As well as trying to indoctrinate children and block their access to Ukrainian sites, the invaders are using them to try to hunt down relatives or neighbours opposing Russian occupation
Activists from the ‘Yellow Ribbon’ resistance movement in occupied Henichesk (Kherson oblast) report that so-called psychologists are being deployed to ferret out information from school children about parents, neighbours, etc., especially regarding their support for Ukraine and attitude to Russia. The current Russian regime has systematically reintroduced Soviet-era denunciations both at home, and in occupied Ukraine, and appears to have no qualms about using small children as a means of hunting down dissent.
The Yellow Ribbon activists report that such ‘psychologists’ have been actively deployed since the beginning of the 2024/25 school year. Occupation ‘administrations’ send them to all primary schools in occupied parts of Kherson oblast, purportedly to provide ‘psychological assistance’ to children in difficult circumstances. In fact, however, these are psychologists working for the Russian police and specialising in work with teenagers. More importantly, the questions they ask demonstrate that their interest lies not in the children’s psychological well-being, but in their parents’ political views. As well as grilling children from the First to the Fifth Grade about their parents’ political position, they also ask about relatives in government-controlled Ukraine; about their family’s attitude to the Russian military, as well as that of their neighbours.
The activists report that they have received confirmation of such methods from fellow activists in occupied Crimea and other occupied territory in Kherson oblast. Russia’s information blockade and methods of terror against any independent journalists make it impossible to independently verify the information.
There is, equally, little reason to doubt the information. After reinstating Soviet-era denunciations in Russia, the invaders set about trying to instil such practice in occupied Ukraine. There are even SMERSH vigilantes, working closely with the occupation ‘police’, who quite openly hunt down those with a pro-Ukrainian position. All of this is aimed at spreading terror and forcing people into silence for fear of being denounced by neighbours, work colleagues, or even shop assistants. If, that is, they cannot train local residents to write denunciations against their neighbours, which they appear to be trying to do, at least in occupied Donetsk oblast.
The aggressor state is also intent on ensuring surveillance of all school students as well. In early December, the Eastern Human Rights Group reported that the invaders were introducing strict control over school kids’ use of the Internet, with such control, or ‘’filtration’, already established over the Internet content of kids in 500 schools in occupied Luhansk oblast. The human rights monitors point out that such ‘filtration of Internet content’ entails the creation of a database of Internet resources to which access is blocked. Since the database primarily includes pro-Ukrainian sites, as well as YouTube, it is clear that such control is aimed at censorship, not at protecting children from dangerous sites.