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Schedule

Kyiv Lviv Kharkiv Odesa
October 9
START TIMELOCATIONSPEAKERSTOPICS / DESCRIPTION
12:00 PMKYIV– Oleksandr Bielokobylskyi, journalist, author of the research, editor-in-chief of the website Farvater.Skhid;

– Andrii Dikhtiarenko, editor-in-chief and founder of Realna Gazeta;

– Oleksii Artiukh, journalist, editor-in-chief of the Trybuna website;

– Anastasiia Stepula, Advocacy Consultant, Ukrainian Network for Children’s Rights;

All in person 		Presentation of the research: “How the ‘Movement of the First’ Turns Ukrainian children from the Temporarily Occupied Territories into russians”

Why is it interesting?

Journalists from Realna Gazeta, with the support of the Open Information Partnership, conducted an investigation into the activities of the russian organization “Movement of the First”, which operates in the occupied territories and raises Ukrainian children to be “patriots” of russia. The investigation reveals the forms and methods used by the occupiers, identifies key figures in the organization and uncovers its aims and objectives.

Background:
The “Movement of the First” has been closely associated with russian aggression against Ukraine since its inception. The proposal to create this new form of pioneer organization in 2022 was voiced at a meeting with russian dictator vladimir putin by a schoolgirl from occupied Sevastopol who was born in Luhansk.

This organization is not a public body; its full name is the All-russian Public-State Movement of Children and Youth “Movement of the First”. The state component includes government funding of tens of billions of rubles annually, the appointment of the chairman by president vladimir putin himself, and the involvement of local administrations in each federal subject and in the temporarily occupied territories of the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Kherson oblasts and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

In the temporarily occupied territories, the “Movement of the First” is a powerful tool that instills love for russia as a core value in the minds of schoolchildren. At the same time, this movement only supplements the existing arsenal of educational propaganda.