Russia has recruited almost 50,000 Ukrainian children to the “Youth Army”

Russia has recruited nearly 50,000 children from temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine into the military-patriotic movement “Yunarmiya.” About 36,000 of them live in occupied Crimea and Sevastopol.

This was announced by Maria Sulyalina, head of the Almenda Civic Education Center, during a conference in the Czech Parliament.

According to her, Russia is also actively involving Ukrainian children in the “Movement of the Firsts.” If in 2023 it included about 12 thousand children in the occupied territories, now there are about 185 thousand of them.

Such organizations and military-patriotic events involve not only schoolchildren but also preschoolers. Children are dressed in military uniforms, thematic events are held for them, and meetings are arranged with Russian military personnel who fought against Ukraine.

According to “Almenda”, in this way Russia is trying to accustom Ukrainian children to Russian propaganda from an early age and impose a Russian identity on them.

Ukrainian intelligence also reported that Russia uses the “Youth Army” in the occupied territories for military training of young people and their subsequent recruitment into the Russian army.