A recent video feature on the Russian occupation Vesti Donetsk shows young children from occupied Mariupol dressed like Soviet soldiers and heard thanking their supposed ‘defenders’. The lies are monstrous, and worryingly effective, especially with younger children who probably remember nothing of life before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and occupation of Mariupol and can easily be brainwashed. In speaking to the camera, almost all the children repeat that their parents or they themselves would have been killed had it not (supposedly) been for Russian soldiers, with one lad even claiming that people were burned alive. The country that bombed hospitals, schools and the Drama Theatre in which over a thousand civilians, most of them women and children, were seeking shelter from the Russians, is now telling children that they ‘saved them’ from the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Russia began intensive indoctrination methods on all occupied territory back in 2014. Since 2022, the measures have become more aggressive; the measures against those who speak the truth and try to resist Russian propaganda even more ferocious. Like in Soviet times, even those parents who reject the Russian propaganda will know to be very careful in what they say to their children, especially since the current regime in Russia has actively encouraged Soviet-style denunciations both on occupied territory and in Russia itself.
Russia is, moreover, starting with the youngest of children. in February 2025, children in both schools and kindergartens (nursery schools) were made to write ‘thank you letters’ to Russian military and to gather parcels for them. Russian soldiers even turned up at Mariupol kindergarten No. 156. On all occupied territory, efforts are made to ‘Russify’ Ukrainian children and to militarize them, making them believe that they must “defend” the invader and their armed forces on Ukrainian territory.
The situation is likely to get even worse from September 2026. As reported, back in February 2024, Russian leader Vladimir Putin supported the introduction of a version of the weekly propaganda ‘conversations about important things’ in kindergartens. These so-called ‘Kind games’ are to be implemented from September 2026, with very small children likely to be subjected to intensive pro-war, anti-Ukraine indoctrination and to be ‘enlisted’ to help Russian military, in particular by learning how to control drones.
On all occupied territory, Ukrainian children have it drummed into them that they should, supposedly, love and ‘defend’ Russia and occupied ‘republics’ and that Ukraine is the enemy. The danger of such ideological indoctrination cannot be overstated, especially since any correction of the lies told could get a child at very least, suspended from school, or their parents sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.
