Over 5,500 Ukrainian children in occupied territories recruited into ‘Youth Army’

More than 5,500 Ukrainian children in Russian-occupied territories have been illegally recruited into Russia’s militarized youth youth group Yunarmiya (Youth Army), Ukraine’s National Resistance Center (NRC) reports.

“Cells are active in 17 communities, where children are taught not to think for themselves, but to obey orders and prepare for war,” the NRC said.

A recent so-called cooperation agreement between Russian occupation authorities  and Yunarmiya in the Donetsk region further entrenches this system of forced militarization and ideological control.

“The author of this agreement is another ‘hero of Russia,’ a participant in imperial bloodshed,” the report said.

While this process is perversely framed as “patriotic education” and “civic responsibility,” it is, in fact, a calculated campaign to indoctrinate and militarize Ukrainian children, violating their rights and weaponizing their identities against their own country, the NRC said.

“Yunarmiya isn’t about cultivating leaders, but about creating cannon fodder for the empire,” the NRC said.

This year, Yunarmiya will receive record funding. Established in 2016 by Russia’s Ministry of Defense, Yunarmiya promotes so-called “patriotic education,” weapons training, and ideological loyalty to the Kremlin. But in occupied Ukrainian territories, it takes on a more sinister role: recruiting and indoctrinating Ukrainian children to serve the Russian regime — even against their own nation.

Children as young as eight are drawn into the organization, often through coercive or “voluntary-compulsory” methods.