Russia teaches abducted Ukrainian children that Ukraine doesn't exist - Olena Zelenska

She said this in an interview with Yle.

According to the First Lady, the most horrific phenomenon of the war is the abduction of children by Russia. According to the Ukrainian authorities, their number since the beginning of the war is currently 19,500. So far, only 380 missing children have been found.

"Some children managed to report themselves, use the phone or the Internet and contact non-governmental organizations that helped them," Zelenska said.

According to her, during a meeting with the children who were returned from Russia, they told her about the propaganda school education in Russia and how they were taught to be Russians.

"They were taught that Ukraine does not exist. That no one is looking for them. This is psychological brainwashing. The lives of these children are being destroyed," she explained.

In addition, Zelenska claims that orphans can be completely lost because Russia changes the spelling of their names, which look similar in Ukrainian and Russian but are pronounced differently.

"When a name is entered into the Russian registry according to the Russian pronunciation, the child can no longer be found by name," she explained. “We also have information that 18-year-old Ukrainian boys have been offered to join the Russian army. It's horrifying.”

According to the First Lady, Ukraine is currently trying to create mechanisms to put pressure on Russia to provide information about the children and has already entered into an international alliance with Canada to return them home.

Deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia and Belarus

Amid full-scale war, Russia is deporting Ukrainian children en masse from the occupied territories of Ukraine. They are taken to the occupied Crimea, Russia or Belarus, allegedly for rehabilitation or to rest in camps.

On March 17, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova. They are suspected of forcibly deporting Ukrainian children.

On December 7, 2023, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said that the deportation of 19,540 Ukrainian children by Russia has been officially confirmed.

Maria Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, has publicly said that more than 700,000 children from Ukraine are now in Russia.

Russia spreads disinformation and propaganda, aiming to portray its atrocities as "humanitarian" gestures. Russia also engages in disinformation and propaganda tactics targeted at brainwashing youngsters in Russia-occupied territories of Ukraine or children deported to Russia into believing that the Kremlin is protecting them from a "Nazi regime in Kyiv."