Russia 'forcing kidnapped Ukrainian children to fight against own country'

Russia has been accused of kidnapping Ukrainian children and forcing them to fight against their own country. When children turn 18, they are reportedly being conscripted and sent to the front lines on the orders of Vladimir Putin himself, Ukrainian officials told The Times. They said the alleged sick scheme is a solution to Russia's military personnel issues, as one million troops have already been killed in the three-year war.

It also presents a twisted new method of psychological warfare unleashed by Russia against the Ukrainian people. Andriy Yermak, Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff, alleged to The Times' The General and The Journalist podcast that he has proof in the form of conscription documents. He also claimed bodies of teenagers are being found on the front lines.

He said: "Putin's goal is he doesn't want Ukraine to exist. The Russians want to destroy the new generation of the Ukrainians, and they are building new soldiers against the country where they were born. It is terrible.

"It is a very serious signal for all the world because it confirms that today the Russian regime is a terroristic regime."

It is not known how many young people have met this fate, though an estimated 35,000 Ukrainian children have been taken from the country's eastern occupied territories since 2014.

The issue started with children being abducted from orphanages in the Donbas and Crimea regions, before it escalated and saw young people taken directly from their parents.

Some children are fostered or adopted by Russian families, but a shocking 95% are sent to so-called re-education camps, according to Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab.

They are then sent to military training depots when they reach their late teens. The Humanitarian Research Lab found 116 different locations where children are being held, most of them in Russia and some on its Pacific coast.

The FSB, Russia's state security service, oversees this disgusting practice, despite it being a violation of the Geneva Convention.

These violations prompted an arrest warrant issued for Putin for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in 2023.