Russia’s war in Ukraine has entered its third year, and while missiles continue to rain down on cities and troops clash along an ever-shifting frontline, another deeply disturbing front has opened: the systematic targeting and militarisation of Ukrainian children.
From forced re-education to active military training, children in Russian-occupied territories are being groomed for war. What’s emerging is a shocking portrait of psychological warfare and state-sponsored indoctrination aimed at reshaping Ukraine’s youngest citizens into loyal instruments of the Kremlin.
A War Against Ukraine’s Future
An estimated 1.6 million Ukrainian children are currently living under Russian occupation in regions including Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Crimea. These territories represent nearly 20% of Ukraine’s internationally recognised land, a landmass larger than Hungary or Portugal.
Within these occupied zones, Russian authorities have launched an aggressive campaign to erase Ukrainian identity, forcibly integrating children into the Russian state system. That includes abductions, forced relocations, coerced adoptions, and re-education programmes.
Children are enrolled in state-controlled schools where the curriculum has been rewritten to promote Russian propaganda, glorify the invasion, and demonise Ukraine and its Western allies.
Militarised from Childhood
Perhaps the most disturbing development is the militarisation of children. Young people, some as young as five years old, are being placed in militarised camps or enrolled in programmes like Yunarmiya, Russia’s so-called “Youth Army”.
Here, children are subjected to ideological conditioning and given basic military training. Activities include handling weapons, visiting military checkpoints, and writing letters to Russian soldiers. Some children are photographed holding firearms, while others are filmed performing patriotic songs or parading with Russian flags.
This strategy, experts say, is not simply propaganda, it is preparation for war.
Non-compliance can carry serious consequences. Parents who object to their children’s involvement have faced threats, arrest, or even the removal of their children into state custody.
A Mother’s Ordeal
The human cost of this campaign is painfully illustrated by the story of one Ukrainian mother, who spent months trying to retrieve her son after they were separated during the 2022 invasion.
When she was finally reunited with him, he had a broken arm and leg, injuries that authorities claimed were from a sporting accident. But she suspected otherwise. Her son refused to speak about what happened in the camp. She later discovered he had been beaten with a machine gun handle, placed in prolonged isolation, and suffered permanent hearing loss after a blow to the head, punishment, she believes, for defying orders and tearing down a Russian flag.
Indoctrination as Policy
The militarisation of children under Russian occupation is not an isolated phenomenon. It has been state policy since at least 2014, following Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
That year, authorities introduced a doctrine of “patriotic and moral education”, which has since been replicated across other occupied territories. Schools were transformed into ideological spaces, adorned with portraits of Russian “war heroes” and monuments to figures like Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor of the AK-47.
The goal was clear: instil loyalty to Russia, and prepare children for eventual participation in war.
Fighting Against Their Homeland
Some of the children indoctrinated under this system in the aftermath of the 2014 annexation have since been conscripted into the Russian military. Some have died in battle, fighting against the very country they were born in.
In September 2024, parents in occupied Zaporizhzhia reported receiving official letters ordering 17- and 18-year-old boys to submit documentation for military service.
Meanwhile, since 2024, Russian law has mandated that all schools establish cadet or youth army programmes from the fifth year of schooling. This means as many as 30 million children, across Russia and occupied Ukraine, are either receiving or have received basic military training.
Two Schools, Two Worlds
One child living under Russian occupation shared his story of quiet resistance. He attended Russian-controlled school during the day, while secretly studying Ukraine’s curriculum online in the evenings.
“We came back from the occupation school and sat in Ukrainian school until 9pm,” he recalled. “They already suspected we were studying at the Ukrainian school… They said, ‘we have lists’. It was really intimidating.”
He also described being bombarded with messaging about NATO, the United States, and the sanctity of Russia’s borders.
“They told us directly, ‘We will fight NATO.’ Their favourite lessons were history, about Russia’s greatness. They said: ‘Russia is everything. There is nothing else.’”
The Stakes of Ceding Territory
The Kremlin’s strategy is as clear as it is brutal: reprogram a generation, strip away their national identity, and raise them as instruments of Russian warfare.
This campaign is more than propaganda. It is state-engineered psychological warfare, targeting children and designed to ensure that even if Ukraine loses territory, it also loses its future.
As some in the West float the idea of pressuring Kyiv to cede occupied territories, the question must be asked: what are we really giving up?
Because in those territories, Ukrainian children are being taught to forget who they are, and to prepare to fight in the wars of Vladimir Putin.
