The year 2025 was expected to mark a milestone for the International Children’s Center Artek — the legendary camp founded on June 16, 1925, along the picturesque coastline of the Black Sea in Crimea. Artek became one of the most renowned children’s camps in the world — a place where children from various countries and cultures came together in a shared pursuit of discovery, self-expression, and friendship.

Since Ukraine gained independence, Artek was transformed into a modern educational and developmental space that embodied the principles of democracy, respect for children’s rights, patriotic education, and openness to the world. It held a special place in the country’s humanitarian policy as a center where active, conscious, and responsible citizens devoted to Ukraine’s democratic values were shaped.

However, as it marks its centenary, the camp has become one of the symbols of the tragic transformation brought about by the occupation of Crimea. Since 2014, the Russian Federation has been systematically turning Artek and other similar children’s camps into tools for mass re-education, militarization, and ideological indoctrination of residents from the temporarily occupied territories. Much like during the Soviet era, the camp has been turned into a showcase for Kremlin ideology — no longer a place of rest, but a strategic platform for influencing young minds. Today, the image of the camp is actively exploited by Russian propaganda to promote a narrative of restored grandeur and continuity with the Soviet past. Under an order from the so-called “Ministry of Education” of the Russian Federation, Artek has effectively become a resource center for so-called “patriotic education.”

Although Artek is located in Crimea, the majority of children attending the camp are citizens of the Russian Federation, who are brought in through centralized efforts from various regions of Russia. Following the start of the full-scale invasion, the occupied Artek was also used as a site for holding children transferred from the occupied areas of southern Ukraine — an act that forms part of a much broader war crime.

Since 2021, as part of the Federal Upbringing Program, all camp counselors at Artek have undergone centralized training, and members of the so-called “special military operation” — Russian soldiers who fought against Ukraine. They are actively involved in shaping children’s education. The camp routinely hosts meetings with war veterans, lectures, and competitions aimed at cultivating a positive image of the Russian Federation and its armed forces.

Despite the difficult and tragic circumstances, Ukraine has managed to preserve Artek as a leading children’s camp and a symbol of national dignity. In 2016, the International Children’s Center Artek resumed its operations in the Kyiv region, continuing the tradition of high-quality recreation and youth education. Today, the center operates following the best Ukrainian practices, grounded in the values of human rights, patriotism, critical thinking, inclusivity, and tolerance.

The relocated Artek has become a modern space for children’s development, creativity, and self-realization, preserving the spirit and legacy that originated a century ago. The camp also welcomes children who are internally displaced, providing them with a safe and supportive environment.

On 10 June 2025, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy enacted sanctions against the so-called Artek located in the temporarily occupied Crimea, along with 48 individuals associated with its operations. Among those sanctioned are representatives of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, which directly oversees the camp. This measure is part of Ukraine’s broader policy to counter Russian propaganda and defend the rights of children in temporarily occupied territories.

Today, camps in Crimea have been transformed into spaces of militarization and indoctrination, where children are raised in the spirit of Russian patriotism. These are no longer places of peace, but environments where children are taught to see others as enemies. In such spaces, a child is no longer treated as an individual, but as raw material for re-education in service of the Kremlin’s imperial agenda.

The true Artek stands for freedom, not life under occupation. It is about nurturing children as individuals, not as future soldiers. The real Artek exists on territory controlled by the government of Ukraine, not the one seized by the occupying administration in Crimea and repurposed into an ideological and propaganda outpost.