Leaders of organizations that prepared children in Crimea for service in the Russian military will face trial
The Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol has filed an indictment with the court against the leaders of several organizations suspected of training children on the temporarily occupied peninsula for service in the Russian armed forces.
The case involves the leaders of the “Union of Crimean Border Guards,” the “Varyag” military-patriotic club, and the eponymous maritime training center.
According to the prosecutor’s office, these organizations were engaged in the military-patriotic education of minors and were instilling in the children the skills necessary for future service in the Russian Armed Forces. The defendants will now stand trial.
According to the investigation, under the guise of military-patriotic education, the defendants systematically prepared Ukrainian children in occupied Crimea for future service in the armed forces of the aggressor state. Schoolchildren were taught how to handle small arms, combat tactics, and military field, rescue, and light diving training. Shooting exercises, tactical drills, and military games were conducted for the children, and members of the so-called “SVO” were involved in the activities.
In addition, the organizers encouraged children to join the Russian army through propaganda media and participated in such events themselves.
The investigation documented at least four cases in which graduates of the “Varyag” club, upon reaching the age of majority, joined the Russian army or began working in the occupying law enforcement agencies.
Investigators also established that in 2023, the defendants received nearly 4.5 million rubles in so-called presidential grants to fund these activities, as well as a plot of land in Simferopol, where they set up a training complex for basic military training.
Source: Office of the Prosecutor General
Recently, six more children were successfully returned to territory controlled by Ukraine from the temporarily occupied part of the Kherson region. Among them are girls and boys aged 6 to 17.
