Inside Russia’s ‘Youth Armies’

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0:54Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.

1:15This is The Fifth Floor, at the heart of global storytelling with BBC journalists from all around the world. I'm your host, Farnak Amidi.

1:32The Unarmia, or Youth Army, is a movement that was founded in January 2016 by the Russian government. In total, more than 1.8 million children in Russia have joined the movement. As of May 2025, more than 120 ,000 Youth Army graduates served in the Russian Army and other security forces. The Youth Army is also actively recruiting Ukrainian children in occupied regions of the country. This began in parts of Ukraine even before Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022 in places like Crimea and Donbass. The children are taught to sing the Russian national anthem, kiss the Russian flag, dig trenches, and even handle guns.

2:20Zhanna Bespyatruk of BBC Ukrainian, has been looking into how these youth armies operate in occupied regions of Ukraine. In Ukraine, we heard about this youth army for a few years already. Some news popped up that Russia tries to militarize the Ukrainian children in the occupation on the one hand. But on the other hand, we as journalists understood that we know very little about how actually it's happening And what we understood quite fast, that this militarization embraces tens of thousands of the Ukrainian children. And one of the main ideas is to teach them that Ukraine is their enemy and actually to educate them as Russians, although these are Ukrainian children.

3:15And these youth armies themselves, how do they describe themselves? What do they claim their point and their goal is? So we have to distinguish their goals that they set for all children, both in Russia and in the occupied territories. And this goal is, as they say, to educate and to raise them as the patriots of Russia, as the real citizens of their country. That's a very vague idea. But the overall goal is to train these children well enough so that by the age of 18, when they turn this age, when they can be conscripted to the Russian army, when they can already sign the military contract with the Russian army, they will be well-prepared professional soldiers.

4:05And it's open. So Russia doesn't try to pretend that they are not doing that. They show the military drills for children where they, for example, dig out trenches or they storm the enemy. Of course, that's a game that's kind of play. But still behind this, there is the real professional military education. And in the occupied territories of Ukraine, they have some additional goals because they have to, in fact, persuade the local children that Russia came forever to their villages and towns in the occupation, that Russia is their only possible future. They tried to betray Ukraine, which is their real motherland, and the country where they've been born, where their parents have been born, whose citizenship they have.

4:58So they tried to persuade that Ukraine is their enemy, that Ukraine is a bad country, that Ukraine is full of, as they say it literally in their propaganda, neo-Nazi and fascists. And of course, you have no future in such a country, and your future is Russia, and your future is the Russian army. That's one of the main messages. All this propaganda, this machine of propaganda and military trainings, it tries to convince them that to die for Russia, That's the big owner. So can you just give us some examples, a list of some of the activities these children are involved in in these youth armies? So some of the activities include basic things.

5:46For example, drills arranged for children in different ways. They, of course, understanding that they deal with children, they set up games. They call them patriotic military games, for example, etc. They all have to learn how to march with the Russian flag flying over their heads. And the essential part of it is to kiss the Russian flag. And the child we've spoken to for this story that lived for over three years in the occupation, he said it's literally, I didn't want to kiss the Russian flag. For him, it was something very emotional and very intimate. So if you do this, if you kiss this flag, then that's already a betrayal of your country.

6:32So children, they sometimes see it very in a simple way. But on the other hand, they don't identify the most, you know, the most symbolic things. If you kiss a flag of the foreign country, which is actually an invading force, which wages a war against your country, against your motherland, then you are doing a very bad thing. This is one example. You can see very clearly that Russia tries to teach, to train, educate these young people, these children, in a way that by the age of 18, they are already professional soldiers, actually. And it means that they learn the hard warfare things, for example, how to operate motors or drones.

7:18They also learn, for example, how to jump with the military parachutes. And what we saw that many activities were either arranged by or were arranged in a way to involve the professional Russian military servicemen. They trained these children or they just met with them and spoke with them about the service in the Russian army and what advantages, privileges and opportunities this military service gives to them and can give to these children in the future. They also met officers from the local conscription committees. And these conscription committees, they collect the personal data of the Ukrainian children.

