Russia's Education Ministry has added textbooks titled "History of Our Land. Donbas and Novorossiya" for grades 5 and 6–7 to the federal list of books permitted for use in schools, according to Vladislav Kononov, executive secretary of the state history textbook line and an adviser to the Russian presidential administration's humanitarian policy department.
The textbooks will reach schools in the occupied territories of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions starting September 1. According to Interfax, citing the Education Ministry, the course covers the period "from ancient times to the present," including "events of the period when the regions were part of Ukraine and their return to Russia."
Photographs published by Kononov show chapter titles including "Great Russia Gains Strength," "Struggle for Independence" and "Return to Russia," with final sections called "In 'Independent' Ukraine" and "Struggle for Independence."
Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov said the textbooks contain "all the objective information, not the lies that were in Ukrainian textbooks." The federal list includes history textbooks for 32 Russian regions in addition to the occupied Ukrainian territories.