Russia indoctrinating 1.6m Ukrainian children - report

Around 1.6 million young Ukrainians are being forced by Russia into a system of military indoctrination that could amount to a crime against humanity, according to OSCE-mandated independent experts.

Their report, presented today at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Vienna, found that Russia had installed a systematic programme to bring young people into the army in areas seized by Russian forces from Kyiv.

French researcher Herve Ascensio said that children, parents and teachers alike were targeted if they attempted to maintain their Ukrainian identity.

"We think ... that this system of indoctrination and militarisation may amount to the crime against humanity of persecution," he said.

According to Latvian expert Elina Steinerte, the pro-Kremlin authorities sent draft letters to call up Ukrainians in the occupied territories to the army at a younger age than in Russia itself.

"We interviewed young adults who have left their families behind to escape conscription," she said.

The report details the training camps and classes on handling weapons and drones imposed on Ukrainian children.

It also documents several cases of young adults being drafted and then sent to the front line.

The report recommends putting the issue of children on the table in any talks on ending the conflict and calls for the opening of humanitarian corridors to allow families to reunite.

While Ukraine had already put in some programmes to re-integrate children returned from Russia, there's "a big job to be done", Ms Steinerte said.

The experts estimate that some 1.6 million children living in the Crimean peninsula, occupied by Russia in 2014, or in eastern Ukrainian regions partially controlled by Russia, are at risk.

Kyiv believes that 20,610 children have been brought to Russian territory.

The report is the fruit of the Moscow Mechanism, a process triggered by the OSCE's 41 states on May 14 to allow independent experts to investigate grave human rights abuses in the conflict.

It was the sixth mission of this sort in Ukraine since 2022, when Russia's invasion began.

As part of their work, the experts conducted interviews and fieldwork in Ukraine from 6 to 11 June. Russia did not co-operate.

Over 50 dead from air attacks in Kyiv this month

A spate of deadly attacks using dozens of ultra-fast ballistic missiles that Ukraine's air defences struggle to intercept have frayed nerves in Ukraine's capital.

More than 50 people have been killed in Kyiv so far in July - with two of the deadliest strikes on the capital of the entire war coming less than a week apart.

In a strike on the night of 5-6 July, Kyiv's defences failed to down a single ballistic missile - a worrying development for what was previously seen as the best protected area of the country.

In another attack, the blast of a missile over the Kyiv skyline rocked sleeping residents even before the city's air alert sirens managed to sound.

It was a rare, unexplained, glitch in a system that blares out warnings of incoming attacks multiple times a day through loudspeaker announcements on the street and metro, and the collective ping of phone notifications.