randomname

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2144668

After an investigation revealed alleged violations against workers at the Chinese company BYD’s factory in Bahia, northeastern Brazil, the company installed cameras in the administration and the construction areas and put up posters prohibiting photographs in these spaces.

According to the research, a computer program that creates a digital watermark with each employee's name was also installed to identify from which machine information was shared externally.

BYD sent an email on December 18, 2024, informing employees of the changes.

In the message, the company explained that the installation was implemented by the ”Department of Information Technology of China,” and that ”this watermark registers the name of the user logged into the device, device name, and the current date,” adding that ”this measure aims to prevent possible information leaks.”

[...]

All these changes began to be implemented shortly [after the investigation] revealed [that Chinese] workers [...] were being subjected to poor working conditions and living in dirty, crowded, and poorly lit accommodations.

According to information gathered [...] Brazilian workers were not affected. The Brazilians explained that Chinese workers have great difficulty filing any complaints since they do not understand Portuguese, just as the Brazilians cannot speak in Mandarin, Cantonese, or any other languages spoken by the Chinese workers.

Based on personal accounts, images, and videos, the story published [...] showed that many Chinese employees were working without personal protective equipment, subjected to shifts of 12 hours per day, and suffering physical violence if they did not follow orders or meet deadlines.

[...]

In the note, BYD did not explain why it only began to adopt such ”industrial protection measures” [installed by Department of Information Technology of China] shortly after the complaints about mistreatment of Chinese workers, given that the company began operating in Bahia in March 2024.

[...]

BYD's measures to monitor employees in an attempt to prevent further leaks of possible wrongdoing stands in direct contrast to the company's public messaging since the allegations of labour comparable to slavery were made public.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2144668

After an investigation revealed alleged violations against workers at the Chinese company BYD’s factory in Bahia, northeastern Brazil, the company installed cameras in the administration and the construction areas and put up posters prohibiting photographs in these spaces.

According to the research, a computer program that creates a digital watermark with each employee's name was also installed to identify from which machine information was shared externally.

BYD sent an email on December 18, 2024, informing employees of the changes.

In the message, the company explained that the installation was implemented by the ”Department of Information Technology of China,” and that ”this watermark registers the name of the user logged into the device, device name, and the current date,” adding that ”this measure aims to prevent possible information leaks.”

[...]

All these changes began to be implemented shortly [after the investigation] revealed [that Chinese] workers [...] were being subjected to poor working conditions and living in dirty, crowded, and poorly lit accommodations.

According to information gathered [...] Brazilian workers were not affected. The Brazilians explained that Chinese workers have great difficulty filing any complaints since they do not understand Portuguese, just as the Brazilians cannot speak in Mandarin, Cantonese, or any other languages spoken by the Chinese workers.

Based on personal accounts, images, and videos, the story published [...] showed that many Chinese employees were working without personal protective equipment, subjected to shifts of 12 hours per day, and suffering physical violence if they did not follow orders or meet deadlines.

[...]

In the note, BYD did not explain why it only began to adopt such ”industrial protection measures” [installed by Department of Information Technology of China] shortly after the complaints about mistreatment of Chinese workers, given that the company began operating in Bahia in March 2024.

[...]

BYD's measures to monitor employees in an attempt to prevent further leaks of possible wrongdoing stands in direct contrast to the company's public messaging since the allegations of labour comparable to slavery were made public.

[...]

After an investigation revealed alleged violations against workers at the Chinese company BYD’s factory in Bahia, northeastern Brazil, the company installed cameras in the administration and the construction areas and put up posters prohibiting photographs in these spaces.

According to the research, a computer program that creates a digital watermark with each employee's name was also installed to identify from which machine information was shared externally.

BYD sent an email on December 18, 2024, informing employees of the changes.

In the message, the company explained that the installation was implemented by the ”Department of Information Technology of China,” and that ”this watermark registers the name of the user logged into the device, device name, and the current date,” adding that ”this measure aims to prevent possible information leaks.”

[...]

All these changes began to be implemented shortly [after the investigation] revealed [that Chinese] workers [...] were being subjected to poor working conditions and living in dirty, crowded, and poorly lit accommodations.

