A coalition of Belarusian investigative journalists based abroad has identified officials cooperating with the Russian authorities in children’s abductions from the occupied territories of Ukraine and their indoctrination.
Shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the country began to forcibly remove children from occupied territories, assimilating them into Russian life and creating barriers to reunification with their families. According to the Ukrainian project Children of War, almost 20,000 were deported to Russia.
The Belarusian Investigative Center (BIC), an investigative website run from outside the country, published on Monday (31 July) an extensive report which names the officials involved, including members of the family of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
The investigation finds Belarus to be an accomplice to Russia in the children’s abductions and their subsequent indoctrination.
Last March, in its first warrant in the context of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, the International Criminal Court (ICC) called for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s arrest on suspicion of unlawful deportation of children and unlawful transfer of people from the territory of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.
Official accomplice
The abduction of children from the occupied territories to Belarus is not even kept a secret, the BIC investigation highlights.
Indeed, this activity is paid from the ‘Union State’ budget, that is, from the state budgets of Russia and Belarus. In September 2022 alone, 29 million Russian roubles (at the time equating to nearly €500,000) were allocated from the Union budget for the “rendering of humanitarian assistance” in the occupied territories. Some of this money was allocated for the “care” of Ukrainian children in Belarus.
The Kremlin calls the abduction of children “evacuation” and “rescue”. In Belarus, the official press paints a picture according to which the country’s authorities do their utmost so that orphan children would remember “their childhood the way it should be: calm, exciting, and full of joy”.
Reportedly abducted children have been sent to the Dubrava camp, owned by the giant fertiliser company Belaruskali.
In mid-July, a Belarusian state-controlled media wrote an article about Dubrava and camps at the Ostroshitsky Gorodok sanitarium, the Zubrenok national children’s educational and health center in the Minsk region, and the Golden Sands sanitarium in the Gomel Region. According to the article, over 2,000 children from Ukraine arrived at those camps since September 2022.
“It was possible to bring more than a thousand Ukrainian schoolchildren to Belarus in April-May of this year thanks to the instructions of Alexander Lukashenko,” Belarus Today highlighted.
BIC obtained a letter signed by Dmitry Mezentsey, secretary of the Union State, according to which the hosting of children from Ukraine takes place upon instructions of Putin and Lukashenko. Among the institutions involved are the state railroads and charitable foundations such as the “Talai Fund” owned by Paralympian Aliaksei Talai.
It is under Talai’s leadership that Ukrainian children are reportedly entertained and ideologically indoctrinated in Belarus.
“Having received the consent and support of the President, we began to work out the possibility of recreation for the children of Donbass in Belarus,” Talai said on the Belarusian state-owned news agency BelTA YouTube channel in June.
Indoctrination
In addition to visiting a skating rink, a circus and dinosaur park, children were taken to the Belarusian Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the security center of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Pro-government Belarusian media reported that servicemen organised an exhibition of weapons for the Ukrainian children and held for them masterclasses in shooting with military unit 3214.
The same unit is known for violent crackdowns on protesters in March 2006 and August 2020, led by former unit commander Dzmitry Paulichenka.
Concerts were also held for children from the occupied Ukrainian territories. They were reportedly hosted by pro-government artists such as the Gruzdev sisters. In a speech on 7 October 2022, on Putin’s birthday, they called the children “chosen ones” and “lucky ones”.
They also made this statement: “Hope Biden dies, God, forgive me. And hope Zelenskyy dies, too. And may Putin thrive and take control of all of Ukraine”.
Some children from Ukraine were taught to play hockey by former star Dzmitry Baskau. Another group was sent to watch a match with in which Lukashenko himself was the star hockey player.
The family
Members of the Lukashenko family are involved in organising events for children who were brought to Belarus through Rostov-on-Don, the BIC investigation finds.
One of them is Volodymyr Kulakov, an activist with the pro-government association Patriots of Belarus. He is the husband of Tatsiana Kulakova, sister of the president’s son Dzmitry Lukashenko’s wife Anna.
Dzmitry Lukashenko is also involved in the indoctrination of Ukrainian children in Belarus, the investigation finds. Pro-Russian activist Olga Volkova, who runs an Instagram account under the name Olga Pidgaina, thanked him personally as well as everyone who “fills every day of the children’s stay with warmth and care”.
One of the Talai Foundation posts says the arrival of children in Belarus was organised with the help of the Presidential Sports Club, and personally the chairman of the organisation, Dzmitry Lukashenko.
More names of officials involved in the abductions can be found in the original article by BIC.
[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]
