Under the current circumstances, Ukrainian schoolchildren living in the occupied territories face significant challenges related to the violation of their right to receive quality knowledge and proper education. Russia continues to exert its aggressive military influence on students, forcing them to join the ranks of the “Young Army,” read propaganda textbooks about Russia’s revanchist ideology, glorify the “heroes” of the so-called “Special Military Operation,” and study Soviet history. In particular, in occupied Crimea, the occupiers’ goal is not to teach but to influence children’s minds. For them, September 1 is not a day of knowledge but another opportunity to militarize schoolchildren. 

In cooperation with the War Childhood Museum, the Mission created an article on the de-Ukrainization of education in the temporarily occupied territories. Please find it below: 

The review by the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language addresses Russia’s deliberate policy to eradicate the Ukrainian language from public life in the occupied territories of Ukraine. It mentions instances such as the ban on using Ukrainian language in official proceedings in Sevastopol on March 7, 2014, and the removal of Ukrainian signs from public buildings in Crimea in the first half of 2014. Additionally, it highlights the transformation of the Crimean Academic Ukrainian Musical Theater into a Russian-language institution after the occupation, despite previously being known for promoting Ukrainian language and culture in Simferopol.

According to the Consolidated Comprehensive Report of the Mission, as of the beginning of the temporary occupation of Crimea in the 2013-2014 school year, 176,419 students were enrolled in Crimean schools, of whom 12,694 (7.2%) were taught in Ukrainian, 157,907 (89.5%) in Russian, and 5,551 (3.15%) in Crimean Tatar. The document, referring to the occupation body of the Russian Federation, the “Ministry of Education, Science and Youth of the Republic of Crimea,” states that in the 2022-2023 school year, 230,300 students studied in schools of all forms of ownership. Of these, 222.8 thousand students (96.7% of the total) studied in Russian, 7.3 thousand (3.2%) in Crimean Tatar, and 197 (0.1%) in Ukrainian.

According to the Center of Civil Education “Almenda”, at the beginning of 2024, more than a million Ukrainian children in the occupied territories were exposed to Russian propaganda, which is integrated into the educational process.

The Human Rights Watch report of June 20, 2024, Education under Occupation: Forced Russification of the Education System in the Occupied Territories of Ukraine, which is 66 pages long, documents the violations of international law by the Russian authorities regarding the right to education in the previously occupied territories of the Kharkiv region and other regions of Ukraine that remain under Russian occupation. The document states that the Russian occupation administration in Ukraine is supplanting the Ukrainian language and imposing the Russian education system and the Russian language of instruction in Ukrainian schools and kindergartens. The Russian educational program uses history textbooks that justify the Russian invasion. 

There have been cases where pro-Russian security forces have punished people for using the Ukrainian language. For example, in occupied Melitopol, a student who spoke Ukrainian at school had a bag pulled over his head and was taken to another district several tens of kilometers away and left there. He was made to return home on his own. 

In addition, the occupation administration threatened parents with fines, deprivation of parental rights, and arrest if they did not send their children to “Russian” schools or if their children were studying remotely under the Ukrainian program. Some parents have been forced to hide their children because of this.

The policy of de-Ukrainization and linguicide has been implemented for many years—after the occupation of Crimea and parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, the process of destroying Ukrainian civic identity began.

According to the analytical study of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, Educational Field in the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine (2014-2019), this process had two main directions:

• Ukrainian language, literature, and history were no longer taught in schools or became optional, and curricula differed from Ukrainian standards;
• The main focus of educational policy was on the militarization of children and youth.

At the same time, the legal regulation of education in the occupied territories differed: Russian legislation was in force in Crimea, and a mix of Ukrainian, Russian, and local legislation was in force in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The document states that after the temporary occupation, invaders replaced Ukrainian textbooks with Russian ones, and the occupiers removed all textbooks from school libraries that children had used before 2014. The History of Ukraine course was not included in the school history curriculum. Therefore, since 2014, Crimean schoolchildren have not had the opportunity to study the history of Ukraine. 

The situation in schools in the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions is similar to the situation in temporarily occupied Crimea. In the 2015/2016 school year, 6,780 (97%) Russian-teaching classes were opened in the temporarily occupied territory of the Donetsk region, with 125,984 (98%) students enrolled, and 170 (3%) Ukrainian-teaching classes with 2,358 (2%) students enrolled. At the same time, the Ukrainian Language and Literature were immediately removed from the TOT’s secondary school curriculum. In primary school, Ukrainian Language was renamed Language of the Peoples of Donbas, and Ukrainian Literature was renamed Literary Reading of the Peoples of Donbas.

The History of Ukraine was no longer taught in the temporarily occupied territories. Instead, students in grades 7-9 studied History of the Homeland, which covers the history of Russia and Donbas, and students in grades 10-11 studied History of the Homeland of the XX-XXI centuries, which covers the Soviet period in a positive light and the development of Donbas after Ukraine gained independence in a negative light. Since 2015, schools in the Luhansk region have also taught the History of the Fatherland instead of the History of Ukraine. The new mandatory subjects included Lessons in Donbas Citizenship and Initial Military Training. 

After the start of the large-scale invasion in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, the “Crimean scenario” was implemented. In 2023, Russia passed a law on integration into the Russian education system; a new rule was introduced, according to which Ukrainian education can be chosen only as an additional option. At the same time, parents face administrative and criminal liability for refusing to enroll their children in schools. 

According to the Center of Civil Education “Almenda,” the “Crimean scenario” for the destruction of education provides for: 

• complete transition to Russian education standards; imposing the concept of “Russian civic identity” on children and forming “Russian” narratives; introducing “patriotism” into educational programs;
• replacement of educational materials with Russian ones;
• retraining and replacement of teaching staff;
• lack of teaching of Ukrainian studies subjects—History of Ukraine, Literature;
• limiting the study of the Ukrainian language; harassment for using the Ukrainian language or expressing pro-Ukrainian views;
• militarization of the educational process (cadet schools, “Young Army,” the organization “Big Break”); war propaganda.