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176
Ukraine Rejects Russian Proposal to Swap Children for Soldiers (united24media.com)
submitted 1 day ago by Hotznplotzn@lemmy.sdf.org to c/europe@feddit.org
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During his official visit to Austria, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy disclosed that Russia had proposed exchanging abducted Ukrainian children for captured Russian soldiers—a proposal he firmly rejected, as was reported on June 16.

Speaking at a joint press conference [...], Zelenskyy stated: “We do not exchange them for anything. It is absolutely unfair. Frankly speaking, this is madness, which the Russians, by the way, proposed: we give them military personnel, and they give us children.” The Ukrainian president emphasized that such exchanges are legally and morally unacceptable, underscoring that kidnapped children are victims of Russian aggression, not subjects of negotiation.

Zelenskyy further stressed that Russia’s deportation of Ukrainian children constitutes a war crime. The International Criminal Court has previously issued arrest warrants for Russian officials, including leader Vladimir Putin, over the unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children from occupied territories to Russia. Kyiv estimates that over 20,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly taken since the start of the full-scale invasion.

Earlier, Ukraine rescued five more children abducted by Russia, including minors who had been held in reeducation camps and subjected to military training.

[...]

Investigations reveal a system of indoctrination of children abducted by Russia. [...] Ukraine has identified over 150 locations where Russia is holding or has relocated abducted Ukrainian children, including families involved in illegal adoptions. These are around 40 camps, over 40 adoptive families, more than 50 educational institutions, and several Russian state-run facilities—spread across Russia and the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

These forced relocations are part of what human rights groups call a state policy of Russification. Children are placed in camps or foster families, issued Russian passports, and compelled to forget their heritage. Some are enrolled in military schools, others are sent deep into Russia, given new biographies as if their pasts never existed.

[...]

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[–] mgnome@piefed.social 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Well, they've been going for a while now. I'm Ukrainian-speaking in daily life (and has been for my whole life), but I'm fairly fluent in Russian simply because it was everywhere - TV, Internet, music, and foreign companies didn't even bother with Ukrainian-speaking demographics when shipping their products (i mean, for example, markings on appliances and such) or releasing software with Ukrainian language until we had laws that demanded that, they just did Russian, because "they'll understand it anyway".

While I remained Ukrainian-speaking, some people bought the idea of Russian culture being trendy and modern in contrast to Ukrainian being portrayed as rural and simpleton. And that was just "long war" , before it even went into open hostility - there were years, decades, even centuries of such conditioning, but also periodic revivals of Ukrainian culture.