8:04There is lots of different kinds of activities which have to teach these children first to see war in general as a very normal thing. Jana, who joins these youth armies? So the children from the age of just eight until 17 can join this organization. It doesn't look like they are forced to join this organization. They're given the choice because the child that I've talked to, he's 12-year-old, and I've talked also to his mother. They consented to give an interview to the BBC. he told me that he was proposed to join the US Army, but he didn't want, his mother didn't want, and they said no. So what he explained to us, that these children that joined the US Army, they had, for example, some extra rights or privileges.

9:04They were provided with better meals at school. So with soup, with confectionery, with additional tasty things, three-time meals per day. They had good breakfast, good lunch, and also later lunch. While the other children, they had just lunch, just tea and a slice of bread. So they saw the difference. The other These army members were allowed to skip lessons if they wanted or if they had to attend some military trainings. And they still received high marks. Even if they didn't pass the test, they didn't submit all homework, etc. They were graded. They were marked by their teachers higher than the rest of the children.

9:58That makes it understandable. These are quite attractive things for children, especially in that age. and where they are, because I can imagine that life under occupation must be very difficult as well. Yes, some families simply survive. They can't afford to send their children, for example, to summer camps somewhere at the seaside. These territories, they are isolated and have very, very slim chances for any growth or development, if at all they have them. Shana, you mentioned that one of the activities that they do is like going on trips. Where do they take them? They take them quite often to the Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.

10:48They also take them quite often to their military training centers and camps in Russia. During the summer holidays in 2025, there were many such trips. and there again at these centers and camps in Russia, the obligatory part of their programs is military education and different military drills. Some of them look very professional. Some of them look even, you know, scary for adults when they observe or see videos of grenades being thrown out, a scenario of battle where children have to play their roles. And these roles are very different. Snipers, for example, or infantry soldiers, or cap hunters, or drone operators.

11:44I'm an adult, but I can say that when I watched some videos of these trainings in Russia, I was scared. So, Jeanne, do we know of any instances of these children who joined the youth army and then later when they were old enough, say 18, went on to fight for the Russian army, went to the front line. Do we know of any cases? Yeah, we try now to follow the cases of some of these young men that were already militarized by such organizations in the occupation. Just recently, we identified one young man who was killed on the front line in the ranks of the Russian army. and at the age of 17 he joined the US Army for one year.

12:31So it was the beginning of this militarization programs in the occupied territories. Then he left the US Army because he turned 18. He became a student in the city of Donetsk in the occupation and when Russia invaded Ukraine, he joined the Russian Army. We don't have the information whether he did it freely or he was forced to within the conscription. So he joined the Russian forces in February 2022 when the invasion started and he was killed in less than one month and a half. So it's hard now to distinguish where it was the propaganda that played its role, where it was the force applied to these young men so that they went to join, they agreed to join the Russian army.

13:24But many, many, many fled the occupied territories to avoid this Russian conscription at the beginning of the war and continue to do this now. Thank you, Zhanna Pespiachuk of BBC Ukrainian.

13:39If you're a regular listener to The Fifth Floor, it's great to have you back. If you're just catching the program for the first time, I should let you know that The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from BBC journalists from all over the world. They're always like half step away from a big breakthrough. Because it just takes one good acquaintance, right? One good opportunity for them to get access to something really important. It seems in most of the cases, in 90 or maybe even 99 % of the cases, it doesn't happen. But what if it happens?

14:17Journalists from the BBC's 43 language services are here to help you make sense of the world. I think it's very hard to predict a situation in Venezuela. I think there are several areas in which we have our eyes on. For example, the civil rights and civil liberties are going to maybe change. People are expecting that they are not prosecuted for posting something on social media or for even sharing something with a relative because people even today avoid to make a comment or to chat with relatives about politics. to excite your curiosity. So what they do is they set this vegetation on fire preventively to remove this dry grass.

15:01But they do that when the weather is not so dry, when the temperature is not so hot, so that this burn won't get out of hand. This fire won't move as fast as a major wildfire. The animals will be able to escape and fire won't be so hot. And to get to grips with the facts behind the headlines. Of course, internet was very, very bright and exciting when 30 years ago, 30 some years ago, it was going to be the perfect vehicle of democracy, perfect vehicle of pluralism, where it's decentralized by design, by design. Nobody can control it. But of course, the governments always find a way, especially with massive resources they have.

15:48there are still promises and hopes for the future that there will be less capabilities for governments to restrict people in Iran and any other countries. That last voice you heard was my colleague Hadi Nili of BBC Persian. And right now, I would like to remind you about the work of Hadi and all his colleagues at BBC Persian, which is the Persian language service of the BBC News. and it's used by 24 million people around the world, the majority of them in Iran, despite being blocked and routinely jammed by Iranian authorities.

16:30You're listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service.

16:40This is not the future we were promised. Like, how about that for a tagline for the show? From the BBC, this is The Interface, the show that explores how tech is rewiring your week and your world. This isn't about quarterly earnings or about tech reviews. It's about what technology is actually doing to your work and your politics, your everyday life. And all the bizarre ways people are using the internet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

17:14This is The Fifth Floor, and I'm Farina Kamidi.

17:22Simon Bolivar was a 19th century soldier and statesman who led six countries, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Panama, to independence from the Empire of Spain, and earned himself the title of El Libertador, the Liberator. He dreamt of creating a unified Latin America, and although his legacy has attracted criticism from some, for many he continues to hold mythical status in the history of Latin America. A key element of that myth attracted the attention of Juan Alonso of BBC Mundo, and he joins me now to explain why. Welcome to the Fifth Floor, Juan. Great to have you. Hi. Well, thank you so much for having me.

18:09So Juan, you're from Venezuela yourself. Tell me, what did they teach you about Bolivar, especially about his death? Well, as everybody in Venezuela and probably in Colombia and the other fifth countries of South America, we've been taught in school that Bolívar was a wealthy man who decided to give us freedom to the sides of the independence of our countries and he died poor. He lost all his wealth in that enterprise. That's part of the myth around Bolívar. So, and that was something that former president, late president Hugo Chavez also talked about. What did he say? Yeah, no, I mean, several times Chavez mentioned this episode about the Bolivar's death when the doctor who attended Bolivar, when he was dressing his body, he found out that the shirt they was putting on their body had a hole.

19:11And he said, that's not possible. I mean, if we have to find a new shirt and if nobody has a proper shirt for this man, I'm going to give one of mine. So that he was so poor that he didn't even have a proper shirt to be buried in. Exactly. That was part of the myth. The base of the myth was this episode that the doctor, a French doctor, he put in his memoir. So he was born into wealth but died poor. That's the story. What made you suspicious of this specific story that Bolivar died poor on his deathbed? Well, you know that in Venezuela, we kept in the central bank, one of the swords that Bolivar received, for example, from Peru.

19:59This sword is made with silver, but also gold and has a lot of jewels. And even when I was a kid, I was like, this is weird because if he had this, why he died poor? So a few months ago, I found a real talk in the Instagram account of one Venezuelan historian explaining about one property of Bolivar that he left to his sister. And then I realized probably this myth was not completely true. And that's what the historian told me. It was a myth. I mean, Bolivar didn't die poor. I mean, in his testament, in his last will, you can read in the fourth point that he left these copper mines, one copper mine in Venezuela, to two sisters.

20:53The copper mine. Yes. Definitely not poor. Exactly, no. Bolivar's family were wealthy, probably one of the most wealthy families in Venezuela. They own a lot of lands, several farms, but also these copper mines in the north of the country. They were not very big or massive, but I mean, they were important at that time. Because in the 19th century, nobody found out that Venezuela had oil. The mines today are a national park in Venezuela. How important were these copper mines? Bolívar tried to sell it a few years before he passed away, around£100 ,000. That is roughly today$20 million or something like that.

21:43Because Bolívar's plan was to retire, to go to exile at some point in Europe, probably England. So you don't move abroad, penniless. So you need money. And you briefly mentioned his will. It seems that his will has been online for quite a while. Yes. It's public access. You can find it, you type Will, Bolivar's Will, whatever. You're going to find it in one foundation institution in Colombia, precisely in the place where Bolivar died. Now it's a museum. And so you can find the will. But it's something that is, even if it's public, it's not well known because it's not spread in school or anything.

22:30I mean, for example, in our case, in the Venezuelan case, we all, in history, we always learn about, in the history class lessons, we always learn about the victories of Bolivar. We never learn almost about the defeats. I mean, Bolivar, he suffered defeats. The Venezuelan independence, the war lasts a decade. So it was not easy. But we always learn about, oh, this victory, this battle. He won this battle. He won this other one. The defeats are always, you know, very, well, yeah, he had some defeat, but we never go deep into that. How do people ignore these facts? Well, they ignore it as they ignore as well that he left several other properties, houses, farms.

23:19For example, today, the house where he was born is a museum. So that house used to belong to Bolívar's family. Other properties in Caracas or other places that are now museums, he kept it. And that's why for me it was important to go deep in this story because the historians told me and explained to me that Bolívar, he didn't invest his own wealth because of the independence. There is no record of that Bolivar, for example, bought guns or weapons or something for the independence war. Exactly. For the independence war. Probably he did, but there are no records of that. So what were the sources of this myth and why?

24:06Well, the first source is the memoirs of the doctor. The other incident is because most of Bolivar's luggage, they kept it in the port of Santa Marta, where he was planning to take a ship and to go to England. So all this luggage were kept there in the harbor. He had the uniform, he had very nice clothes, even the silver spoon, for example, all the coterie. They are still today in the Venezuelan Central Bank. And why do you think that poverty has played this important role culturally? Well, I think it was part of the creation of this myth. For Venezuelan people, Bolivar is almost like a person who never made a mistake.

25:01So he was incorruptible with no failures or anything. So I think this was like a part, you know, as well to explain why this man, he was not happy only to give freedom to Venezuela. So he went to Colombia and then to Ecuador and then to Peru to give freedom to other ones. So I think part of that generosity needed to be explained as well that he was able to give his own wealth to put that in jeopardy, to do that enterprise. Because the country in general, Venezuela almost, half the population during the war was one of the most terrible losses if you compare with other countries in that time. But I think it was part of that myth.

25:50And of course, it was useful for Chávez as well to sell the idea of the socialist revolution. Because you have to remember that Marx criticized Bolívar. And that was one of the reasons why sometimes even the Communist Party in Venezuela struggle to get popularity, because we don't accept a lot of criticism against Bolivar. So it was useful to sell the idea of Bolu. Sacrificing his wealth and privileges for the cause. Exactly. Exactly. You have to remember that Chavez said, and it's a famous quote of him, he claimed that be poor was good. And be rich was bad. So this myth helps to sell some of Chavez's policies.

26:42And how easy do you think it is to alter and change these perceptions that exist about Bolivar right now? Do you think it will ever change or people will just choose to believe this myth? A few years ago, a Peruvian journalist wrote a book and she kept repeating this myth. I mean, they have been around for decades, so it's difficult to change it. But I think it's good to go deep, to check the facts, the history, the records, because it was amazing to actually to discover that there was a will. Even though I'm Venezuelan, I was not aware that there was a will and this public display. Wow. Thank you so much, Juan.

27:25Juan Alonso from BBC Mundo. Thanks to everyone who took part in today's program. and I want to remind you that we love hearing from you. So you can email us at thefifthfloor at bbc.co.uk. That's thefifthfloor, all one word, at bbc.co.uk.

27:55You've been listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service.