Ukrainian children trained as drone operators and fighters under Russian occupation
Human rights activist Kateryna Rashevska told LBC Russia was intensifying efforts to militarise and indoctrinate children living under occupation through schools, camps and military-patriotic groups.
“Russia is now militarising children on a large scale,” she said.
22,300 Ukrainian children aged seven to 17 took part in the military patriotic game ’Zarnitsa 2.0’ this summer alone, Ms Rashevska said.
The schoolchildren are each assigned a role in their team including drone operators, assault fighters, a mine-sweeper, medics, and a commander. They wear Russian uniforms, march with flags, and are taught the ’patriotic’ history of Russia.
Last year, a group of schoolboys from Chaplynka, Kherson won the regional championships. An anti-Ukrainian propaganda channel shared images of the boys after their win.
The political channel claimed one child said: "Our team is made up of the most talented and friendly guys. I’m glad to be among them. We have a lot of fun and enjoy spending time together".
The Young Army Cadets scheme culminates in a nationwide competition at the Avangard camp in Russia’s Volgograd region this August.
Around 1.6 million Ukrainian children remain under Russian occupation, facing what Ms Rashevska described as “early recruitment, militarisation, politicisation, Russification, and cultural assimilation”.
The programme is presented to children as a game, she said, but amounts to basic military training in which “many children are now dreaming to join the army” after being indoctrinated.
Ms Rashevska said the programme is not confined to camps and youth movements, arguing that Russia has embedded militarisation into formal education in occupied Ukraine.
She said schools were now passing pupils’ details to Russian military authorities, which could then be used to create lists for mobilisation and conscription.
This comes as an investigation by Russian independent outlet Mediazona has identified the names of 258,989 Russian military personnel killed in Ukraine during the conflict. More than 10,000 names were added to the database in under two weeks - and the true death toll is expected to be significantly higher.
Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-appointed governor of the occupied Kherson region in Ukraine, said on social media: "Everything in the game will be real, especially since the mentors will be veterans of the Russian Air Defence Forces. People who have experienced combat themselves will pass on their experience to the teenagers."
The human rights lawyer said children who have escaped Russian-controlled territory can struggle to trust adults after being given conflicting messages by the same teachers.
“Before 2022 you were told that you are Ukrainian and that Russia is the aggressor,” she said.
“After 2022 you were told by the same teachers, that Ukraine didn’t exist, that Russia is their motherland.”
Oleksandr Tolokonnikov,Deputy Head of the Kherson Administration for Digital Development and International Cooperation confirmed child-militarisation is taking place in occupied Kherson.
"Children cannot fully understand or critically assess the propaganda and everything happening around them. They are very vulnerable, and what Russia is doing can cause serious psychological trauma," he said.
He continued: "The most terrible thing is that they are growing up with the idea that war and killing people is something normal. Instead of learning languages, literature, discovering the world and dreaming about their future, they are being taught from childhood that they must become soldiers and fight."
Ms Rashevska said Russian authorities had also used threats against parents, including warnings they could lose parental rights if children did not attend school or military-patriotic activities.
She said some children repatriated and reunited with their families were still so fearful that they would not go to the toilet alone.
“They don’t have, you know, this feeling of basic safety,” she said.
For teenagers, she said the impact can include a loss of identity after years of being told who they should become.
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) formally recommended that Russia ends the ’militarisation and politicisation’ of education in January 2024, specifically referencing these practises in occupied Ukraine.
“Russians were trying to impose on them their own vision who should be these children: Russian patriots, Russian soldiers, maybe people who work in Russian factories,” she said.
“But then they have been repatriated and Ukraine is requesting nothing from them. No, just go to school, just, you know, have some rest, just survive.”
“Just be child, you know, you are allowed to be a child.”
The soldiers credited with training some of the children on social media boasts all the instructors are former Russian Armed Forces. The "Voin" Centre for Military-Sports Training and Patriotic Education of Youth has established training centres across Russia and occupied Ukraine.
Politics Editor
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