According to information gathered [...] Brazilian workers were not affected. The Brazilians explained that Chinese workers have great difficulty filing any complaints since they do not understand Portuguese, just as the Brazilians cannot speak in Mandarin, Cantonese, or any other languages spoken by the Chinese workers.

Based on personal accounts, images, and videos, the story published [...] showed that many Chinese employees were working without personal protective equipment, subjected to shifts of 12 hours per day, and suffering physical violence if they did not follow orders or meet deadlines.

[...]

In the note, BYD did not explain why it only began to adopt such ”industrial protection measures” [installed by Department of Information Technology of China] shortly after the complaints about mistreatment of Chinese workers, given that the company began operating in Bahia in March 2024.

[...]

BYD's measures to monitor employees in an attempt to prevent further leaks of possible wrongdoing stands in direct contrast to the company's public messaging since the allegations of labour comparable to slavery were made public.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2138283

Archived

Nate Vance, the cousin of U.S. Vice President JD Vance and a volunteer fighting on Ukraine's front lines, said he is "disappointed" in his relative's stance on Ukraine.

Vance, a former U.S. Marine, defended Ukraine from 2022 to January 2025 as a member of the Da Vinci WolvesFirst Motorized Battalion, a volunteer unit.

"Being your family doesn't mean I'm going to accept you killing my comrades," Vance saidin an interview with Le Figaro published on March 9.

Vance's remarks come at a low point in U.S.-Ukrainian relations, as Washington has halted intelligence sharing and military aid to Kyiv. The freeze followed a contentious meeting in the Oval Office between U.S. President Donald Trump, Vice President Vance, and President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Nate Vance said he was disappointed in how his cousin treated Zelensky during the meeting.

"When (JD Vance) criticized aid to Ukraine, I thought it was because he needed to appeal to his electorate, that it was part of the political game," Vance said.

"But what they did to Zelensky was an ambush of absolute dishonesty."

The vice president's continued distrust of Zelensky is unjustified, as are his views on Ukraine, Vance said.

"I thought I was going to choke ... His own cousin was on the front lines. I could have told him the truth, without pretense, without personal interest. He never tried to find out more."

Vance said he tried to get in touch with his cousin several times with no success.

"I left messages at his office. I never heard from him," he said.

Vance volunteered to fight in Ukraine following Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, but left shortly before the U.S. presidential inauguration out of fear of being captured by the Russian army.

"It had become complicated to stay. I couldn't take the risk of being captured," he said.

JD Vance has criticized Ukraine and Zelensky in the past, at times repeating Kremlin talking points.

[...]

Archived

Nate Vance, the cousin of U.S. Vice President JD Vance and a volunteer fighting on Ukraine's front lines, said he is "disappointed" in his relative's stance on Ukraine.

Vance, a former U.S. Marine, defended Ukraine from 2022 to January 2025 as a member of the Da Vinci WolvesFirst Motorized Battalion, a volunteer unit.

"Being your family doesn't mean I'm going to accept you killing my comrades," Vance saidin an interview with Le Figaro published on March 9.

Vance's remarks come at a low point in U.S.-Ukrainian relations, as Washington has halted intelligence sharing and military aid to Kyiv. The freeze followed a contentious meeting in the Oval Office between U.S. President Donald Trump, Vice President Vance, and President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Nate Vance said he was disappointed in how his cousin treated Zelensky during the meeting.

"When (JD Vance) criticized aid to Ukraine, I thought it was because he needed to appeal to his electorate, that it was part of the political game," Vance said.

"But what they did to Zelensky was an ambush of absolute dishonesty."

The vice president's continued distrust of Zelensky is unjustified, as are his views on Ukraine, Vance said.

"I thought I was going to choke ... His own cousin was on the front lines. I could have told him the truth, without pretense, without personal interest. He never tried to find out more."

Vance said he tried to get in touch with his cousin several times with no success.

"I left messages at his office. I never heard from him," he said.

Vance volunteered to fight in Ukraine following Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, but left shortly before the U.S. presidential inauguration out of fear of being captured by the Russian army.

"It had become complicated to stay. I couldn't take the risk of being captured," he said.

