Ruby Mae Axelson and Morgan Grant
As the summer months draw to a close and children across the globe return to school, we are faced with the stark reality of what this means for the estimated 1.6 million Ukrainian children currently living in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine (‘ToTs’). While children should spend their summer holidays relaxing, spending time with friends and family and enjoying a peaceful childhood, thousands of Ukrainian children were sent to so-called ‘re-education camps’ by the Russian occupation authorities and are now returning to a new school year at Russian-run schools and universities. These institutions are systematically used by Russia to rebuild a generation of Ukrainian children in their image, with repressive measures targeting freedoms, rights and identity: a crucial part of the broader system of ‘Russifying’ the occupied territories of Ukraine.
Over the summer of 2025, the Russian Federation planned to send an estimated 53,000 Ukrainian children from the TOTs to summer camps across the TOTs and the Russian Federation.[1] While this is posed by the Russians as a respite for these children, the reality is much darker. Indeed, these camps have a pseudo-military-patriotic nature and their main goal is to ideologically indoctrinate Ukrainian children and sever ties with their Ukrainian identity.[2] At these camps children are ‘re-educated’ on various academic subjects according to Russian education standards and take part in military training activities (for example, how to handle military equipment and firearms).[3] These camps are purportedly comprised of “barracks or tent cities where Ukrainian children, starting at the age of 8, walk around with weapons, learn to shoot, [and] pay their respects to Russian commanders”.[4] There have also been a number of concerning reports that children at these camps have been subjected to poor living conditions and physical and mental abuse, particularly for exhibiting any pro-Ukrainian behaviour, including merely speaking in the Ukrainian language.[5]
What awaits these children with the advent of the new school year is not much brighter. Ukrainian children living within the TOTs under Russian occupation are forced to attend schools that follow a Russian curriculum which exposes these children to mass amounts of pro-Russian indoctrination. In particular, Ukrainian textbooks have been replaced with Russian ones; children are taught Russian history,[6] which portrays Ukraine in a negative light and Russia and the Russian Federation Armed Forces (‘RFAF’) in a positive light;[7] there is a near total eradication of teaching in the Ukrainian language; and children are forced to participate in pro-Russian militarised youth organisations.[8] The main goal of these youth organisations is to train ‘future recruits’ to fight on behalf of Russia by teaching children key military skills and encouraging them to join the RFAF.[9]
This conduct forms part of a broader system of criminality that has been directed toward Ukrainian children in the TOTs in which they have been forced to obtain Russian citizenship; have been deported to Russia and placed into Russian families or institutions; have been subjected to ill-treatment by virtue of their exposure to militarisation (i.e., the process by which children are encouraged to form a militarised identity and are encouraged to join certain armed forces[10]) and pro-Russian indoctrination; and are forced to participate in youth organisations, as well as pro-Russian educational institutions and re-education camps, all of which has the ultimate aim of systematically altering their identity and connection to Ukraine.[11]
The effect of this system, combined with the impact of armed conflict and occupation on the lives of children more generally, causes severe levels of trauma and has a significant impact on Ukrainian children’s development, sense of identity and right to education.[12] The indoctrination of children at a critical point in their development is a key component of the “attempt to eradicate Ukrainian culture, heritage and identity”.[13] The targeting of children for indoctrination is a pattern not unique to Ukraine.[14] Indeed, children (particularly of a young age) are often seen as more malleable and impressionable making them vulnerable to the impacts of indoctrination and destruction of identity.[15]
The scale and severity of this system on the lives of Ukrainian children requires urgent international attention and action towards accountability. However, while certain aspects of the system (such as the deportation of children) are clearly criminalised under international criminal law (‘ICL’), further analysis is needed to understand how to qualify and prosecute the system of indoctrination and militarisation of Ukrainian children holistically to capture the full extent of the harm. Indeed, conduct akin to that being inflicted on Ukrainian children in the TOTs has never been prosecuted internationally and is not specifically mentioned in any international legal instrument. Nevertheless, by taking a broad view of the system of Russification, as a whole, and the impact this system has on the affected children’s dignity, education and identity, as well as by drawing on ICL jurisprudence and international human rights law, a roadmap towards justice and accountability for this conduct under the international crimes framework can be drawn.
By employing a child-sensitive, trauma-informed and victim-centred approach – the ultimate goal of which is to guarantee that children’s perspectives, concerns and experiences are integrated into any justice process involving them – several international crimes become particularly relevant to the analysis.
