Russia escalates child indoctrination in occupied Ukraine

The Kremlin is ramping up efforts to indoctrinate children in temporarily occupied areas of Ukraine, using youth camps, school programs, and trips to Russia to impose a Russian identity and dismantle Ukrainian national consciousness, Ukraine’s National Resistance Center (NRC) reports.

Moscow continues to exploit occupied territories like Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk to carry out large-scale ideological programming. In a recent example, Ukrainian children from occupied Donetsk were sent to the “Red Carnation” youth camp — a satellite of the Soviet-era Artek complex — for what was described as a “vacation.”

Instead, they were subjected to lectures by a Kremlin-affiliated organization run by Russian intelligence, where they were taught about so-called “Russian achievements,” the Soviet-style military fitness standards, the “unity of Russian regions,” and Russian folk traditions.

Reports also say that Russia is forcing Ukrainian to watch Kremlin television.

“These programs are designed to reshape children’s identities and foster loyalty to the occupying regime,” the NRC said in a statement.

The indoctrination campaign goes further. 

A group of around 100 “volunteers” from Russian youth movements — all under Kremlin control — recently arrived in the occupied territories to carry out psychological and ideological manipulation in children’s camps, the NRC said.

In another incident, children from so-called “naval cadet classes” in the occupied Kherson region were transported to St. Petersburg to mark Russia’s Navy Day. The trip, personally arranged by Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin loyalist Dmitry Medvedev, included a promise to participate in a military parade — a promise the Kremlin ultimately broke by canceling the event.

“These visits are not cultural exchanges. They are carefully crafted operations aimed at legitimizing Russia’s war and erasing Ukrainian identity,” the NRC said.

It added that using children in this manner violates multiple provisions of international humanitarian law and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

“Turning cadet classrooms into pre-war training grounds is part of Russia’s broader campaign to weaponize education against Ukraine’s future,” the center said.