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On February 3, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that strengthens the control of the Russian Ministry of Defense over the DOSAAF organization, the heir to the Soviet system of military and patriotic education. This step is part of a global policy of assimilationist genocide of the Ukrainian nation.
According to Ukrainian journalists, in the temporarily occupied territories of Zaporizhzhia region, the Russian administration has recruited about 1,000 Ukrainian children to join the Unarmy, a Russian youth movement that prepares teenagers for military service. Initially, the children will be trained to help the Russian military, and in the future, to participate in hostilities against Ukraine.
The “Yunarmiya“ is closely linked to the DOSAAF, whose influence Putin has significantly strengthened by his decree. This is a planned policy of Russia to militarize youth and destroy Ukrainian identity.
Legally, such actions fall under the definition of genocide, which was formulated by the Polish-American lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944. He defined genocide as the systematic destruction of a nation’s culture, language, and social institutions in order to deprive it of a future.
In 2015, the Russian Federation banned Lemkin’s work on the genocide of Ukrainians, recognizing it as “extremist material.” This is yet another confirmation that the Kremlin is trying to hide its crimes.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has already condemned Russia’s attempts to erase Ukrainian cultural identity. Ukraine calls on the international community to document these war crimes and bring the perpetrators to justice.