Torture and Inhuman Treatment
Torture and inhuman treatment occur when a perpetrator inflicts severe physical or mental pain or suffering upon one or more persons, with the additional element for torture requiring the purpose of obtaining information or a confession, or punishing, intimidating or coercing the victim or a third person, or discriminating, on any ground, against the victim or a third person.[16]
Within the system of Russification of children in the TOTs, an argument may be made that Ukrainian children have been subjected to torture and inhuman treatment in two different, but interrelated, forms: 1) in order to punish them (and their caregivers) for their pro-Ukrainian views and, thereby, eradicate their Ukrainian identity;[17] and 2) as a form of psychological torture through their exposure to pro-Russian indoctrination. Illustrative of the use of inhuman treatment as a form of punishment for children’s pro-Ukrainian views, children who stayed at one of the Russian camps in Crimea informed the United Nations Commission of Inquiry that “staff of the camp placed children in a room called an ‘isolator’ if they considered that the children misbehaved”, with such ‘misbehaviour’ being, for example, listening to the Ukrainian anthem and removing a Russian flag.[18]
Further exploration is needed to examine whether the indoctrination and/or militarisation of children itself has inflicted severe mental suffering or constitutes a form of ‘psychological torture’[19] based on the psychological, developmental and identity impacts it has on the child victim. Some of the practices identified by the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment as potentially amounting to torture – such as forcible internment for the ‘re-education’ of political or religious dissidents and subjecting individuals to ‘conversion therapy’ to alter their gender identity[20] – are similar to the practices Ukrainian children have been subjected to through their exposure to pro-Russian indoctrination. This is particularly so given the fact that the overarching goal of this indoctrination has been to alter their identity from Ukrainian to Russian through ‘re-education’. [21]
Other Inhumane Acts
The crime against humanity of other inhumane acts is committed when a perpetrator inflicts great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health, by means of an inhumane act that is of a similar character (i.e., nature and gravity) to other crimes against humanity.[22] Given the residual nature of this crime, it has the potential to cover conduct related to the system of Russification of children in the TOTs that is not explicitly criminalised under ICL, provided that the conduct in question is of a similar seriousness to other crimes against humanity.[23]
As one example, this crime may have been implicated by the forced imposition of a Russian identity on Ukrainian children through their exposure to pro-Russian indoctrination. The violation in this regard potentially relates to a number of international human rights to which Ukrainian children are entitled, namely: the right to identity; the right to be free from torture or cruel inhuman or degrading treatment; and the right to freedom of expression.[24] Such an approach would need to demonstrate that, by virtue of the system of Russification, Ukrainian children have had a ‘Russian identity’ imposed on them through their exposure to Russian education standards, pro-Russian indoctrination and militarisation in youth organisations, as well as their deportation to Russia and the adoption of some by Russian families.[25] Indeed, such conduct could be comparable to the protected interests that have been considered by international courts in their development of the crime of forced marriage as an ‘other inhumane act’ through which such courts have found that the imposition of the identity of ‘wife’ that the victim did not willingly choose could amount to the crime against humanity of other inhumane acts.[26]
Persecution
Finally, the crime against humanity of persecution occurs when a perpetrator severely deprives one or more persons of fundamental rights (e.g., the right not to be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; the right to freedom of expression; the right to education; and the right to identity[27]) and these persons were targeted by the perpetrator because they belonged to a group or collectivity that is defined on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender or other grounds (e.g., age, sexual orientation or disability[28]).[29]
The overall effect of this system on children, as well as the acts committed in connection with this system, has deprived them of a wide variety of their fundamental rights. Among the many rights that Ukrainian children have been deprived of through their exposure to this system, those that have been implicated most clearly are the right to education; the right to identity; the right to be free from torture or cruel inhuman or degrading treatment; and the right to freedom of expression. For example, Russia’s imposition of its own curriculum in occupied Ukrainian territory, which is taught in the Russian language and, among other things, attacks Ukrainian citizens’ rights to cultural heritage and identity, has violated Ukrainian children’s right to education. The right to identity has also been violated in a myriad of ways, including by separating children from their families and their country either temporarily, by displacing them to re-education camps, or permanently, by deporting them to Russia and placing them in the care of others (e.g., informal care, foster care and adoption); and the constant exposure to propaganda and indoctrination in which they are repeatedly and consistently taught that their language, culture and country do not exist and in which they are, on occasion, punished for attempting to persevere in their pro-Ukrainian beliefs.
With respect to the system of Russification in the TOTs, the goal and result of this system has been to discriminate against Ukrainian children, as a group, based on intersecting national, political and age-based grounds. Information suggests children in the TOTs are being targeted on this basis due to the focus the system of militarisation and indoctrination places on eradicating these children’s identity as both Ukrainian nationals and with respect to their perceived pro-Ukrainian political ideology. Moreover, it is Ukrainian children who have been specifically targeted by the system as a whole and the conduct associated with it.
