Life Under Russian Occupation: A Young Girl's Story

Svitlana’s story of life under Russian occupation and school in a Russian setting shows what the legal team at The Reckoning Project calls "indoctrination." This term points to many human rights violations, like attacks on education, freedom of thought, and identity. The education system focuses on a Russian view of the world and its goals. Children who resist face punishment. They are taught to have blind faith and obedience, while their identity is taken away. At the same time, they learn to hate everything Ukrainian, the place where they were born and raised.

According to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, about 1.6 million Ukrainian kids now live in areas taken by Russia. In schools and kindergartens, they cannot mention Ukraine or anything about Ukrainian culture. Instead, they are trained to use weapons to become Russian soldiers.

The Reckoning Project is a team of Ukrainian and international journalists and lawyers. They are working to document war crimes by Russia. This story by Ghanna Mamonova shares Svitlana’s decision to leave her home village in the occupied Kherson region.

Living in Fear
This spring in Kyiv is cold. Fruit trees bloom despite the rain and hail. While walking through the city, 18-year-old Svitlana keeps reminding us not to take her picture. She turns her back to the camera and hides her face behind her long hair.

Svitlana is scared of being photographed or giving her last name. She does not want Russian security services to recognize her. Six months earlier, in autumn 2025, she packed a warm jacket, jeans, and a few dresses before leaving her village in Kherson region, which Russian forces took in 2022.

What once took a day to drive to the capital of Ukraine lasted ten days. In the first year of the full-scale invasion, the Russians blocked all exits from occupied Ukraine, except through Russia.

Svitlana went through destroyed Mariupol, then Russian cities, and later Belarus.

When she crossed into Ukraine, she felt safe. But her family was still in danger. Her mother and grandfather were still under occupation.

Under occupation, laws do not apply. Everyone is scared and can be arrested for being pro-Ukrainian. “I’m always scared for my family,” she said.

At just 18, Svitlana has done nothing wrong. Her fear comes from living under Russian rule and going to school for three years. Russian authorities work to change the thinking of Ukrainian children, making them loyal to Russia and forcing them to forget about Ukraine. Researchers at The Reckoning Project are documenting these experiences. They have collected over a thousand interviews.

The Beginning of the Occupation
On February 24, 2022, the first day of the full-scale invasion, Svitlana woke up to explosions, just like every other Ukrainian family. Her parents told her that Russia was bombing Ukraine and that tanks were entering their village. They told her to stay indoors, and school was cancelled. Svitlana was 14 and in ninth grade.

She spent the day watching through the window. She saw Russian tanks go past her house. Fifty military vehicles moved in a single line, and there were many columns. The military movement continued for days.

Battles broke out near the village. Adults said tanks entered the village and shelled food stores, Svitlana remembered.

Food and medicine went missing quickly. People stopped going outside and hid in cellars because the shelling never stopped.

“For a while, we didn’t even have bread. Then the Russians started bringing their products. But there was little and it was very expensive,” Svitlana said.

To buy one loaf of bread, Svitlana and her mother had to wait in line for hours.

Adult Pressure and Children’s Protest
Svitlana returned to school on September 1, 2022. She arrived at the school yard to find it decorated with Russian and Soviet Union flags. In her classroom hung a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin, along with Russia’s coat of arms and anthem. Ukrainian symbols and writing had disappeared. The teacher told students to memorize the Russian national anthem.

“I realized my Ukrainian school had become a Russian school,” Svitlana said. “My mom said we couldn’t leave the occupation, so I had to finish Russian school, get my certificate, and go to Kyiv for university.”

This plan became Svitlana’s way to deal with life under occupation.

Every Monday, all students gathered for assembly to sing the Russian anthem. Svitlana and her friends secretly sang the Ukrainian anthem instead.

“If the teachers heard us, we would have been in big trouble,” she said. “We found it funny.” Before, teachers called themselves Ukrainian, but they soon changed and became Russian.

After the occupation, ten teachers and the principal left, but more than 30 stayed to work under Russian authority.

“I had a favorite German teacher who sided with Russia. That was her choice, but from then on, she was no longer my favorite,” Svitlana said.

Svitlana heard that before school started, Russian military and occupation officials went to teachers’ homes. They urged them to work, and those who said no faced threats. “Some teachers told us they had no choice,” Svitlana said. Some were scared; others felt they could not leave.

Russia began paying teachers higher salaries to encourage them to cooperate.

The school curriculum changed to Russian. Ukrainian language and literature disappeared. Ukrainian books were taken, and Russian books were brought in. Children had to study Russian language and history. This was hard for Svitlana because she spoke only Ukrainian.

“In our village, everyone speaks Ukrainian,” she said.

