It all started with a dozen children who were voluntarily enrolled by their pro-Russian parents in the first branch of the Russian “UnArmy” in Mariupol. It was the summer of 2022, the beginning of the occupation, and thus the parents of the children who wore the uniform of Putin’s personal children’s army hoped to get maximum help from the occupation authorities. There was no help, but this was the beginning of the introduction of a policy of militarization of children in the occupied territories. The starting point for the formation of a new format of re-education of Ukrainians into ideological soldiers of the Putin regime.
To be fair, in 2023 this process was hardly successful. Parents of children under occupation, hoping for a quick de-occupation, sabotaged all the sprouts of this process, and the occupation authorities themselves did not put pressure in anticipation of Ukraine’s counteroffensive. But it was prepared institutionally. The freezing of US aid and the result of this pause on the front line became the Rubicon. Hopes for a quick de-occupation collapsed, and people began to adjust and morally surrender to the occupation regime.
Now we can restore the entire chronology of the emergence, nature, distribution by social groups of children and the approach to their militarization. It is worth noting a conditional hierarchy.
The grassroots (preparatory) level. Primary school children. This is where the Eaglets organization operates. Here, children are prepared for further distribution as they grow up. From the middle school, children go to two main organizations:
- “UnArmy”. Absolutely militarized from the very beginning without any additional disguises. The pure ideology of Putinism. The Nazi Hitler Youth and the pioneer organization of Lenin/Stalin are taken as a template. Here children are taught how to handle weapons and military pseudo-history. It has a uniform and strict discipline. Most children from marginalized and socially difficult families join the “UnArmy”. The so-called “difficult teenagers”.
- “Movement of the First”. This is for promising children from “good” families. There is less of a military focus here, versus more of a political one. This is supposed to be the potential bureaucratic and political elite of authoritarian Russia.
High school finally directs both groups to the “Popular Front”, the youth organization of “United Russia”, and the “Young Guard”, a militantly active and military organization.
This is how the structure and hierarchy look in general terms. But is it possible to avoid and why do we talk about militarization? The simple short answer is no. It is impossible.
From the fall of 2024, officially, children in occupied Mariupol must be members of one of the children’s/youth organizations. They have to. In case of sabotage, parents are threatened with deprivation of parental rights. A separate official is responsible for this process in each school – the school principal’s advisor on educational issues. This person deals exclusively with ideological issues.
And what about the children themselves? It is quite logical to assume that public organization, discipline, and responsibilities should repel children and reduce the effectiveness of ideological influence. And this is true, however. The occupiers thought the same way. Therefore, all this is done not by coercion and dictation, but by encouragement and play. Endless trips to specially prepared children’s camps in Russia. War games and competitions like “Zarnitsa”. The latest invention is operational and tactical training for combat operations in the form of a game of “Laser Tag.”
All of this is accompanied by visits from the military with pseudo-explorations and fictional stories, new literature about the greatness of Russia, movies and “patriotic” games.
Recently, Russians have begun to actively use artificial intelligence to promote commercials on social networks (TikTok and VK) with one message: the Russian army is “good” – superheroes against the whole world. Can you imagine Batman killing Ukrainians? Avengers overthrowing the American “regime”? All this is visualized by AI and spread by a new ideology.
The result. Step by step, children are becoming more than just Russians. They are becoming patriots of their new homeland. They become loyal soldiers of Putin. Each of them sees himself as Captain America, who has overcome the “collective West” or Superman in the fight against “total Ukrainian Nazism”
What will happen next? How to bring our children back to the side of good? The question is absolutely open. However, one thing is clear – there is not just a lack of attention from the world to this component of genocide. So far, the world does not want to see itself as a threat, making another mistake with far-reaching consequences. It is time to fight together, if not for the souls of Ukrainian children, then for our future security.
By Petro Andryushchenko
*These opinions are solely those of the author. The Ukrainian Review takes no position and is not responsible for the author’s words.
Petro Andryushchenko was an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol. After the Russian Federation started war in Ukraine in February 2022, he became the de facto “voice” of Mariupol.
On his Telegram channel, “Andryushchenko Time“, he tells the truth about the horrors of the occupation, the deportation of people by the Russian occupants and the “filtration” camps in Donbas.
