Ukraine: In bid to create ‘Russian World,’ education was weaponized

Ukrainian emergency workers were surprised when they first entered the white-painted school in Izium, after a Ukrainian counteroffensive swept away Russian troops.

From the outside, Lyceum No. 6 appears unscathed by more than six months of Russian occupation, and ready to welcome students for the new academic year.

In fact, Russian authorities intended to showcase it as a model for teaching a new Russian curriculum, centerpiece of a hearts-and-minds effort based on shared affinity for the Russian language and culture that Moscow affectionately calls “Russkiy Mir,” or Russian World.

But inside, something was missing – and not just the Ukrainian textbooks, which had been carted away to help pave the way for what Russia claimed would become a transformed Ukrainian society.

“The Russians came to this school and took all the cutlery and knives, and left the cheap, plastic ones,” says Hennadii Kovzunovich, the heavyset commander of a Ukrainian emergency services unit temporarily based at the