Every Monday and Thursday, there were patriotic education lessons called “Lessons About What Matters” and “Russia, My Horizons.” In these classes, students sang the Russian anthem and watched films about Russia and the Russian army. Teachers told them Vladimir Putin was "the world’s best president," Svitlana remembered. Talking about Ukraine was not allowed; the terms "occupation" and "war" were banned. They had to say "special military operation" instead, which is what Russian propaganda calls its war against Ukraine.

“In class, they praised Russia and said that Ukraine was full of fascists who eat children. We didn’t believe it, but we stayed quiet because we were scared to speak up,” Svitlana recalled.

At school, she “kept her mouth shut.” For any careless word, Russian soldiers could come to her home and intimidate her family, which happened to her friends. One friend took a Russian flag and wiped a chalkboard with it to protest. Someone filmed it and gave it to the military. Her family was fined, and the girl was taken to the police and put on a watch list. Another friend received a Russian passport and scratched out the coat of arms. Her parents were also fined.

“My classmates burned Russian school diaries and passports. Luckily, no one found out or we would have been in trouble,” Svitlana said.

Children protested in 2022, thinking the occupation would end soon. When it didn’t, they became more careful.

Propaganda Through Education, Sport, and Weapons
Life changed outside school too. Children stopped hanging out after classes. For Svitlana, sports training was her only escape. She had been doing athletics since childhood.

Students wanting to pursue sports were supported by the Russian school. They were sent to competitions with kids from other occupied areas. Winners were promised study opportunities in Russia after school.

In 2023, Svitlana and her mother received Russian passports. Svitlana said they had no choice.

“If you don’t have a Russian passport, you cannot go to school. If you don’t go to school, Russian soldiers come to your house and intimidate you. Then you get 24 hours to pack before they deport you,” she said.

On Russian patriotic holidays, which were not celebrated in Ukraine, teachers made students, including Svitlana, wear St. George’s ribbons. This symbol of the Russian army is banned in Ukraine because it has become a sign of Russian aggression.

Students were made to join festive events where they danced and sang Russian patriotic songs. Svitlana tried to avoid these events. Her classmates also wanted to stay away, but skipping was not an option.

“For that, they could lower our grades,” Svitlana said. “Or worse, teachers could tell Russian soldiers, who would come to intimidate us.”

With the ban on everything Ukrainian, a youth group called “Movement of the First” grew quickly in Svitlana’s school. It was started by the Russian president for Ukrainian kids in occupied areas to raise them as Russian patriots.

Members of the group encouraged children to join, offering vouchers for Russian summer camps. Boards with pictures of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine appeared in school. Younger children were asked to write letters to Russian soldiers.

Sometimes, Russian soldiers visited Svitlana’s classroom. They taught students how to assemble a machine gun, showed military gear, and handed out flyers saying that kids could be drafted into the Russian army at 18 and earn lots of money.

Searches and Arrest
Throughout this time, Svitlana stayed low-key because her father is a Ukrainian soldier. Svitlana’s parents divorced long ago and lived separately. He was mobilized right after the invasion began. For a long time, there was no contact, and in 2023 Svitlana learned he was missing after a battle in Kharkiv.

In summer 2024, another disaster struck Svitlana’s family when Russian soldiers barged in. They took Svitlana, her mother, and grandfather outside while they searched the house. They found a hunting suit belonging to her grandfather. Its color looked like a Ukrainian military uniform. The Russians took the suit and confiscated their mobile phones.

Days later, Russian soldiers returned to Svitlana’s home. They shot in the yard, took her grandfather, and detained him for eight days. When he came back, he told them he had been thrown into a ten-meter pit. He received food once a day and could use the toilet only once a day. When it rained, he had to sit in the pit. He learned from the soldiers that a neighbor had denounced him, falsely claiming he sent money to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Shortly after he was released, Russian soldiers came for Svitlana. They checked her phone and found she liked a Facebook post that congratulated Ukraine on Independence Day.

The soldiers did not find her at home. They then told her mother to have a chat with her about patriotism. They threatened that otherwise, they would deal with it themselves.

Escape from Occupation
Svitlana finished Russian school in May 2025. After getting her certificate, she contacted Save Ukraine, an organization that helps evacuate children from occupied areas, and began planning her escape to Kyiv.

Svitlana bought a new phone to avoid problems at Russian checkpoints. She made up a story that she would enroll in a Russian university.

During her ten-day journey, her mother worried greatly. Svitlana had no Ukrainian documents, but she got a “white passport,” a temporary pass for entering Ukraine.

“When I crossed into Ukraine, it was hot. I was so tired and wanted to sleep,” she recalled. “I have family in Kyiv who took me in.”

