Ukraine expresses concern regarding Euronews report on Crimean schoolchildren
The Head of the Ukrainian Delegation to the EU, Mykola Tochytskyi, said that he is concerned about a report by the television channel Euronews on children in the Crimea.
"I'm more than concerned, not to say shocked, by the Euronews report ... I really hope that the above-mentioned news broadcast by Euronews is a terrible editorial error, and has not been made with the goal of acting in favor of Russian propaganda. It would be a big mistake to allow Russia to use Euronews, a leading European television channel, as a platform for spreading its propaganda to the EU and beyond," the ambassador said in a statement.
The Ukrainian Delegation to the EU noted that Russia has continued unprecedented militarization of the annexed Crimea.
"Under such circumstances, I ask how much journalistic standards could be lowered if Euronews, which calls itself the source of ‘independent, objective and reliable news for Europeans’, broadcasts a rather ‘positive’ story in which the occupying army teaches children how to handle weapons, not even recalling Russia's illegal occupation of Ukraine's sovereign territory. This story has already provoked the reaction of the EU member states," said Tochytskyi.
The Euronews story reported on training developed by the 68th engineering regiment of the Russian army aimed toward schoolchildren up to 12 years of age in the Crimea. The soldiers teach the children how to install and neutralize landmines, and discuss improvised explosive devices, suicide belts and camouflaged bombs. Russian Lieutenant Colonel Evgeny Muslenko explained that schoolchildren are also encouraged to join engineering forces in the future. The story includes commentary by schoolchildren from Yevpatoria who have positively responded to the training.
At the end of the story, Euronews journalists gave the floor to a local resident who stressed the need for such classes, because "children must know how to defend themselves." " We should raise children to be patriots," she says.
Euronews is a European 24-hour news channel. The website of the TV channel states that it "offers a unique perspective on world events". “It empowers people to make up their own mind by delivering factual analysis and a diversity of viewpoints," the channel claims.
Euronews broadcasts around the clock news in 12 languages - Arabic, English, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish.