Young talents from Ukraine are in the crosshairs of Russians

In the temporarily occupied territories, the Russian invaders are actively trying to take Ukrainian children who are considered talented to Russia.

According to the Center for National Resistance (CNR), the occupation authorities are conducting targeted work to compile lists of children with achievements in music, art and sports.

After that, they plan to transport such children to specialized boarding schools in the Russian Federation, promising them special conditions and advantages over their peers who remain in the occupied territories.

The CNS emphasized that such tactics are not new for Russia, which has been exploiting resources, including intellectual and cultural ones, from the occupied territories for centuries.

"The empire has been feeding on the brains of the conquered peoples for years, which is why the first thing the Kremlin does in the occupied lands is to siphon off material and intellectual resources," the statement said.

The Center also drew attention to the fact that in Russia itself, sports and art are in crisis, and the cultural and sports spheres are isolated from the world. Many Russian athletes and artists are left out of international competitions and events, which only strengthens the Kremlin's desire to appropriate talent from other countries.

The NEC calls on parents in the temporarily occupied territories not to succumb to the manipulations of the occupiers and to protect their gifted children to prevent the enemy from destroying their future.

More than 23 thousand Ukrainian citizens are being held by the Russian occupiers in temporary accommodation centers in different regions of Russia. Of these, 6127 are children. Most of the people were taken from Ukraine to remote regions under the pretext of "evacuation" from Kherson and other temporarily occupied territories.

Earlier it was reported that three boys, aged 13 to 17, were returned to the territory controlled by Ukraine. Two of them are residents of the Oleshky orphanage. Children from this orphanage with special needs were taken by the occupiers to Skadovsk and Russia.

A 16-year-old boy and an 18-year-old girl who were deprived of parental care were returned to Ukraine from the temporarily occupied Kherson region to the government-controlled territory.

Ірина Глухова