Rudenko: They told us we had to get rid of everything Ukrainian, that nothing should remain, otherwise we would have problems

Vladislav Rudenko was 16 years old in October 2022 when three armed Russian soldiers arrived at his home in southern Ukraine's Kherson region.

"They came to my apartment and told me I had 30 minutes to pack and that I had to come with them," he said.

The soldiers told him it was an evacuation.

He and hundreds of other young Ukrainians boarded buses and were transported with military escort to Crimea, then under Russian occupation.

Their destination: a health resort in the coastal city of Yevpatoriya, which has been converted into a training center with the aim of erasing the national identity of Ukrainian youth.

"They told us that we had to get rid of everything Ukrainian, that absolutely nothing Ukrainian should remain, otherwise we would have problems," he said.

Rudenko spent nine months there undergoing Russian military-style training and education in the Russian language, Russian culture, and patriotic ideology.

The Ukrainian NGO Save Ukraine helped him and others escape from what Kiev calls a "re-education camp."

After returning from the occupied area, Rudenko told Radio Free Europe what the strict regime in that center was like.

"First we would wake up to the Russian anthem. Then we would raise the Russian flag," he said.

"After breakfast, we had an hour of class on what had happened in Russia the night before. Then they would take us to the cinema to watch Russian films."

Young Ukrainians in the camp were given military uniforms, including the St. George's Ribbon, a symbol of Russian nationalism, Rudenko said.

He says they had to take turns on guard duty.

"It was a constant vicious circle where nothing changed," he said. "It was a big pro-Russian machine. It was very difficult."

Ukrainian officials estimate that occupation forces have taken about 20.000 Ukrainian children from their families and sent them to Russian-controlled areas or to locations in Russia and allied Belarus.

Some children were placed in Russian foster families or boarding schools, while others ended up in camps like the one Rudenko was in.

Mykola Kuleba, Ukraine's Commissioner for Children's Rights and founder of the organization Save Ukraine, describes these camps as a form of "culturocide" aimed at creating loyalty to Russia.

"This is a technique used by the Russian Empire to quickly assimilate the population after conquering new territories, to make them obedient to the regime," Kuleba points out.

"The main thing is to relocate them and start re-education. That is, to determine what needs to be done to make these children obedient to Putin's regime as soon as possible. Prepare them for life in the Russian Federation and then send them to Russia, to families, to boarding schools," Kuleba says.

Save Ukraine, according to him, organized the return of 610 children from Russia and Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.

Ukrainian authorities say that a total of about 1.300 children have returned to Ukraine after being taken by Russian forces.

According to the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale University, more than 8.400 children from Ukraine have been systematically relocated to at least 57 facilities: 13 in Belarus and 43 in Russia and Russian-controlled territories.

A statement recently released by the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that "without the return of children abducted by Russia, the war cannot be considered truly over."