DONETSK, Ukraine – While the use of child soldiers is against international law, there are people in the Russian-occupied part of Donbas who have no problem with the idea.
The latest worries were sparked by a June 24 report by French news agency Agence-France Presse on Russian-separatist forces “training child soldiers in the making.”
The report featured a 14-year-old boy being trained to assemble a Kalashnikov assault rifle. The story starts out: “He is only 14 but already knows how to assemble a Kalashnikov rifle. Denis is a child soldier in the making — eager to join the pro-Russian militants fighting Ukrainian troops.”
In fact, the Russian-separatist authorities have never denied training children for what they say are possible future roles in the army.
But while the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF has said that it has not found proof that children are fighting in Russia’s war against Ukraine, at least one boy who looked to be 12-14 has been spotted armed and manning a checkpoint in the occupied territories, according to a May 28 by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
The attitude among some in the Kremlin-separatist zone is indifferent among some in the separatist zone.
“Training teens to become soldiers isn’t the biggest problem the republic faces,” said a 19-year-old student who only identified himself as Nikita. “We’ve come a long way, and we will fight until the end. Look at Ukraine’s neo-Nazi group Pravy Sektor. How many minors support that group? And how many actually have guns? More than the Kyiv government tells you! I don’t say that we’re perfect, but first look at the other side – the media are constantly framing us!”
Nikita and his group of fellow students support the Novorossiya Armed Forces – as some in the region describe the combined Russian army, separatist, mercenary and volunteer forces currently waging war against the Ukrainian army.
Nevertheless, their angry voices attracted the attention of a separatist fighter who happened by.
“What are you saying there?” the fighter asked.
“I’m saying that I support the republic,” Nikita said.
The fighter, who later identifies himself only as “Vlad,” nodded at Nikita and walked away.
Not far from the central boulevard of Donetsk is a lake, the shores of which are crowded this weekend with people looking to cool off from the summer heat. One of them, 23-year-old Vitaliy Korpachev, is enjoying the hot weather with his girlfriend Elizaveta.
“I believe that the media are making too much of the fact that (separatists) train children in this war,” Korpachev said. “Ultimately, it’s the responsibility of the parents, and not of the authorities. Also, what’s the definition of a child soldier? I know teens that want to get first aid lessons and join a battalion. But not to fight!”
Another, Dmitri Botarsky, sees nothing wrong with the idea of child soldiers helping in Russia’s war against Ukraine. “If women can fight in this war, why can’t tough teens do the same?” laughed the 32-year-old Botarskiy. “In Israel there is military service and everyone is sent to war.” The minimum age for fighting in Israel is 18.
A Russian-separatist fighter with the Sparta Battalion claimed that Western media are fabricating reports of child soldiers to damage the separatists’ reputation. “We’re not so stupid as to give teenagers a rifle and the chance of getting shot at!” he added.
