Russia using “Young Army” to indoctrinate and prepare children in Ukraine’s occupied territories for war — against their own country

RU

Journalists from Skhemy (Schemes), the investigative arm of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty’s Ukrainian Service, have gained access to a leak of exclusive documents from Russian occupation administrations. The materials were provided by the Ukrainian hacker group KibOrg.

These documents reveal how Russia’s “Yunarmiya” (lit. “Young Army”) integrates militaristic ideology into occupied areas of Ukraine through schools, summer camps, and “patriotic” events, resulting in young Ukrainians becoming part of Russia's military apparatus and, in some cases, joining the Russian army.

The investigation uncovered that some Ukrainian teenagers who joined Yunarmiya in Crimea took up arms following Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Among them is Ilya Zozulsky, now 23, who is originally from the Crimean village of Poltavka. According to Russian media, Zozulsky not only became a Russian artilleryman, but also received the Zhukov Medal in connection with his service. His journey from a Yunarmiya member to a participant in the war against Ukraine was spotlighted by a number of Russian media outlets in 2023.

“Ilya's father was a military man, and from an early age, he aspired to follow in his footsteps. Following Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, 'Yunarmiya' was introduced to the peninsula. Ilya joined the organization, eventually becoming a mentor. Today, he is one of 50 Yunarmiya mentors involved in the 'special military operation,’” a televised feature about Zozulsky stated.

Yunarmiya has operated in Crimea since 2016, and as Russia has occupied new territories in Ukraine, it has extended the reach of its military-patriotic organization to them as well. The first Russian-established “patriotic education” camps in the occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine were set up in November 2022.

In the summer of 2024 alone, the Mariupol headquarters of «Yunarmiya» hosted seven Yunarmiya sessions at the “Sincerity” children’s camp, located in the seaside village of Melekino on the Azov Sea, where children were taught to shoot automatic weapons.

In 2023, Yunarmiya ran so-called “patriotic sessions” in Crimean camps — including a “School of Future Commanders,” described as a program to “cultivate patriotism, national pride, leadership, and the ability to handle challenging situations among young people,” as outlined in Russian media by Vladimir Kovalenko, head of the Sevastopol regional branch of the All-Russian Yunarmiya movement.

Military personnel from the Black Sea Fleet and cadets from the P.S. Nakhimov Black Sea Higher Naval School were brought in as lecturers for these children’s summer camps, which were funded by the Russian occupational government in Sevastopol.

In eastern Ukraine, Yunarmiya centers were established after 2022, when Russia illegally annexed the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Prior to this, a similar organization modeled after Yunarmiya, known as the “Military-Patriotic Movement 'Young Guard — Yunarmiya,'” operated in the Russian-occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk.

In May 2019, 77 teenagers in Donetsk became the first members of the “Young Guard — Yunarmiya” and pledged allegiance to the “Donetsk People’s Republic”-based group, as reported by Radio Liberty's Donbas.Realii at the time. The event was attended by Denis Pushilin, then-head of the occupation administration of Russian-occupied Donetsk. Children from occupied Luhansk pledged allegiance to a similar organization in their region the same month.

By 2023, Yunarmiya “houses” — facilities for firearms and physical training at local schools — were set up in Donetsk and Luhansk. Leaked documents from the “DPR” obtained by Ukrainian hacker group KibOrg revealed that local schools provided these spaces for Yunarmiya activities at no cost, as they were financed directly out of Russia’s government budget. The expenses were listed as part of the “Patriotic Education of Citizens in the Russian Federation” initiative within the national “Education” project. Yunarmiya’s main headquarters in Moscow oversees the logistics and operational support for these “houses.”