Belarus sent a group of children recently arrived in the country from occupied Ukraine to train with the Belarusian military, the country’s state television said.
The training received by the 35 children included how to evacuate a building in the event of a fire, the Belarus1 channel said.
The report added the children, coming from the Russian-occupied town of Antratsyt in the Luhansk Oblast, are being taught “how to behave in extreme situations”.
Footage shared by the state television channel showed a smoke-filled room and the children holding onto the wall during the evacuation.
During the video, the youngsters can be seen wearing a Russian flag sewn onto their sleeves.
Taken by Belarusian authorities to the city of Mogilev, the youngsters are reportedly being housed in a sanatorium and cared for by employees at the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Evgeniy Sokolov, inspector of the military training centre for the Ministry of Emergency Situations in the city in eastern Belarus, said: “This is not just dry theory, but our classes are conducted in a playful format and are aimed at children.”
The shocking report came on January 10, amid allegations from Ukraine and Belarus’ political opposition that Belarusian authorities are engaging in the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children on a mass scale. Critics say this is part of a campaign to make the youngsters pro-Russian.
Belarus, one of Russia’s closest allies, has been accused in a recent Yale University study of having transferred more than 2,400 Ukrainian children aged between six and 17 from partially occupied territories in Ukraine to its soil.
The political opposition in Belarus has called on the International Criminal Court to act against President Alexander Lukashenko and his government officials for their alleged involvement in the illegal transfer of the children.
Mr Lukashenko had previously called the removal of children from Ukraine a “recuperation” programme aimed at helping youngsters from destroyed cities.
In March last year, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova after deeming them “allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation” and “unlawful transfer” of children from occupied Ukraine to the Russian Federation. The Kremlin has rejected any accusation of wrongdoing.
Ukrainian authorities said they are investigating the deportation of the children as possible genocide.
Of the several thousands of children believed to have been removed from their homes in occupied Ukraine, less than 400 children have so far been brought back to their homeland.
Mr Lukashenko’s country has played a pivotal supporting role to Russia over the past 23 months of war in Ukraine.
In February 2022, it allowed Russian troops to launch an attack against Kyiv, and last spring it let Moscow station some of its tactical nuclear weapons on its territory.
