In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll talk about Russian attempts to “russify” and completely wipe out the Ukrainian identity in the Eastern Ukrainian territories and Crimea that Russia is temporarily occupying.

Today The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) published their findings on an extensive investigation spanning over several months, on the harsh reality of Russia’s aggressive policy of assimilation in the regions they temporarily occupy in Eastern Ukraine.

Eyewitnesses and experts have revealed incidences of torture, coercion, deportation, cultural erasure, and military indoctrination in these regions. All this is a violation of the international law and in some cases even amount to possible war crimes and genocide.

Former police officer, Anton Lomakin from Kherson was detained for four months. During this time, he was given multiple electric shocks, beaten with an iron club & waterboarded. Waterboarding is illegal under the law of war with the adoption of the third Geneva Convention.

Artem Petrik is currently doing his PhD in History in Vilnius. He was caught in Kherson after the start of the full-scale invasion, and was persecuted because of his profession: Russians consider a historian a propagandist, who is part of the ideological system.

During the interview, he stated that “if you don’t want to be Russian, you will die. If you support the Ukrainian identity, you will have serious problems: imprisonment, death, torture.”

Larysa Borova fled the occupied territories last June. She said that if you don’t have a Russian passport, you don’t get pension, food or medical services. She said that many elderly require medication and attain Russian passport just to stay alive.

Leonid Remyga, a medical doctor who worked in Kherson told that they were forced to give out Russian birth certificates. They were forced to memorize the Russian anthem and if they couldn’t, they were beaten and tortured.

In addition, all children have to attend Russian schools and follow the Russian curriculum. Ukrainian children are being denied access to their own culture and their own history, and are being forced to learn the revised history of Russkiy Mir instead.

Yet, people like @tuckercarlson & the Grayzone “journalists” are complaining because Ukraine is temporarily banning pro-Kremlin Orthodox churches that are basically an extension of the FSB. How corrupt and/or stupid do you have to be completely disregard an ongoing genocide?