A month later, Svitlana enrolled in a university in Kyiv. She chose interior design as her major. She moved into a dorm and made new friends, with whom she often goes for walks in parks and cafés after class. Svitlana doesn’t like to talk about life under occupation, and her friends understand, so they don’t ask too many questions.

A Factory of Indoctrination
Svitlana’s story of life under Russian occupation and school in a Russian system shows what the legal team at The Reckoning Project calls "indoctrination." This term covers many human rights violations, including attacks on education, freedom of thought, and identity.

The educational system is focused on a Russian view of the world. Children who resist are punished. They are raised to blindly obey and lose their identity. At the same time, they learn to hate everything Ukrainian, the place they come from.

When done as part of a larger pattern, indoctrination can lead to persecution and create a climate that enables other violations of international law, like forced recruitment into armed groups and forced removal.

Researchers at The Reckoning Project have gathered over 750 accounts from children who escaped occupied areas. Svitlana’s story is not unique; it is common.

Testimonies show that schools in Russian-occupied regions have become places for indoctrination, recruiting Ukrainian kids into the Russian army. Patriotic education lessons are central to this indoctrination.

During interviews, children from occupied regions told Reckoning Project researchers that they felt lonely and confused because they are Ukrainian.

Kids in occupied areas face psychological violence, as they cannot freely enjoy their childhood, according to psychologist Natalia Sosnivenko from the Voices of Children charity.

Clinical psychologist Natella Dubashidze explains that under occupation, children feel danger just for being who they are. To survive, they hide their true feelings and show what the school expects.

Even after leaving occupied areas for safety, these children still live in fear and anxiety. Because of this, they may find it hard to adjust and study in a new place.

Russia started re-educating Ukrainian children when it took over Crimea, Luhansk, and Donetsk in 2014. Patriotic lessons and the Russian language appeared in schools and kindergartens, while everything Ukrainian was removed. The first illegal abductions and adoptions of Ukrainian children to Russia began in 2014. Ukrainian authorities had reported this to the International Criminal Court before the full-scale invasion. When the abduction of Ukrainian children from occupied areas increased, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Children’s Rights Commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova.

In January 2026, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe condemned the indoctrination, militarization, and Russification of Ukrainian children in occupied areas, including Crimea.

Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Ruslan Kravchenko, says that 1.6 million Ukrainian children live in areas occupied by Russia. Changes to the education system in these areas expose all children to many human rights violations that together amount to indoctrination.

Through the so-called “re-education” camps and youth groups like “Yunarmiya,” “Movement of the First,” and “Voin,” Russia is training Ukrainian kids to be soldiers, according to the Prosecutor General.

An investigation is ongoing against 30 suspects among Russian officials and military personnel linked to the militarization and destruction of Ukrainian education.

In April, the Office of the Prosecutor General submitted an indictment against Andriy Omelchuk, the Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of Russia. He is seen as a main organizer of the destruction of the Ukrainian education system in occupied areas.

Each year, the militarization and assimilation of Ukrainian children intensifies in occupied areas, according to the Civil Education Centre “Almenda.” This center has been defending children’s rights in these areas for 12 years. Their report says that in summer 2025, over 189,000 children in occupied regions attended holiday and patriotic education camps. Starting September 1, 2025, unified Russian history textbooks for grades five to nine were introduced in schools, justifying the occupation and aggression against Ukraine.

Maria Sulialina, director of Almenda, says that children are not being raised to see Ukraine as an enemy. Instead, they are being taught that Ukraine does not even exist.

Three Dreams
Svitlana stopped talking to her former classmates when she learned they had gone to study in Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea.

“Everyone made their choice,” she said. “Our paths have separated.”

Recently, one of her classmates was drafted into the Russian army, while another boy plans to join voluntarily.

“I don’t understand why this happened to them,” she said. “Russian propaganda at school didn’t affect me. But from the start, I knew I wanted to study in Kyiv, and I ignored what they told us about Russia and Putin.”

Svitlana’s best friend is still living under occupation and finishing school. Svitlana offered to help her move to Kyiv, but her friend’s parents would not allow it. They cannot leave their home and don’t want to be separated from their daughter. Svitlana’s own family cannot leave either. If they try, Russian authorities will take their property.

“They are tied to that land,” Svitlana said. “Even though it is very dangerous there: there is constant shelling.”

Svitlana now has three dreams. She finished a drone pilot school in Kyiv and wants to enroll in a military lyceum to become a soldier. This is her personal choice, not something pushed by school authorities. She also dreams of a miracle, that her father is still alive.

Her biggest dream is to hug her mother, but she cannot say when that will happen. At just 18 years old, she is alone in a city she doesn’t know well. She says she cannot go back to the occupied area, and her mother cannot leave everything behind to join her.