Russia has reportedly been destroying hundreds of schools and kindergartens in Ukraine during its attempt to invade the country, according to a study by the non-profit organization Centre for Information Resilience (CIR).
The organization put out a five-minute short informative film on Twitter last month detailing Russia’s bombardment of Ukrainian schools. In the film, they state that they have verified and investigated hundreds of damaged educational institutions in the country.
“We have documented over 350 incidents of attacks on educational facilities: schools, kindergartens, universities, sports facilities and so on,” said Belen Carrasco Rodriguez, the Deputy Lead of “Eyes on Russia” for CIR, noting that the destruction mentioned only took place in a year.
Rodriguez also states in the video that there is a wide and open-source community online that “collects all the information” regarding videos and photographs uploaded by Ukrainian citizens, police as well as Ukrainian media and military. “Some of it is true and some of it is not. So what we do is we verify the information and also establish when and where the incidents happen,” Rodriguez clarified.
“We have documented over 350 incidents of attacks on educational facilities: schools, kindergartens, universities, sports facilities and so on.”
Belen Carrasco Rodriguez
The organization also claims that the schools destroyed were not collateral damage, but “likely to be the main target of specific strikes.”
A view of the building of a municipal clinic damaged in a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 1, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/VALENTYN OGIRENKO)What is the “Eyes on Russia” project?
The video references the “Eyes on Russia” project and locates all of the verified incidences on an open and interactive map that’s accessible to all – showing how all these events build up over time. Users can look into each Russian shelling on this website and where on the map it targeted.
The video can be watched in the tweet below:
Russia’s full-scale invasion has devastated Ukraine’s education system. In our new film, we explain how, through open source, we’re able to investigate, verify & map incidents – including hundreds of damaged & destroyed kindergartens, schools, colleges & universities. See… pic.twitter.com/uMJ6Lnb0vM
— Centre for Information Resilience (@Cen4infoRes) May 16, 2023
Rodriguez states that CIR has collected over 22,000 pieces of data, and half the data was verified since the Ukraine-Russia war began.
The “Eyes of Russia” project can be found here.
CIR’s website states that it is an “independent, non-profit social enterprise dedicated to exposing human rights abuses and war crimes, countering disinformation and combating online behavior harmful to women and minorities.”
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