JD Vance has criticized Ukraine and Zelensky in the past, at times repeating Kremlin talking points.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2138104

Here you can download the study, The Chinese Communist Party’s influence over businesses (pdf).

[There is no summary on the website https://www.ui.se/english.]

The study on the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) influence over businesses analyses, first, how changes in Chinese laws, intra-Party regulations, and policies have created new means for the Party to exercise its influence. Secondly, the study examines CCP influence in practice by analysing three dimensions: ownership, party organisation presence, and political signalling.

Summary:

• Over the past 15 years, regulatory changes that initially focused on stateowned enterprises (SOEs) have also increasingly affected privateowned enterprises (POEs). Key reforms emphasise mixed ownership and reinforcing Party leadership in corporate governance, blurring the lines between state and private ownership.
• There are still important differences in Party influence between SOEs and POEs; for example, SOEs have embedded political governance, where the Party organisation is represented on the board, while no such rules exist for POEs. However, SOE policies often serve as models for regulating POEs.
• Ownership: The mixed ownership reform has resulted in a large number of SOEs acquiring stakes in POEs. This indirectly gives the party more influence over POEs, also sometimes when it is a minority post. The most obvious cases are government “golden shares” in hightech companies such as ByteDance, Weibo, and Tencent. Some of the interviewees also highlighted golden shares as one more direct aspect of the CCP’s influence over businesses.
• Party organisation presence: By law, all private companies with CCP members must establish party organisations. The extent to which this law has been implemented is not entirely clear, although most large private companies have party organisations. While many observers claim that Party organisation activities are limited to social activities and have little influence over corporate governance, there is also abundant research showing that Party organisation presence in POEs on an aggregate level affects corporate governance.
• CCP membership among company managers is another possible way for the CCP to influence POEs. Many entrepreneurs actively seek to become party members in order to gain political influence that can help their businesses thrive. However, as the Party continuously tightens ideological and political control of Party members, they might become more incentivised to adapt companies’ activities to be more in line with the intentions of the CCP.
• Political signalling: The overall influence that the Party exercises over POEs through political signalling is substantial. Chinese as well as foreign companies have to be constantly aware of changes in the political environment. Through new legislation and the publication of Party documents and speeches by leaders, the CCP leadership signals that **private entrepreneurs must follow the leadership of the Party. **This message has become ever more clear and strong during Xi Jinping’s reign.
• Swedish company representatives emphasised that the fact that the CCP completely dominates politics and society is something that is a starting point when doing business in China and was seldom raised as a problem. However, they acknowledged that the political changes in recent years, including political centralisation and increasing nationalism, were the political factors most affecting businesses.
• The consequences of political influence over Chinese companies are in some ways more dramatic for Chinese companies outside China than for those within China. As Chinese companies have expanded their presence far beyond China’s borders, the CCP’s obsession with political control increasingly clashes with Western ideals of businesses operating independently from political influence, at least of the CCP variety.

Here you can download the study, The Chinese Communist Party’s influence over businesses (pdf).

[There is no summary on the website https://www.ui.se/english.]

The study on the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) influence over businesses analyses, first, how changes in Chinese laws, intra-Party regulations, and policies have created new means for the Party to exercise its influence. Secondly, the study examines CCP influence in practice by analysing three dimensions: ownership, party organisation presence, and political signalling.

Summary:

• Over the past 15 years, regulatory changes that initially focused on stateowned enterprises (SOEs) have also increasingly affected privateowned enterprises (POEs). Key reforms emphasise mixed ownership and reinforcing Party leadership in corporate governance, blurring the lines between state and private ownership.
• There are still important differences in Party influence between SOEs and POEs; for example, SOEs have embedded political governance, where the Party organisation is represented on the board, while no such rules exist for POEs. However, SOE policies often serve as models for regulating POEs.
• Ownership: The mixed ownership reform has resulted in a large number of SOEs acquiring stakes in POEs. This indirectly gives the party more influence over POEs, also sometimes when it is a minority post. The most obvious cases are government “golden shares” in hightech companies such as ByteDance, Weibo, and Tencent. Some of the interviewees also highlighted golden shares as one more direct aspect of the CCP’s influence over businesses.
• Party organisation presence: By law, all private companies with CCP members must establish party organisations. The extent to which this law has been implemented is not entirely clear, although most large private companies have party organisations. While many observers claim that Party organisation activities are limited to social activities and have little influence over corporate governance, there is also abundant research showing that Party organisation presence in POEs on an aggregate level affects corporate governance.
• CCP membership among company managers is another possible way for the CCP to influence POEs. Many entrepreneurs actively seek to become party members in order to gain political influence that can help their businesses thrive. However, as the Party continuously tightens ideological and political control of Party members, they might become more incentivised to adapt companies’ activities to be more in line with the intentions of the CCP.
• Political signalling: The overall influence that the Party exercises over POEs through political signalling is substantial. Chinese as well as foreign companies have to be constantly aware of changes in the political environment. Through new legislation and the publication of Party documents and speeches by leaders, the CCP leadership signals that **private entrepreneurs must follow the leadership of the Party. **This message has become ever more clear and strong during Xi Jinping’s reign.
• Swedish company representatives emphasised that the fact that the CCP completely dominates politics and society is something that is a starting point when doing business in China and was seldom raised as a problem. However, they acknowledged that the political changes in recent years, including political centralisation and increasing nationalism, were the political factors most affecting businesses.
• The consequences of political influence over Chinese companies are in some ways more dramatic for Chinese companies outside China than for those within China. As Chinese companies have expanded their presence far beyond China’s borders, the CCP’s obsession with political control increasingly clashes with Western ideals of businesses operating independently from political influence, at least of the CCP variety.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2137462

Archived

[...]

According to a [Chinese] government memo [...], a high-ranking Chinese official instructed national security units at a closed-door meeting late last month to implement Beijing's 22 guidelines on punishing Taiwan independence activists in countries friendly to China.

[Taiwan says] China is attempting to use these guidelines to “shackle” Taiwan’s democracy and freedom. [Taiwan] has instructed its overseas offices to monitor and evaluate related risks and will strengthen public awareness campaigns on travel safety.

[...]

The senior Taiwanese official said that countries considered higher risk include Cambodia, Laos, and certain African nations. The official said Taiwanese in these countries could be detained and investigated on suspicion of supporting Taiwanese independence.

[...]

The official added that Taiwan’s government assessment indicates that some countries, including certain Southeast Asian nations, have refused to cooperate with China’s requests.

[...]

The memo, citing Taiwanese intelligence analysis, indicated that this directive was introduced during a two-day CCP meeting on Taiwan that started on Feb. 25. According to the memo, the meeting was headed by Wang Huning (王滬寧), a member of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee and chair of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

During the meeting, Beijing reportedly ordered diplomatic missions and overseas police stations in countries with “a high level of trust” in China to enforce the guidelines on Taiwanese tourists, students, and residents.

[...]

Archived

[...]

According to a [Chinese] government memo [...], a high-ranking Chinese official instructed national security units at a closed-door meeting late last month to implement Beijing's 22 guidelines on punishing Taiwan independence activists in countries friendly to China.

[Taiwan says] China is attempting to use these guidelines to “shackle” Taiwan’s democracy and freedom. [Taiwan] has instructed its overseas offices to monitor and evaluate related risks and will strengthen public awareness campaigns on travel safety.

[...]

The senior Taiwanese official said that countries considered higher risk include Cambodia, Laos, and certain African nations. The official said Taiwanese in these countries could be detained and investigated on suspicion of supporting Taiwanese independence.

[...]

The official added that Taiwan’s government assessment indicates that some countries, including certain Southeast Asian nations, have refused to cooperate with China’s requests.

[...]

The memo, citing Taiwanese intelligence analysis, indicated that this directive was introduced during a two-day CCP meeting on Taiwan that started on Feb. 25. According to the memo, the meeting was headed by Wang Huning (王滬寧), a member of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee and chair of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

During the meeting, Beijing reportedly ordered diplomatic missions and overseas police stations in countries with “a high level of trust” in China to enforce the guidelines on Taiwanese tourists, students, and residents.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2134965

Archived

** "If the whole world could hear me, I would say that we need to win this war as soon as possible so that all children can see their families again..." - Those words come from 12-year-old Sashko from the southeast Ukrainian city of Mariupol, who was separated from his mother by Russians during the so-called "filtration" procedure in the Donetsk region.**

Sashko is one of the thousands of children taken to the Russian Federation from the occupied regions of Ukraine under the guise of evacuation and ensuing rehabilitation ,to teach them to "love Russia."

On March 17, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights in Russia, Maria Lvova-Belova. They are suspected of facilitating the forced deportation of children from the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories, violating the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

[...]

**How Russian "filtration" works **

Last spring, Sashko was cooking with his mother Snizhana over a fire in partially occupied Mariupol. The shelling started, they did not have time to run to the shelter, and a piece of shrapnel hit the boy in the eye. In search of medical care, his mother took him to the Ilyich steel plant, where Ukrainian military doctors treated the wounded.

The Russian military took the boy's mother for re-interrogation. He never saw her again.

But later, the occupiers took them prisoner and sent them to a filtration camp in Donetsk Oblast. There, Sashko and his mother were met by representatives of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations and registered. After that, the Russian military took the boy's mother, to interrogate her further. He never saw her again.

Sashko was held in the "republican trauma center" for two months until he found a way to call his grandmother, who eventually managed to take him away.

Doctors now say that Sashko won't be able to out of his injured eye. The fate of Sashko's mother, Snizhana, is still unknown.

[...]

Rhetorics such as "your parents don't need you" and "you don't have a future in Ukraine" is one of the propaganda methods used by Russians with Ukrainian children living in Russian-occupied regions, or who have been taken to Russia.

"They say that Ukraine has abandoned you; they teach you to hate your parents, then your country, and then to love Russia," says lawyer Myroslava Kharchenko.

[...]

"Whenever they played the Russian anthem, we would put on our headphones and listen to the Ukrainian anthem," says 16-year-old Vitaliy, who was sent to a camp in Crimea last fall.

"On New Year's Eve, we had to watch Putin's address, and some of us left the room and started shouting 'Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!" says Taisiya, 16 too. She says that children who disobeyed their teachers were locked up for several days in an "isolation room."

[...]

"On some of the Ukrainian territories, children have lived under Russian propaganda for eight years. They are taught to see Ukraine as an enemy," says Aksana Filipishyna. Such measures can contribute to the fact that, in a few years, these children will end up hating their homeland. Like, for example, this 20-year-old soldier I met at one of the checkpoints in occupied Donetsk last fall. He was born there. When the war started in 2014, he was 11 years old, almost like Sashko from Mariupol. Now he is convinced that he is fighting for his homeland and against the Nazis. He grew up on Russian propaganda.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2134965

Archived

** "If the whole world could hear me, I would say that we need to win this war as soon as possible so that all children can see their families again..." - Those words come from 12-year-old Sashko from the southeast Ukrainian city of Mariupol, who was separated from his mother by Russians during the so-called "filtration" procedure in the Donetsk region.**

Sashko is one of the thousands of children taken to the Russian Federation from the occupied regions of Ukraine under the guise of evacuation and ensuing rehabilitation ,to teach them to "love Russia."

On March 17, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights in Russia, Maria Lvova-Belova. They are suspected of facilitating the forced deportation of children from the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories, violating the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

[...]

**How Russian "filtration" works **

Last spring, Sashko was cooking with his mother Snizhana over a fire in partially occupied Mariupol. The shelling started, they did not have time to run to the shelter, and a piece of shrapnel hit the boy in the eye. In search of medical care, his mother took him to the Ilyich steel plant, where Ukrainian military doctors treated the wounded.

The Russian military took the boy's mother for re-interrogation. He never saw her again.

But later, the occupiers took them prisoner and sent them to a filtration camp in Donetsk Oblast. There, Sashko and his mother were met by representatives of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations and registered. After that, the Russian military took the boy's mother, to interrogate her further. He never saw her again.

Sashko was held in the "republican trauma center" for two months until he found a way to call his grandmother, who eventually managed to take him away.

