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“The Russians did not try to Russify the natives,” said the Rev. Deacon Thomas Rivas, the episcopal secretary to the Alaska Orthodox bishop.

"They want to separate children from their biological families, Russify these children, hide these children and transfer them to another ethnic group," Daria Gerasymchuk, an adviser to the Ukrainian president for children's rights and rehabilitation previously told the BBC.

A new Kremlin policy says that Ukrainians living in those occupied areas can be removed from their homes and relocated for refusing Russian passports or protesting Russian annexation — the latest sign of its commitment to Russify the region and punish dissent.

Children as young as four months old are being held in “integration programs” designed to Russify them, according to researchers.

The Russian government is holding at least 6,000 Ukrainian children in camps in Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea, according to a U.S.-backed report published on Tuesday, part of what human rights advocates call Moscow’s systemic attempt to Russify occupied parts of Ukraine.