RFE/RLWed, 14 Sep 2022 19:52 UTC
© Ukrinform.uaUkrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk
Ukrainian authorities have
detained an unspecified number of Russian teachers who moved to Ukrainian towns and cities after Russia took control of them after launching its invasion in late February.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on September 12 that the teachers, who moved to Ukraine to teach a Russian curriculum at local Ukrainian schools "committed a crime."
"Of course, a court will decide on their punishment, but on the territory of our country there is still a big number of Russian citizens who came to temporarily occupied territories and they will surely face justice unless they leave our territory immediately," Vereshchuk said .
Vereshchuk added that the detained Russian teachers will not be included in prisoner-exchange lists as they are not combatants.
Ukrainian media reports said on September 10 that an unspecified number of Russian teachers were left behind as Russian troops and Russia-appointed officials fled several towns and villages in the Kharkiv region as Ukrainian armed forces recaptured territory during a lightning counteroffensive.
Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksiy Honcharenko said earlier that the Russian teachers were detained in the town of Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region.
On September 13, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that there were Russian teachers in Ukraine's Kharkiv region.
Russian Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov added that all Ukrainian teachers who collaborated with Russian-appointed authorities and chose to move to Russia from the region, had been given assistance to do so.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said that the detained Russian teachers will not be included in prisoner-exchange lists as they are not combatants.
Comment: RFE/RL does it propaganda duty with the news that Ukraine's prosecutor general is denying any teachers were arrested:
The Ukrainian Prosecutor-General's Office has denied a statement by Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk that Russian teachers in territories liberated from Russian occupying troops had been detained.
Ihor Belousov of the Ukrainian Prosecutor-General's Office told Current Time that no Russian teachers were detained by Ukrainian armed forces in "de-occupied territories" of Ukraine.
Sources in prosecutor's offices in Ukraine's Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions also told Current Time that no Russian teachers were arrested in the regions' districts retaken under Kyiv's control in recent days.
On September 12, Vereshchuk said Ukrainian forces arrested an unspecified number of Russian teachers who moved to Ukraine to teach a Russian curriculum at local Ukrainian schools in regions taken under Russian armed forces' control during Russia's ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine launched in late February.
Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksiy Honcharenko also said Russian teachers were detained in the town of Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on September 13 denied there were Russian teachers in Ukraine's Kharkiv region.
Russian Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov added that all Ukrainian teachers who collaborated with Russia-appointed authorities and chose to move to Russia from the region had been given assistance to do so.
The chief of Russia's Investigative Committee, Aleksandr Bastrykin, on September 13 ordered to launch a probe into reported detainment of Russian teachers in Ukraine.
So which is it?
Comment: RFE/RL does it propaganda duty with the news that Ukraine's prosecutor general is denying any teachers were arrested: So which is it?