Russia Forcibly Indoctrinates Ukrainian Students, Parents With Russian Laws, History And Anthem: Intel

Residents of Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine's southern Kherson province are being forced to learn about Russia and sing their occupiers' national anthem, the Ukrainian military alleged.

Teachers in the occupied village of Strilkove who are under the occupation administration force students and their parents to stay after classes in primary education facilities, where they are "forced to study the constitution and laws of the Russian Federation, as well as history and literature of the enemy," the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said in a Tuesday statement.

Children are also allegedly "forced to learn and sing the Russian anthem" during recess.

At least 6,000 children from Ukraine aged between 4 months to 17 years old have been held in Russian "re-education" camps since the war began, according to a report published by the Yale School of Public Health's Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) on Feb. 14.

The sites, which can be found all across Russia, are intended to "expose children from Ukraine to Russia-centric academic, cultural, patriotic and/or military education," the report found.

"Multiple camps endorsed by the Russian Federation are advertised as 'integration programs,' with the apparent goal of integrating children from Ukraine into the Russian government's vision of national culture, history, and society," researchers wrote.

The camp system involves "every level" of the Russian government, and "consent is collected under duress and routinely violated," according to the report.

Around 10% of the 43 camps identified by Yale HRL suspended the return of children to Ukraine.

"It is unknown how many of Ukraine's children Russia currently holds and how many have been released to their families," researchers claimed.

The unlawful transfer and deportation of protected persons during an armed conflict is a "grave breach" of the Fourth Geneva Convention and constitutes a war crime, the U.S. Department of State said in a statement.

Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that the "[i]ndividual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive."

The U.S. Department of State has demanded that Russia "immediately halt forced transfers and deportations and return the children to their families or legal guardians."

Ukraine, which revealed last year that it was investigating allegations of children being forcibly deported to Russia, has called such transfers "genocidal."

"[This is] probably the largest forced deportation in modern history," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a video message that was played before the United Nations Human Rights Council on Feb. 27, German state-owned broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported.