Russia sends abducted Ukrainian teens into combat amid troop shortage: report

By Global Watch | 2025-07-30

Russia is forcing Ukrainian children it abducted to fight against their own country when they turn 18 to help gird against a deepening troop shortage while engaging in psychological warfare against the Ukrainian people, according to a report by The Times of London news site.

An estimated 35,000 children have been taken from Ukraine's occupied eastern territories since 2014, often at gunpoint, the report published on July 24 said, citing Ukrainian officials. The officials allege that many of these children are now being conscripted into the Russian military and sent to the front lines, potentially to fight against friends or even family members.

Though the exact number is unknown, some estimates suggest thousands may have been drafted, reported The Times. Ukraine has obtained hard evidence of the practice, including conscription documents, Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in a Times podcast.

Ukrainian forces are finding the bodies of teenagers on the battlefield, Yermak confirmed.

'It is terrible'

"We have found facts about this, yes," he told the podcast. "It is a very serious signal for all the world because it confirms that today the Russian regime is a terroristic regime."

Ukrainian officials say the policy serves two purposes: to ease Russia's growing military manpower crisis -- after what Kyiv claims are about 1 million casualties -- and to traumatize Ukrainians by forcing their own abducted children to fight against them.

"The Russians want to destroy the new generation of the Ukrainians," one official told The Times. "And they are building new soldiers against the country where they were born. It is terrible."

Russia began abducting Ukrainian children after its 2014 annexation of Crimea and invasion of Donbas, initially targeting orphanages, The Times said. The operation expanded dramatically following the full-scale invasion in 2022. While some children are placed with Russian families, independent researchers estimate that 95% are sent to "re-education" camps, the report said.

From there, the Russians transfer many of the young Ukrainians to military training facilities when they reach their late teens, The Times said, adding that Ukrainian officials claim the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) oversees the program. FSB involvement underscores the importance of Ukrainian youth abduction to the Kremlin.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) cited the kidnappings in issuing arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, his commissioner for children's rights.

Abducted at gunpoint

The Times interviewed Vlad Rudenko, a 19-year-old who was abducted from Kherson in 2022 at age 16. Russian soldiers took him at gunpoint while he was hiding in his mother's apartment, said Rudenko. The Russians detained him in a re-education camp in Crimea for 18 months before transferring him to a naval academy where he underwent military training.

His mother rescued him from the academy in 2024.

"We were made to sing the Russian anthem every morning," Rudenko told The Times. "Then physical training -- jumps, squats, running, crawling -- and we also learned how to shoot. The 16 and 17 year-olds were given dummy rifles and the older ones used live ammunition."

"The more it went on, the more worried I got that we were going to be sent to fight," he said. "The Russians didn't manage to take anything from me though, they just deprived me of my childhood. I am lucky, because there are Ukrainians now who are fighting against their own people."