Russian occupation authorities have forcibly placed 48 Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied Donetsk region in psychiatric institutions under accusations of “extremism,” Ukrainian experts said Friday.
Maria Krasnenko, author of a report presented at the Ukraine Media Center and an expert with the NGO Almenda, said Russia is using systemic persecution on occupied territories with a particular focus on children and youth.
“On the occupied territories, they use every possible tool of systematic persecution, with a specific focus on children and young people. Education and youth policy are their main instruments in the so-called fight against extremism. The enemy has developed clear markers to track all ‘dissenters,’” Krasnenko said.
According to data from the self-proclaimed “DNR,” [Donetsk People’s Republic] 161 minors have faced criminal charges, with 48 of them sent to forced psychiatric treatment. Others have been subjected to administrative penalties, including fines.
The so-called “psychiatric therapy” involves compulsory confinement in mental health institutions, a practice widely condemned as a form of punishment and coercion. This method echoes Soviet-era abuses, when dissidents and activists were declared mentally ill and confined to psychiatric hospitals as a way to silence opposition.
Krasnenko added that Russia’s approach is part of a broader strategy framing Ukraine, the United States, and the West as the main sources of “extremist threats” in its official documents. She warned that Moscow’s campaign against children in occupied territories is another step in the Kremlin’s effort to impose control under the guise of “public order” and “security.”
As of August 2025, over 1.6 million Ukrainian children remain under Moscow’s control – either in occupied territories or deported to Russia.
They face forced Russification, militarization and ideological indoctrination – actions some label as genocide, which have led the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant for Putin.
Part of the indoctrination process involve military-oriented youth summer camps, where Ukrainian youth could be seen partaking in war game simulations and swearing allegiance to Moscow.
Previously, the Kremlin claimed that it was “protecting vulnerable children from the war zone.”
With tactics that include forcibly taking children from orphanages, killing parents, splitting up families during filtration processes, creating unbearable living conditions in occupied areas, and brazenly kidnapping children from their homes and schools, it’s more than a tragedy; it’s a deliberate attack on Ukraine’s future, said Ukraine’s “Bring Kids Back UA” initiative on its website.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) stated that Russia has caused suffering of millions of Ukrainian children and violated their rights since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Moscow’s indiscriminate attack on civilian targets in Ukriane have also led to thousands of children’s deaths.