413 children from the temporarily occupied territories (TOT) of the Kherson region were recruited into the Russian “Yunarmiya”.
This is reported in a BBC article.
Overall, more than 1.8 million children have gone through this movement in Russia. As of May 2025, over 120,000 graduates of “Yunarmiya” were serving in the Russian army and other security forces.
The article says that this organization is now actively recruiting Ukrainian children into its ranks across all occupied territories.
“Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian authorities created the illusion of the so-called DPR/LPR’s independence. Accordingly, they did not mass-recruit children there into their largest military-patriotic movement. Instead, they allowed the creation of a local analogue — the organization ‘Young Guard — Yunarmiya’. So, until February 2022, most children joined ‘Yunarmiya’ in annexed Crimea, not in occupied Donbas,” the journalists write.
After the start of the full-scale war, “Yunarmiya” expanded its active operations across all occupied territories of Ukraine without exception.
Recall, in May 2025 Ukrainian law enforcement officers announced suspicion against the head of the “Yunarmiya” headquarters that the occupiers created on the left bank of the Kherson region, Serafim Ivanov.