Russian authorities to force Ukrainian children to justify war — new textbook

Russia's Ministry of Education has approved a textbook titled "History of Our Land. Donbas and Novorossiya" for grades 5–7 in occupied territories. According to ZMINA and Vestyorka, the book presents history through propaganda concepts, blames Ukraine for the Soviet Union's collapse, and requires students to equate participants of the "SVO" with World War II veterans. Human rights activists call this mental annexation.

Russia's Ministry of Education has approved a new unified textbook, "History of Our Land. Donbas and Novorossiya," for mandatory instruction in grades 5–7 in schools in the occupied territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions starting September 1, 2026. This was reported by the ZMINA human rights center, citing an investigation by the publication Vestyorka. The textbook covers the period from antiquity to the present, discredits Ukrainian statehood, blames Ukrainian organizations for the "destruction of the USSR," and interprets events after 2014 and military aggression as a "return" of lands. Students are required to prove that participants of the "SVO" are equal to heroes of World War II. Ukrainian human rights activists and intelligence services qualify this as a policy of forced re-education and mental annexation. The Kremlin has elevated the rewriting of history to the federal level. In parallel, Russian structures, including the Russkiy Mir Foundation, promote similar narratives abroad, supplying literature to schools in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Tunisia.