Doctors now say that Sashko won't be able to out of his injured eye. The fate of Sashko's mother, Snizhana, is still unknown.

[...]

Rhetorics such as "your parents don't need you" and "you don't have a future in Ukraine" is one of the propaganda methods used by Russians with Ukrainian children living in Russian-occupied regions, or who have been taken to Russia.

"They say that Ukraine has abandoned you; they teach you to hate your parents, then your country, and then to love Russia," says lawyer Myroslava Kharchenko.

[...]

"Whenever they played the Russian anthem, we would put on our headphones and listen to the Ukrainian anthem," says 16-year-old Vitaliy, who was sent to a camp in Crimea last fall.

"On New Year's Eve, we had to watch Putin's address, and some of us left the room and started shouting 'Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!" says Taisiya, 16 too. She says that children who disobeyed their teachers were locked up for several days in an "isolation room."

[...]

"On some of the Ukrainian territories, children have lived under Russian propaganda for eight years. They are taught to see Ukraine as an enemy," says Aksana Filipishyna. Such measures can contribute to the fact that, in a few years, these children will end up hating their homeland. Like, for example, this 20-year-old soldier I met at one of the checkpoints in occupied Donetsk last fall. He was born there. When the war started in 2014, he was 11 years old, almost like Sashko from Mariupol. Now he is convinced that he is fighting for his homeland and against the Nazis. He grew up on Russian propaganda.

[...]

Archived

** "If the whole world could hear me, I would say that we need to win this war as soon as possible so that all children can see their families again..." - Those words come from 12-year-old Sashko from the southeast Ukrainian city of Mariupol, who was separated from his mother by Russians during the so-called "filtration" procedure in the Donetsk region.**

Sashko is one of the thousands of children taken to the Russian Federation from the occupied regions of Ukraine under the guise of evacuation and ensuing rehabilitation ,to teach them to "love Russia."

On March 17, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights in Russia, Maria Lvova-Belova. They are suspected of facilitating the forced deportation of children from the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories, violating the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

[...]

**How Russian "filtration" works **

Last spring, Sashko was cooking with his mother Snizhana over a fire in partially occupied Mariupol. The shelling started, they did not have time to run to the shelter, and a piece of shrapnel hit the boy in the eye. In search of medical care, his mother took him to the Ilyich steel plant, where Ukrainian military doctors treated the wounded.

The Russian military took the boy's mother for re-interrogation. He never saw her again.

But later, the occupiers took them prisoner and sent them to a filtration camp in Donetsk Oblast. There, Sashko and his mother were met by representatives of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations and registered. After that, the Russian military took the boy's mother, to interrogate her further. He never saw her again.

Sashko was held in the "republican trauma center" for two months until he found a way to call his grandmother, who eventually managed to take him away.

Doctors now say that Sashko won't be able to out of his injured eye. The fate of Sashko's mother, Snizhana, is still unknown.

[...]

Rhetorics such as "your parents don't need you" and "you don't have a future in Ukraine" is one of the propaganda methods used by Russians with Ukrainian children living in Russian-occupied regions, or who have been taken to Russia.

"They say that Ukraine has abandoned you; they teach you to hate your parents, then your country, and then to love Russia," says lawyer Myroslava Kharchenko.

[...]

"Whenever they played the Russian anthem, we would put on our headphones and listen to the Ukrainian anthem," says 16-year-old Vitaliy, who was sent to a camp in Crimea last fall.

"On New Year's Eve, we had to watch Putin's address, and some of us left the room and started shouting 'Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!" says Taisiya, 16 too. She says that children who disobeyed their teachers were locked up for several days in an "isolation room."

[...]

"On some of the Ukrainian territories, children have lived under Russian propaganda for eight years. They are taught to see Ukraine as an enemy," says Aksana Filipishyna. Such measures can contribute to the fact that, in a few years, these children will end up hating their homeland. Like, for example, this 20-year-old soldier I met at one of the checkpoints in occupied Donetsk last fall. He was born there. When the war started in 2014, he was 11 years old, almost like Sashko from Mariupol. Now he is convinced that he is fighting for his homeland and against the Nazis. He grew up on Russian propaganda.

[...]