Prosecutor General's Office issues a notice of suspicion on Yunarmiya movement for militarization of Ukrainian children
The Prosecutor General's Office served a note of suspicion on the curators of the All-Russian Children's and Youth Military-Patriotic Movement "Yunarmiya" for the militarization of Ukrainian children in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
This was reported by the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office, Ukrinform reports.
“Juvenile prosecutors of the Office of the Prosecutor General served a note of suspicion on eight Ukrainian citizens who, as part of an organized group, ensured the functioning of this system in the temporarily occupied territory,” the statement said.
As noted, for six years, Ukrainian children in the temporarily occupied territory of the Donetsk region were systematically prepared for war. Through propaganda, pseudo-patriotic events, and promises of “social benefits” and career prospects in the Russian Armed Forces, they were deliberately drawn into the military system of the aggressor state.
From 2019 to 2025, about 6,000 Ukrainian children aged 6 to 18 were recruited into the Yunarmiya movement. There have been cases where, after reaching the age of majority, children who had undergone such training joined the Russian Armed Forces and took part in hostilities against Ukraine.
In 2016, on the initiative of the then Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, the All-Russian Children's and Youth Military-Patriotic Movement "Yunarmiya" was created, whose activities were later extended to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, in particular Crimea, as well as the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions.
Under the guise of “patriotic education,” minors were recruited for military training and indoctrinated with loyalty to the aggressor state. Children were taught how to handle weapons, conducted tactical exercises, participated in military marches, and took oaths of allegiance to the Russian Federation. At the same time, active propaganda was conducted promoting service in the Russian army, which was presented as a socially beneficial and promising path.
According to the Strategy for the Development of Patriotic Education in the Russian Federation, at least 10 percent of recruits to the Russian Armed Forces must be drawn from the Yunarmiya movement each year. This confirms that the movement was used as a tool for training a mobilization reserve.
Between 2019 and 2025, eight leaders of the Yunarmiya territorial headquarters of the so-called “Donetsk People's Republic” coordinated the movement's activities in the temporarily occupied territory of the Donetsk region, ensuring the mass involvement of Ukrainian children in military-patriotic events and propaganda for service in the Russian Armed Forces.
In addition, it has been established that on March 15, 2022, the Russian Defense Minister issued Order No. 132, which authorized the involvement of members of the Yunarmiya movement in combat operations on the territory of Ukraine to replenish losses of the Russian army.
The OGP noted that the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, in its report of March 1, 2024, emphasized the need to end the policy of politicization and militarization of children in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
As emphasized by Yanina Tertychna, head of the Department for the Protection of Children's Interests and Countering Domestic Violence of the Prosecutor General's Office, the militarization of children is part of Russia's deliberate policy to eradicate Ukrainian identity. Therefore, those involved in militarization through propaganda promoting service in the army of the occupying state will be held criminally liable.
As reported by Ukrinform, the National Police of Ukraine exposed the leaders of a Russian Yunarmiya branch in the Donetsk region, where Russian forces are training Ukrainian children for military service.
Photo: Center of National Resistance of Ukraine