Moscow continues its policy of militarization of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. Children and teenagers receive special attention from the invaders. So, to strengthen propaganda and «patriotic education» in the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhya region open so-called «cadet classes». Supervisor of schoolchildren will be Rosgvardia - a paramilitary structure in the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, National Resistance Center of Ukraine reported.
Crimean Model
Back in November 2022, the head of the Almenda Center for Civic Education Valentina Potapova said that In the occupied territories of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, Russian invaders introduced the "Crimean" model of militarization of children.
"In the occupied territories of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, the invaders, as under tracing paper, are building a Crimean model of militarization. We see the same thing that happened in Crimea: the destruction of textbooks, the ban on teaching the history of Ukraine and the Ukrainian language, the establishment of military cadet classes. So, on October 12, the first detachment of the Yunarmiya was opened in the Zaporizhzhia region, "Potapova noted.
"We are concerned about the militarization of children on the peninsula... We see the opening of new cadet classes, the opening of units of the Yunarmiya. Citizens turned to us who said that the occupation authorities put pressure on parents and forced them to give their children to cadet classes," said Iryna Verigina, representative of the Commissioner for the Observance of the Rights of Residents of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
Yunarmiya in Yalta, Crimea, RFE/RL
She said that the occupation authorities also provide benefits to children who graduated from cadet classes when entering universities.
At the same time, Verigina stressed that this situation is typical for the territory of the temporarily occupied Crimea, it differs from what is happening on Russian territory. "There is no such militarization in the Russian Federation, which is precisely on the territory of the temporarily occupied Crimea," she said.
On December 19, 2022 the so-called “State Council of Crimea” adopted a “Regional law on patriotic education” in order to «form patriotic values among citizens, develop their high social activity, civic responsibility, ability to express themselves in strengthening and protecting the state, ensuring its vital interests and sustainable development”.
Russian-appointed so-called “Governor” of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvzhayev said that “participants of the special military operation can be involved in patriotic classes with young people in schools and universities, because young people trust them”.
In 2021, about 4,000 children from Crimea were enrolled in the ranks of the Russian paramilitary organization Yunarmiya. This was reported in the press service of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. In the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol these actions qualify as war crime, violation of the laws and customs of war.
According to Russia’s official data, Russians organized in the Crimea and Sevastopol 874 units of Yunarmiya, which enrolled about 29 thousand children. Since 2019, similar detachments have been created in temporary occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, until the end of 2024, the Russian military planned to enroll one in ten schoolchildren into the ranks of Yunarmiya. Among the objectives of this movement: «to raise a generation capability of defending the fatherland with weapons”.
Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Tamila Tasheva emphasizes that “patriotic education”, which is promoted by Russia in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, “s a way to justify the unprovoked aggression of Russia against Ukraine to the most vulnerable to psychological influence part of the population”.
“Our children are not being prepared for scientific discoveries and educational achievements in the future. They are being 'educated' as soldiers, promoting the poisonous narrative that Europe and their home state of Ukraine are enemies that must be fought with weapons in their hands. Russia promotes the cult of war and violence to children as something normal, and also imposes a tolerant attitude towards the crimes of the Soviet regime,” Tasheva notes.
Yunarmia — Putin’s young army
At the heart of the militarization of Ukrainian children is an organization called Yunarmia. It was created on the initiative of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in January 2016. According to public data, it was assumed that the structure of the movement would be tied to the locations of military units, military educational institutions, the infrastructure of the Voluntary Society for Assistance to the Army, Aviation and Navy (DOSAAF) and the Central Sports Club of the Army. From the Ministry of Defense of Russia, the movement is supervised by State Secretary - Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia Nikolai Pankov. Since 2018, this work has been headed by the Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation - Head of the Main Military and Political Directorate, Colonel General Andrei Kartapolov.
According to Russian propagandists, the number of Yunarmiya in 2021 crossed the mark of 1 million children. It is noteworthy that the target age for recruitment to the Yunarmiya units is from 8 to 18 years old.
Yunarmiya marching in Moscow during a military parade on May 9, 2017
While Russia created Yunarmiya units in Crimea almost from the very beginning of its activities, from about 2019, the Yunarmiya and organizations mimicking it began recruiting children in Donetsk and Luhansk.
On May 8, 2019, in occupied Donetsk, 77 teenagers swore allegiance to the terrorist group "DPR". Similar to the Russian military-patriotic organization Yunarmiya, the Young Guard - Yunarmiya was created in the non-controlled part of Donetsk Region.
Similar organizations were established in Luhansk. On the eve of the invasion, as of December 2021, the terrorists' stated number of units composed of children was 5,500 in the occupied areas of Donetsk region, and another 5,000 children in Luhansk region.
Following the territories occupied in 2014-2015, Yunarmiya units began to appear at a rapid pace in the territories occupied after February 24, 2022. The adviser to the mayor of Mariupol Petro Andryushchenko said in Telegram, that on June 22, the first nine teenagers were enrolled into the Yunarmiya.
According to the mayor of Melitopol, in order to promote their criminal propaganda, the Russians created 159 primary cells of the "Movement of the First" in the occupied settlements of Ukraine, where they dragged almost three thousand Ukrainian children.
Kherson Region has become the last of Ukraine's territories temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation, where Russians decided to actively influence the minds of children and teenagers by creating a subdivision of the Yunarmiya.
The trench after school
Although the Yunarmiya itself does not intend to recruit children for war, its function is directly related to the preparation of children for combat actions. It is obvious that a child who has passed the Yunarmiya, at the age of 18, can become a full-fledged military, as he was taught many skills. So children in the Yunarmiya, regardless of age, learn to march, collect and dismantle the machine gun, and provide medical assistance on the battlefield.
Regular units of the Russian Army as well as its training centers take part in the “education” of children. For example, as it became known, Donetsk members of the Yunarmiya were trained at a military camp in Pskov, Russia. The training took place at the base of one of the Russian Airborne Forces (VDV) regiments.
A group of children from Donetsk, Mariupol and other cities spent ten days studying everything that is related to service in the paratroopers. Children learned such skills, as how to fold a parachute.
Yunarmiya's camp near Mariupol
On 16 April 2022, the Ukrainian parliamentary commissioner for human rights, Lyudmyla Denysova, said that the occupation troops of Russian proxy formations in Donetsk and Luhansk regions were carrying out “mobilization” of people who participated in so-called patriotic clubs.
Yunarmiyan
Along with this, there was information about the first killed member of the Yunamriya movement, who was born in Donetsk. Ivan Shyfman, born on September 22, 2001, died at the frontline on April 14, 2022. That is, at the time of the occupation of Donetsk he was only 13 years old. In the photo in social networks, where his death was reported, he is standing in a typical Yunarmiya uniform of sand color with a red beret on his head.
Ivan Shyfman, photo from social networks
Besides the so-called patriotic clubs, Russia is trying to integrate military training directly into its education system. According to British Defense Intelligence, Russians intend to teach all schoolchildren to fly combat drones.
Russian Senator Artem Sheikin said the classes will teach terrain reconnaissance and how to counter enemy unmanned aerial vehicles. The UAV lessons will be combined with training in shooting an automatic rifle, using a hand grenade and first aid in combat under the revised "Basics of Life Safety" program for students in 10 and 11 classes, which is to be compulsory from September 1, 2023, British intelligence noted.
It is worth noting that all such actions by Russia are gross violations of human rights. The propaganda of the enlistment of residents of the occupied territories, in particular children, grossly violates the laws and customs of war provided for by the 1949 Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict.
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