Serve Your New Motherland

Russian authorities are using schools, summer camps, and "patriotic" events to introduce militaristic ideology to children in occupied Ukrainian territories, according to leaked documents obtained by Radio Liberty's Ukrainian service.

The documents reveal efforts by the Russian occupation administrations to integrate Ukrainian youth into the Yunarmiya (Youth Army), a militarized organization preparing them to fight as part of Russia's military forces.

One such individual is Ilya Zozulsky, a native of the Crimean village of Poltavka and a former member of the Yunarmiya. Russian media reported that Zozulsky now serves as an artilleryman in the Russian military and has been awarded the Zhukov Medal for participating in the Russian war in Ukraine. 

The Yunarmiya, established in Crimea in 2016, expanded to newly occupied territories following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In 2022, Russian patriotic education camps began operating in captured areas of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, and Donetsk regions. Before this, a similar organization, the Voenno-patrioticheskoe dvizhenie “Molodaya-Gvardiya-Yunarmiya” (Military-Patriotic Movement "Young Guard-Youth Army") had operated in the occupied Luhansk and Donetsk regions, which have been under Russian-backed separatist control since 2014. In May 2019, 77 teenagers in Donetsk were inducted into this organization pledging allegiance to the self-proclaimed DNR (Donetsk People’s Republic).

In 2023, Yunarmiya centers were established in Donetsk and Luhansk schools, providing facilities for firearms and sports training. The Mariupol headquarters of the Yunarmiya held seven training shifts at the Iskrennost (Sincerity) children’s camp in the resort village of Melekino, on the shore of the Sea of Azov, during the summer of 2024. During these shifts, children were trained to use machine guns.