“Orlyata” and “junarmy”: what organizations do the Russians force Ukrainian children to join

The Russians seek to militarize the consciousness of Ukrainian children

About ten Russian propaganda organizations operate in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, where the invaders force Ukrainian schoolchildren to join in order to militarize their consciousness.

The chairman of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, told about it: “If earlier we talked about six or seven organizations that Russians force children to join, now their number has already reached ten. “Orlyata” organization operates for children of preschool and junior school age, where they force everyone to enroll, without exception, Fedorov stressed.

According to him, in addition to “Orlyatа Rossii” (an analogue of the Soviet “Octobers”), “Dvyzhenie pershykh” (an analogue of the Soviet pioneers) operates for older students, as well as the paramilitary “Unarmy” and cadet classes, which are supervised by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the Russian Guard.

Fedorov added that FSB representatives go to schools and threaten children with massacres for “terrorism” – any resistance to the occupiers and support for Ukraine. Security forces also check whether all children have joined Russian organizations, and if not, they hold conversations with their parents, threatening to take away their parental rights.

“It becomes unbearable to sit for six months in fear, surrounded by four walls. I really missed the past, my classmates, the noise in the corridors, the shouts of teachers and the pranks of others. Before, it seemed to me that life was already very difficult, but now I understand that all those events are heaven compared to the present. I try not to give up, and there are not many choices either, but there is still hope in my heart that motivates me to move on,” writes a child who is in the territory occupied by the Russians and continues to study online at a Ukrainian school.