July 9, 2026
Crimes Against Humanity: How Russia Imposes Combat Training and Propaganda on Ukrainian Children
The OSCE Moscow Mechanism Expert Mission has published a report establishing that Russia is deliberately building a system that indoctrinates, militarizes and ultimately conscripts Ukrainian children into the armed forces occupying their own country.
The report establishes that Russia is conducting a state-sanctioned system of indoctrination and forced conscription targeting Ukrainian children, rather than a series of isolated incidents.
The system affects more than 20,610 deported children and countless others under occupation: propaganda from the age of six, mandatory combat training from the age of 13, and conscription into Russia’s occupying forces at 18.
Independent experts conclude that these actions constitute systematic violations of international humanitarian law and likely war crimes.
A report prepared under the Moscow Mechanism of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has formally documented that Russia is pursuing a state-sanctioned policy of indoctrination and forced conscription targeting Ukrainian children, independently assessed as a likely crime against humanity.
This is the first document to describe Russia’s policy of militarizing and indoctrinating Ukrainian children as a systemic practice rather than a series of isolated incidents.
The Moscow Mechanism is a rarely used emergency investigative tool designed to address serious human rights and humanitarian crises. It has been invoked only a handful of times in its history. This investigation was initiated after 41 countries formally invoked the mechanism, underscoring the seriousness with which the international community views this evidence.
The report establishes that Russia has built a pipeline that begins with deportation or occupation, continues through years of mandatory propaganda and weapons training in schools, and culminates in Ukrainian boys receiving pre-conscription training notices at 16 and being conscripted at 18 into the very forces occupying their homeland, sending them to fight — and potentially die — against their own country.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha stated:
“The OSCE Moscow Mechanism Expert Mission report documents for the first time at the international level that Russia’s actions against Ukrainian children are not isolated crimes or accidental violations, but a deliberate state policy. Militarization, indoctrination, forced assimilation and deportation all serve a single purpose: to destroy the identity of an entire generation of Ukrainians. This is a crime against humanity. The fate of Ukrainian children must be an integral part of any peace negotiations, and everyone involved in these crimes must be held accountable.”
Bring Kids Back UA, President Zelenskyy’s initiative working to return forcibly deported Ukrainian children, welcomes the report as further independent evidence of Russia’s alleged war crimes against Ukrainian children.
The report identifies two groups of children caught in this system: more than 20,610 children forcibly deported to Russia, and an unknown but significant number of children under institutional control in the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia.
Today, Russia largely no longer needs to physically remove children as it did in the past — it has built the indoctrination system directly in the occupied territories. Fewer deportations do not mean fewer victims: more than one million children living under occupation remain subject to this system. The slowdown does not dismantle the problem — it simply makes the crimes easier to carry out.
The system is sustained by fear and coercion. Parents who refuse Russian schooling for their children risk losing parental rights; teachers who refuse to teach the Russian curriculum are dismissed, searched and detained; and children face persecution even for pro-Ukrainian social media posts. Russian citizenship has been made compulsory: without it, families lose access to education, healthcare, banking services and freedom of movement. The report describes this as a system of forced registration that directly feeds into future conscription.
Yurii Vitrenko, Ukraine’s Permanent Representative to the International Organizations in Vienna, emphasized:
“This report leaves no room for ambiguity. Our responsibility now is to ensure that its findings lead to concrete action. For children who are still living under occupation, these violations continue to this day. Our response must be equally urgent.”
The report outlines how this pipeline operates. Indoctrination begins at the age of six, when children are exposed to pro-war propaganda every day. Between the ages of 13 and 18, the standard curriculum legally requires them to undergo combat training, including weapons handling, tactical medicine and drone operation.
This is an intentional, state-directed system — not an incidental effect of propaganda, but a legally established mechanism designed to erase Ukrainian national identity and produce conscripts ready for combat.
The pipeline culminates in forced military service: boys receive pre-conscription training notices at 16 and are conscripted at 18 into Russian forces occupying their homeland, placing them in direct combat against their own country.
Bring Kids Back UA Head Maksym Maksymov noted:
“For years, Russia has been turning Ukrainian children under occupation into soldiers: teaching them to handle weapons and operate combat drones in classrooms, and issuing them conscription notices from the age of 16. The OSCE mission has shown for the first time that this is not a series of isolated crimes, but a single system deliberately built by the state. We are talking about an entire generation of children being prepared for war. And this is not a threat to Ukraine alone: a country that industrially produces children for aggression will sooner or later turn them against everyone. The world must stop this system now, not when these children grow up.”
Despite Russia’s refusal to cooperate with the investigation, independent experts reached an unequivocal conclusion: indoctrination and militarization constitute a crime against humanity in the form of persecution of Ukrainian children on national grounds, while deportation and forcible transfer constitute a crime against humanity. The mission also documents likely war crimes, including torture and inhuman treatment.