If Russia’s frightening militarization of childhood at home is aimed at getting young people to love and want to ‘defend’ their country, in occupied Crimea, Russia also wants children to hate Ukraine

Russian-installed ‘leaders’ of the self-proclaimed ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ [‘DPR’] have begun trumpeting a new ‘Russian Donbas doctrine’ pushing the idea that Donbas was created by Russians and has always been Russian

Almost seven years after Russian soldiers seized control of Crimea and the world had to resurrect the term annexation, last used about Adolf Hitler, in response, Crimean children are learning quite a different version of history.

Air pistols; automatic rifles; sniper and air rifles have been purchased for the Artek children’s camp in occupied Crimea, with this Russia’s latest criminal use of weapons to attract Crimean children to the occupiers’ army and to inculcate a war-focused notion of ‘patriotism’

26-year-old Alim cannot return to his family in Russian-occupied Crimea because he is unwilling to do military service and swear allegiance to the aggressor state

Ukraine’s Ministry of Education is refusing to set aside funding for critical preparatory courses and information work, aimed at ensuring that young Ukrainians from occupied Crimea and Donbas can study in government-controlled Ukraine

Russia’s State Duma has adopted a bill which will make inculcation of ‘Russian patriotism’ and ‘civic consciousness’ part of the school curriculum in both Russia and occupied Crimea

Russian has been declared the only ‘state language’ in the self-proclaimed ‘Luhansk people’s republic’ which Moscow controls but has never recognized

Through systematic militarization and indoctrination, children at preschool and school level are being taught that they should love and defend Russian proxy Donbas ‘republics’ and that Ukraine is essentially the enemy

Even physical exercise is on a war footing in Russian-occupied Crimea, with children training to be ‘young soldiers’ like their grandfathers or grandfathers and mass efforts at indoctrination

Since 2016, the Russian occupation regime has spent over 100 million roubles on efforts to turn children into so-called “new citizens” and “patriots of Crimea”

The self-proclaimed and Russian-controlled ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ has announced that Ukrainian will no longer be a ‘state language’ in the pseudo republic, and has claimed that this status will be held by Russian alone

Russia is glorifying war and teaching children how to kill in occupied Crimea, and no lessons at all have been drawn from the mass killing in Kerch on 17 October 2018, in which 20 students and teachers were gunned down

A week after the anniversary of the first ever mass shooting of students in occupied Crimea that left 21 people dead, Russia has recruited 1500 children and young people from Sevastopol to its ‘youth army’ or Yunarmia

Although Russia repeatedly claims that Russian speakers were under threat in Crimea and Donbas, it is the Ukrainian language that has come under attack as soon as Russia took actual or effective control, as well as Ukrainian history and culture

There is no information as to what amendments the President has sent back for parliament’s consideration, but any review of a fatally flawed bill adopted at high speed for election campaign purposes is already welcome.

A new Russian textbook in verse for children claims that Ukraine “has stirred up war and vengeance” and that people have been prohibited from speaking Russian

Human rights groups have called on President Zelensky to veto a disastrously ill-considered bill introducing chemical castration for sex offenders which they, and specialists in this area see as a cheap populist move aimed at winning votes in the coming parliamentary elections

Less than a quarter of Russians believe that military parades and processions are an appropriate way to mark Victory Day, yet thousands of children, even of pre-school age, have been decked out in military uniforms and sent onto the streets for elaborate 9 May events

The self-proclaimed ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ has announced the formation of a militarized ‘army’ for children and young people - essentially a copy of the Russian ‘Yunarmia’ or ‘Youth Army’ which is being used to militarize childhood in both Russia and occupied Crimea