The campaign to force Ukrainian children to love Russia

His education for Russia’s love begins early for children in the occupied areas in eastern Ukraine.

At a nursery in Luhansk, more than 70 young men carry a long black and orange military banner in the form of a message Z, a symbol of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Throughout the city, seven young girls jump up and down in front of the Russian flag of a loud song “I am Russian” that comes out of the amplifiers. When music stops, they scream together: “I am Russian.”

In an occupied town called Anthraset, school children made custody and blankets for Russian soldiers.

It is part of a campaign that does not only seek to erase the national identity of Ukraine, but also turns Ukrainian youth against their country.

To do this with children, you need teachers, and as many Ukrainian teachers have escaped, the government in Moscow began to provide pieces of 2 million rubles (18500 pounds) to the Russian teaching staff ready to move to occupied parts of Ukraine.

The largest and most powerful Russian organization involved with children is Yunarmia (Youth Army).

It is affiliated with the Russian Ministry of Defense, and it accepts members at the age of eight. It works throughout Russia, and now has branches in the occupied areas in Ukraine.

“We provide children with some basic skills that they will find useful if they decide to join the military service,” says Fidail Bikbulatov, who runs the Yunarmia section in the occupied areas in the Zaporizhhia area in southeast Ukraine.

Bikbulatov was deployed from Russian Bashkourostan, where he headed the “Youth Guard” section of the ruling Russia party.

The European Union, Yunarmia, and Bikbulatov personally, imposed for “the militarization of Ukrainian children”. Yunarmia also targets sanctions in the UK for being part of Russia’s campaign for children of the Ukrainian “brainwashing”.

Yunarmia is not alone. Among the other Russian organizations sponsored by the country that moved in the “Awal Movement” and “Warriore” movement, a network of “military and sports training, and national youth education” that were placed on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

These groups are organizing competitions such as the royal zarnitsa games in the Soviet era, where Ukrainian children must show “public military literacy, the knowledge of the Russian state, military history, and firearms launch skills.”

As children progress through the education system, they are taught in Russian, using Russian curricula and textbooks that justify Russia’s war against Ukraine.

One of these books depicts Ukraine more than just a Western invention that was created despite Russia, and argues that human civilization would have ended if Russia did not invade Ukraine in 2022.

Lisa, who joined a school in the occupied Donetsk, says students had to participate in the events that celebrate Russia and the Soviet Union.

“When they were preparing an offer of a kind, every year was forced to come every year every year weekend and training. We had to hold the stickers. I couldn’t say no, I was not my choice. I was told that I had to do it to graduate,” says Lisa.

“Every time the lessons begin, our teacher made us stand and put our hand on our hearts and listen to the Russian anthem, which made us learn by heart too.”

Lisa now lives in the United States and was publishing about her experiences on Tikhak.

Russian soldiers’ service also plays a role in the indoctrination campaign, and to visit schools to present the so -called “courage lessons”. They glorify their exploits in the war and depict the Ukrainian forces as new Nazis.

“These lessons are” so that children understand the goals of “what the Kremlin calls” the special military operation “in Ukraine, said Pavel Tropkin, a US -ruling party official in the occupied part of the Jeresson region.

Outside of the school, Ukrainian children are taken to see an organized exhibitions specifically glorifying Russia and the “special military operation”.

One of the two centers to meet these trips hosts exhibitions called “Russia – Historic” and “Heroes of Special Military Operations” in Meltopol in the Zaburisia region.

The trips do not stop there.

Kremlin has also launched a major campaign to take Ukrainian children in rounds in Russia as part of the efforts made to instill the feelings loyal to Russia.

Russian Minister of Culture Olga Lubimova claims that more than 20,000 children from the occupied Ukrainian lands have been transferred to Russia under one program alone, called “4+85”. According to the Russian government’s concerts agency, Rosconcert, which runs the program, it seeks to “integrate the new generation into a unified Russian society.”

However, the Russian “integration” campaign exceeds the indoctrination.

Thousands of Ukrainian children who moved to Russia were not allowed during the three years of a comprehensive invasion to return.

According to the Ukrainian government, more than 19,000 Ukrainian children were forcibly deported to Russia. The UK government estimates that about 6000 Ukrainian children have been transferred to a network of “re -education camps” in Russia.

International humanitarian law prohibits activities like this. For example, the Fourth Geneva Convention says that the occupied force may not recruit children “in formations or organizations affiliated with it” and that it may apply “any pressure or advertising aimed at securing volunteer recruitment” for the local population in the occupied areas of its armed or porous forces.

In 2023, The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for President PutinPartially for illegal deportation for children. Putin and his government deny the charges.

Watching its war on Ukraine, Russia is not only after the lands. He is also trying to place its character on the people who live there, regardless of their young.