"You support Ukraine - you are mentally ill": how the Russian Federation is strengthening the filtering of teenagers in the occupied territories of Ukraine

"If a person sincerely supports Ukraine, the security forces consider such a person mentally ill," reports the Eastern Human Rights Group.

Teenagers are increasingly becoming objects of filtering, which is why parents have to migrate within the occupied territories.

"Boys in the 10th and 11th grades, who are no longer free from the occupation, were subjected to torture in particular. The parents realize that they are not absent, because the boys are 16 to 18 years old. We have to hide in cellars, move to other crowded villages. There is persecution for any manifestations of sympathy for Ukraine. A large number of cases are known when children were put in solitary confinement because of their pro-Ukrainian attitude."

What forms of pressure are used in the Russian occupation on Ukrainian children?

Is penal psychiatry under occupation a war crime?

Did the parents get a chance to bury the bodies of the teenagers who were killed by Russian security forces in Berdyansk last year?

Read about all this in the material of the Radio Liberty project "News from Azov".

Irina Dubas, director of Lyceum No. 3 in Nova Kahovka, Kherson region, told "Novosti iz Azov" that there are still no cases of forced treatment of children in this city. There is only one high school institution in Nova Kahovka - Licej no. 10. There, the occupation authorities could not establish an educational process. According to her, the role of teachers is performed by technicians.

The occupiers go from house to house and find parents who do not send their children to Russian schools, says the director. This happens not only in Nova Kahovka, but also in other settlements.

"Parents are forced to enroll their children in this school because, of course, they are in danger - the basement. Many people disappear and various tortures take place. That's why they are afraid. Parents, grandparents enroll children in school. In that school, the most important thing is to submit documents. They don't go out, they don't see the students. But there they pay every month for it, plus they give a package with products. That's how, I believe, our population simply survives".

 

"Moving to crowded villages"

 

Adolescent boys are under special control of the occupation authorities in Nova Kahovka, the teacher added.

 

"Boys from 10th to 11th grade who are no longer freed from the occupation. The parents understand that they are not absent, because the boys are 16 to 18 years old. We have to hide in cellars, move to other crowded villages, where control is not so strong. If the child has disappeared from sight, of course we will find out what happened. Maybe there is no light, maybe there is no internet and then we are already waiting for the parents or the child to contact us. Because when some kind of violence happens, children are immediately removed from all groups, all numbers are deleted, so that when the occupiers check their phones, everything is clean. In general, it is very dangerous, they are constantly pressing, they are constantly under control."

Given the hostilities and the Russian occupation of parts of the southern territories of Ukraine, the editorial office cannot obtain official confirmation of some of the statements made or independently verify them.

 

"Shot and secretly buried"

 

In June of last year, it became known about the death of two teenagers in occupied Berdjansk. Tigran Ohanisyan and Nikita Kanganov were killed by Russian snipers.

Earlier, the teenagers were charged by Russia's Investigative Committee for allegedly "preparing sabotage" on the railway. They were charged under the article, which foresees a prison sentence of 10 to 20 years. The bodies of the murdered boys were never handed over to their parents or the Ukrainian side.

In July of this year, the Commissioner of the Parliament of Ukraine for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross to allow the families to bury the teenagers. At the same time, Lubinec noted that Russia, according to the information he received, will do it secretly.

Andrij Jakovljev, lawyer and representative of Tigran Oganisijan's family, told "Novosti iz Priazovje" that, according to the information obtained, the occupation authorities most likely buried the teenagers in the summer of this year. Relatives were not informed about the place of burial.

"It was a secret funeral. The thing is that they (the murdered teenagers) were charged under the article which provides for the charge of "terrorist activity". And since this case is closed, we conditionally call it under non-rehabilitative circumstances - there is no boy, accordingly, they closed this case, they did not continue the investigation. And they (in the Russian Federation) have a rule that under such circumstances they do not give the body to relatives and bury it secretly. So, the bodies were buried, but it was not an official act by which the relatives could be informed that the bodies were indeed in such and such graves. They are officially responsible for the fact that the burial is not provided due to their legislation. Berdyansk is a small town and there is no reason to doubt that they were buried," said the lawyer.

 

" Punish the bosses"

 

Yakovlev noted that Russian security forces committed a brutal killing that was not caused by military necessity.

 

"It is important to take this into account in the case of war crimes. The consequences of this murder give us reason to say that we cannot blame only those perpetrators, who are difficult for us to find, but also the direct leadership of the law enforcement authorities, both from the Berdyansk region and, probably, from the occupation authorities of the Zaporozhye region and Russia. Because it cannot be that for a long time no one from the high leadership, both occupying and Russian, did not know about this, because they did not give the body for a long time. Therefore, it is possible to prosecute according to a special type of responsibility that is applied during the war - the responsibility of commanders and chiefs. As was the case, for example, with the warrant against Putin. He did not directly import the children, but the International Criminal Court is looking for him for that. It is a special kind of responsibility that we can also apply," explained Jakovljev.

In March, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's commissioner for children's rights. The ICC suspects them of the forced deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.

Ukrainian law enforcement agencies are investigating the murder of a teenager from Berdyansk, a lawyer says. But the problem is that there is no access to the occupied territories. This makes it difficult to communicate with international partners regarding the acceptance of documents for the prosecution of certain persons.

 

“They will review the evidence against quality standards. Therefore, there is always a fine line between what should be real evidence to support a suspicion and what we actually have. We may know more than we can confirm. And there is just such a limit that the quality of the evidence is such that our partners or simply countries accept that evidence and conduct investigations," said Jakovljev.

The occupiers are trying to create an atmosphere of fear so that it is impossible to resist in the conquered territories, says Ivan Fedorov, the head of the Zaporizhia region. According to officials, several cases of missing children are known in the region. In addition, the Kremlin "re-educates" children under occupation, preparing them for service in its power structures. According to Fedorov, Russia is unable to overcome the resistance of Ukrainians and influence adults, so it turned to the most vulnerable residents of the occupied territories and puts pressure on children in every possible way.

 

"In solitary confinement for a pro-Ukrainian position"

 

Oleg Okredko, an expert and analyst at the Almenda Civic Enlightenment Center, told "Novosti Azov" that Russia has been using the same practice of pressuring children for a long time in the occupied territories of Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, as well as in Crimea.

"Due to the fact that in 2016, the so-called "Yarova laws" appeared in the Russian Federation, which provided for criminal responsibility for insults on Facebook, including even minor children, they began to increase their influence of filtering directly on children. And after the complete invasion, they began to apply their methods even more strongly, especially in the so-called new territories - in parts of the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions. Moreover, this filtering started literally from the first days. This is a device and persecution check for any manifestations of Ukrainian attitudes. And we know a huge number of cases when children were put in solitary confinement because of their positive attitude towards Ukraine," said Okredko.

After the murder of the boy in Berdjansk, the persecution of children did not stop, says the expert. According to his data, today in the occupation, all gadgets that children have are checked almost every day:  

 

“They persecute children very seriously. "Recently, the head of the occupation administration of Primorje boasted that they found a child studying remotely in a Ukrainian school," says Okredko.

Ukraine is currently verifying information about forced psychiatric treatment of children, says Okredko. He does not rule out that such facts will be confirmed.

"If in the Soviet Union it was mainly directed against adults, now Russia is turning to children, because they see that it is quite difficult for them to change the attitudes that exist among children, who are ready to show their Ukrainian attitudes in different ways. Moreover, this is not just a statement without words, it is a video conference where the Russian occupiers themselves talk about bringing to justice more than a few dozen children, including 48 children, who were sent for psychiatric treatment in the so-called there are simply no words to describe what the occupiers have already reached for. This information is already being checked by the Office of the Ombudsman and the Main Prosecutor's Office", emphasizes the analyst.

 

According to the data of the National Resistance Center, 263 minors were registered in the occupied part of the Donetsk region this year alone. Among them are 16 people who are considered "extremists". First of all, we are talking about children of pro-Ukrainian attitudes. Such Ukrainians are sent for forced examination or treatment in psychiatric institutions, the Center of Resistance claims.

According to the Eastern Human Rights Group, teenagers who are persecuted by Russian security forces, for example, because of comments on social networks, can be sent for forced treatment. Such measures are applied to children who have proven to be pro-Ukrainian when information about them was collected by the occupier. Teenagers are admitted to a psychiatric hospital for inpatient treatment during the so-called pre-criminal investigation phase, human rights activists report.