have been recorded, after which they are summoned for questioning,” the lawyer emphasizes.
She gave an example of a resident of the city of Soledar, who after such a refusal was almost killed by numerous interrogations, threatening to take away her child.
As Yastrebova notes, so-called passporting in the occupied territories is gaining momentum. Speaking about the adult population, she clarified that currently, in addition to people of working age, elderly citizens are forced to join her. Those who refuse are threatened with blocking pension payments, access to medical and other social services. In fact, people who find themselves in very difficult financial conditions are being blackmailed.
The human rights activist added that over 1,000 arrests and forced arrests of people who refused to issue Russian passports were recorded in April-May in the temporarily occupied territories. According to Yastrebova, these arrests are carried out by coordination groups of Russian law enforcement officers from the migration service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.
As a reminder, in the temporarily occupied part of Luhansk region, more than 6,000 children continue their education online in a Ukrainian school.