The International Day to Protect Education from Attack is observed every year on September 9. It was established by the UN General Assembly in 2020 to draw global attention to assaults on schools, students, and teachers in conflict zones and to defend every child’s right to learn in safety. This day serves as a reminder that education must remain a protected space, free from war, violence, and political exploitation.

In the context of Russia’s temporary occupation of Crimea, children’s right to education has been repeatedly violated. The occupying authorities have turned schooling into a tool of coercion and aggression, openly breaching international humanitarian law, including the Geneva Conventions and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

From the first days of the occupation, Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar languages and culture were almost completely driven out of the education system. Before 2014, more than 12,000 children in Crimea could study in Ukrainian. Today, not a single school remains where Ukrainian is taught, and the last two Crimean Tatar schools are under threat of closure by Russia. Education on the peninsula now suffers from forced russification and actions that defy international obligations of the occupying power, amounting to a systemic crime against children’s educational rights.

At the same time, the occupation administration is deliberately militarizing the education system. Students are pushed into paramilitary youth organizations, taught a distorted version of history, and raised in a culture of war where obedience and readiness to serve Russia’s military machine are presented as core values. Schools, instead of being spaces for learning and growth, are being transformed into instruments of indoctrination and preparation for war.

Russia’s policy is aimed at erasing Ukrainian identity and shaping an entire generation of children cut off from their native language, culture, and history. This is part of a broader strategy to suppress every expression of Ukrainian identity in occupied Crimea and to forcibly rewrite the future of its young residents.

Ukraine will continue to defend its citizens’ right to safe, high-quality education rooted in respect for human rights, historical truth, and cultural diversity. The Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea calls on the international community to intensify pressure on Russia, use every available mechanism to shield children from military indoctrination, and support global initiatives to protect education.