In addition, it is clear that the deprivation of Ukrainian children’s fundamental rights has been committed in connection with other crimes against humanity and war crimes, including, among others, deportation or forcible transfer, attacks on civilian infrastructure (including buildings dedicated to education and hospitals) and inhuman treatment/psychological torture.[30] However, to better prove that the system of Russification does indeed amount to persecution of Ukrainian children, more information is needed on the full scope of conduct that has deprived Ukrainian children of their fundamental rights and on the impact this has had on them.
Conclusion
The system of Russification of Ukrainian children in the TOTs may implicate a wide variety of international crimes, including the war crime of torture/inhuman treatment; the crime against humanity of other inhumane acts; and the crime against humanity of persecution. Global Rights Compliance’s (‘GRC’) Mobile Child Justice Team has explored the implications of this system of criminality in its Legal Roadmap Applicable to the System of Russification of Children in the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine through Militarisation and Indoctrination, which outlines the various international crimes that may be relevant to the documentation, investigation and prosecution of this system of harm. In particular, the Roadmap considers:
- International Crimes Relevant to Specific Aspects of the System of Militarisation and Indoctrination: including the war crime of conscripting or enlisting children into the national armed forces or using children to participate actively in hostilities; the war crime of compelling a protected persons to serve in the forces of a hostile power; and the war crime and crime against humanity of deportation and forcible transfer.
- International Crimes Reflecting Harm Caused to Children through the System of Militarisation and Indoctrination: including the war crime of inhuman treatment; the war crime and crime against humanity of torture; and the crime against humanity of other inhumane acts.
- International Crimes Reflecting the System of Militarisation and Indoctrination of Children as a Whole: including the crime against humanity of persecution and the crime against humanity of enslavement.
A child-centred approach to international justice is urgently needed for accountability in Ukraine. This involves broadening our focus to consider the full range of harm that the Russian occupation inflicts on Ukrainian children, and seeking to understand the connections between different Russian policies that seek to change the identity of Ukrainian children – whether that is through the forced imposition of Russian education standards, the increased militarisation of childhoods, or the deportation and forced adoption of children in Russia – that ultimately form one, overarching system of criminality.
To download the Roadmap, see the English version here and the Ukrainian version here.
For more information about GRC’s work on crimes against and affecting children in Ukraine, please see the Mobile Child Justice Team website (here) or email gender.childjustice@grcompliance.org.
[1] See e.g., Bring Kids Back UA, ‘Russia plans new mass deportation of over 50,000 Ukrainian children from occupied Donetsk region’ (25 April 2025).
[2] Ukraine World, ‘Russian-Style ‘re-education’: Ukrainian Children Are Cut Off from Their Roots’ (15 October 2023).
[3] Yale HRL, ‘Russia’s Systematic Program for the Re-Education & Adoption of Ukraine’s Children’ (14 February 2023), pp. 14-15.
[4] Ukrinform, ‘In 2023, Russia sent more than 8,000 Ukrainian children to “re-education camps” – expert’ (10 October 2023). See also, Almenda, ‘“What is hidden behind “recreation” in a children’s camp?: How Russia militarises, indoctrinates and changes the identity of Ukrainian children’ (20 October 2023).
[5] See e.g., Yale School of Medicine, ‘Fact Sheet: Russia’s Kidnapping and Re-education of Ukraine’s Children’ (17 March 2025); HRW, ‘Education under Occupation: Forced Russification of the School System in Occupied Ukrainian Territories’ (20 June 2024).
[6] See e.g., OHCHR, Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, 1 December 2023 to 29 February 2024, para. 76, OHCHR, Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, 15 November 2014, para. 100, OHCHR, Human rights situation during the Russian occupation of territory of Ukraine and its aftermath (19 March 2024), paras 131-140.
[7] See e.g., OHCHR, Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, 1 February to 31 July 2022, paras 117-118
[8] See e.g., OHCHR, Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, 16 November 2016 – 15 February 2017, para. 101, OHCHR, Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, 1 December 2023 to 29 February 2024, para. 76; Almenda, ‘Analytical Report: “Crimean Scenario”: How the Russian Federation is Erasing Ukrainian Identity in Children on Occupied Territories’ (17 February 2023).
[9] Almenda, ‘Youth movements as the instrument of indoctrination and militarization in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine’ (29 December 2023), pp. 27, 36.
[10] See e.g., Almenda, ‘Monitoring “Universal Soldier” or Education as a Tool of Russia in the Occupied South of Ukraine (1-30 September, 2022)’ (24 October 2022).
[11] See e.g., OHCHR, Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine (15 May 2014), paras 101-102, 125-129; OHCHR, Human rights situation during the Russian occupation of territory of Ukraine and its aftermath (19 March 2024), para. 132; Amnesty International, ‘Ukraine/Russia: New history textbook is a blatant attempt to unlawfully indoctrinate school children in Russia and Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories’ (1 September 2023).
[12] See e.g., UNICEF, ‘The war in Ukraine is taking a heavy toll on children’s mental health, learning and development’ (27 February 2024); UNICEF, ‘Average of at least 16 children killed or injured in Ukraine every week as escalation of war nears 1,000 days’ (18 November 2024).
[13] Amnesty International, ‘Ukraine/Russia: New history textbook is a blatant attempt to unlawfully indoctrinate school children in Russia and Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories’ (1 September 2023).
[14] Save the Children, ‘The War on Children’ (2018), p. 28.
[15] See e.g., CoE, ‘Dealing with propaganda, misinformation and fake news’; Scientific American, ‘Schoolkids Are Falling Victim to Disinformation and Conspiracy Fantasies’ (1 February 2022).
[16] Rome Statute, Articles 7(1)(f), 8(2)(a)(ii).
[17] See e.g., Parliamentary Assembly of the CoE, ‘Deportations and forcible transfers of Ukrainian children and other civilians to the Russian Federation or to temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories’ (27 April 2023), para. 7.4; HRC, ‘Note by the Secretary-General: Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine’ (19 October 2023) UN Doc A/78/540, paras 101-102; HRW, ‘Education under Occupation: Forced Russification of the School System in Occupied Ukrainian Territories’ (20 June 2024).
[18] HRC, ‘Note by the Secretary-General: Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine’ (19 October 2023) UN Doc A/78/540, para. 101.
[19] See e.g., Ongwen Trial Judgment, para. 2701; ECtHR, Ireland v. United Kingdom, Application No. 5310/71, Judgment, 18 January 1978, para. 167; IACtHR, Cantoral Benavides v. Peru, Series C No. 69, Judgment (Merits), 18 August 2000, para. 102; HRC, ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on Psychological torture and ill-treatment’ (20 March 2020) UN Doc A/HRC/43/49 para. 43.
[20] HRC, ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on Psychological torture and ill-treatment’, para. 37.
[21] See e.g., Almenda, ‘Monitoring “Universal Soldier” or Education as a Tool of Russia in the Occupied South of Ukraine (1-30 September, 2022)’ (24 October 2022); Almenda, ‘Monitoring “Universal Soldier” or Education as a Tool of Russia in the Occupied South of Ukraine (1-31 August, 2022)’ (4 October 2022).
[22] Rome Statute, Article 7(1)(k).
[23] Blagojevic & Jokic Trial Judgment, para. 626; Kordic & Čerkez Appeal Judgment, para. 117.
[24] Convention on the Rights of the Child, Articles 8(1), 13(1), 37(a); International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Articles 7, 13(1), 19(2), 22(1); Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Articles 5, 19, 20(1); European Convention on Human Rights, Articles 2, 3, 10; Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Article 2.
[25] See e.g., Parliamentary Assembly of the CoE, ‘Deportations and forcible transfers of Ukrainian children and other civilians to the Russian Federation or to temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories’ (27 April 2023), paras 2, 7.3, 7.4, 8; Amnesty International, ‘Ukraine/Russia: New history textbook is a blatant attempt to unlawfully indoctrinate school children in Russia and Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories’ (1 September 2023); Atlantic Council, ‘Weaponizing education: Russia targets schoolchildren in occupied Ukraine’ (20 September 2022); Almenda, ‘Textbooks and War: Educational Literature in the Russian Federation as a Tool for Destroying the Identity of Ukrainians’ (August 2023).
[26] See e.g., Brima et al. Appeal Judgment, paras 193, 195, 199; Ongwen Trial Judgment, para. 2748.
[27] Prosecutor v. Al Hassan, ICC-01/12-01/18, Trial Judgment, 26 June 2024, para. 1201.
[28] W. Schabas, The International Criminal Court: A Commentary on the Rome Statute (2nd edn, OUP, 2016), p. 198.
[29] Rome Statute, Articles 7(1)(h), 7(2)(g).
[30] See e.g., OHCHR, The Impact of the Armed Conflict and Occupation on Children’s Rights in Ukraine, 24 February 2022 — 31 December 2024 (21 March 2025); HRC, ‘Conference room paper of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine’ (29 August 2023) UN Doc A/HRC/52/CRP.4, paras 117, 144, 282; UNGA, ‘Note by the Secretary-General: Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine’ (25 October 2014) UN Doc A/79/549, paras 73-78; Almenda, ‘Six Grave Violations Against Children in the Russo-Ukrainian War (24 February 2022-3 May 2022)’.