Moscow admits that more than 700,000 children have been taken into its territory and some appear to be receiving military training
Marc Bennetts
July 29, 2024
The Times
Hundreds of Ukrainian children from territories seized by the Russian army have been sent to Kremlin-backed “military-patriotic” camps, where they are learning how to shoot automatic weapons and operate drones. Russian television has shown teenagers in military-style uniforms being taught to assemble Kalashnikov assault rifles at a “Time for Young Heroes” camp in the Volgograd region in southern Russia. They were also shown on a firing range shooting at targets.
The report, aired by the OTR channel, said about 330 children from the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in eastern and southern Ukraine were at the camp. Russia’s invading forces occupy large swathes of all four regions.
The lessons, which were given by a masked instructor, were held next to a Russian flag and a large portrait of President Putin. The three-week camp is for children aged 14-17 and also involves Russian teenagers. OTR said the camp enforced “strict discipline” among the children.
The camps are organised by Voin [Warrior], a Moscow organisation that was founded on Putin’s orders. Voin says its aims are to produce “a new generation of patriots who love their motherland” and to prepare children for Russian military service. A representative of the organisation hung up when contacted by The Times.
There are concerns in Kyiv that the Ukrainian children who are attending the camps will be brainwashed into joining the Russian army and fighting against their own country. While thousands of Ukrainian children have already been placed in “re-education” camps across Russia, the Kremlin is now increasing efforts to use teenagers as troops, said Kateryna Rashevska, a legal expert at the Regional Centre for Human Rights in Kyiv. “Over the past few months we have been recording an increase in the level and the tempo of the militarisation of Ukrainian children,” she said. “The danger of militarised re-education lies in its denial of the very existence of Ukrainian children’s national identity, causing them long-term psychological trauma.”
Rashevska said the camps were carrying out the “political indoctrination” of Ukrainian children and accused their organisers of violating the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child by trying to erase links with their homeland.
A teenage girl who was identified as Valeriya N, from the Kherson region, told Russian television that she was learning how to fly a drone. She said the instructors were soldiers with
combat experience in Ukraine. “They can really teach you something here,” she said. It was unclear if she was speaking under duress and The Times has chosen not to publish her surname.
A 16-year-old girl with the same name is listed on the Ukrainian government’s Children of War website as missing from the Kherson region. She was 14 when Russian troops entered her home region in February 2022. Kyiv says that more than 19,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia or forcibly located to areas under Moscow’s control. A further 1,965 are listed as missing.
Twelve teenagers from the Luhansk region were also sent to a military camp in Tyumen, in western Siberia, while “several dozen” children from the Kherson region are receiving military training in Kalmykia, in southern Russia, according to Voin. Hundreds of Ukrainian children have been taken to Chechnya for Russian military training under a separate programme over the past two years. These are only the cases that have come to light and the true number of Ukrainian children involved could be far higher.
“The Kremlin is forcibly forming a generation of Ukrainian children that is taught hatred and violence against everything Ukrainian,” said Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian parliament’s top human rights official. He accused Moscow of seeking to create a nationwide programme to turn Ukrainian children into “full-fledged soldiers”.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last year for Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, the Kremlin’s children’s rights commissioner, on war crimes charges related to the abduction of Ukrainian children.
Russia denies the allegations but admits bringing more than 700,000 Ukrainian children to Russia since 2022. Lvova-Belova said the “overwhelming majority” arrived with their parents or carers, but did not give other details.
Voin said the camps gave children the opportunity “to gain new knowledge and skills, become part of a big team, find new friends, and get acquainted with the history and culture of the motherland”.
Marc Bennetts has been covering Russia and the former Soviet Union, including Ukraine, for The Times and Sunday Times since 2015. He has reported from all across Russia, from Chechnya to deepest Siberia. He has also reported from Iran and North Korea. Marc is the author of two books: I’m Going to Ruin Their Lives, about Putin’s crackdown on the opposition, and Football Dynamo, about Russian football culture. He is now writing a thriller, set during the polar night in Russia’s far north.