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Ukraine Names Russian Officials Behind Program Removing Children From Occupied Territories
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![Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko]( "Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko")
Ukraine’s military intelligence has published the identities of individuals and organizations allegedly involved in a Russian state-backed program that removes Ukrainian children from temporarily occupied territories under the guise of cultural excursions.
The Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry announced on Facebook on February 18 that it had added new entries to the “Child Abductors” section of its War & Sanctions portal.
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The disclosures concern the all-Russian project “Cultural Map 4+85,” which, according to Ukrainian authorities, facilitates the transfer of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation under the pretext of cultural and educational trips.
The project was initiated by Russia’s Ministry of Culture and is implemented by the state-run entity Rosconcert. While officially presented as a program for “cultural familiarization with Russia,” Ukrainian intelligence states that its actual purpose is to integrate Ukrainian children into Russia’s socio-cultural environment and cultivate loyalty to the Kremlin.
Among those identified by HUR are Denis Buyanov, Director General of the Moscow Agency for Recreation and Tourism, which Ukrainian authorities say is involved in organizing propaganda-oriented excursions for children from occupied territories. Also named is Andrey Yereshko, who heads Rosconcert, the state institution responsible for implementing and coordinating the project.
“Such actions are part of Russia’s humanitarian aggression aimed at erasing Ukrainian national identity, imposing a distorted historical memory and Russian cultural narratives, and raising, in temporarily occupied territories, a generation of children who are expected to identify themselves as citizens of the aggressor state,” HUR added.
The revelations have drawn renewed attention to the broader ecosystem of Russian cultural initiatives operating abroad and in occupied territories. Against this backdrop, British singer Charli XCX recently attended a Berlinale afterparty in Berlin organized by Anastasia Shevtsova, the daughter of Zhanna Shevtsova—a Russian cultural figure whose foundation operates in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine and cooperates with state-backed initiatives aligned with the Kremlin.
The focus of criticism from Ukrainian artists and activists has centered not only on the event itself, but on the background of Zhanna Shevtsova. She is the founder of the “Traditsiya” foundation, which presents itself as a fund for “social initiatives” yet operates in temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and collaborates with Putin’s Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives. The organization has implemented projects in occupied regions including Donetsk, Luhansk, and Mariupol.
According to information published on the foundation’s website, since 2023 its activities have been “aimed at integrating Donbas and liberated territories into a single cultural, educational, enlightenment, and civilizational space,” with a focus on engaging “creatively gifted children.”
Earlier, Ukraine successfully brought back 2,000 children who had been under Russian control as part of the Bring Kids Back UA initiative, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced, describing the figure as a significant milestone in the country’s efforts to return minors abducted or forcibly relocated during Russia’s full-scale invasion.
