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Dec. 21, 2025, 12:08 p.m.
Russian Church in Crimea turned churches into platforms for militarizing children
Цей матеріал також доступний українською1
The militarization of children. ILLUSTRATION: bbc.com
In Saki, the occupiers turned the territory of the church into a shooting range for children. The Bars-Krym militants, together with local priests, taught "Orthodox trackers" to hold assault rifles.
This was reported by the National Resistance Center.
According to the monitoring data, this incident is not an accident. Occupation resources are increasingly turning religious buildings into "safe havens" for paramilitary training of young people. By involving clergy, the aggressor disguises combat training as 'spiritual and patriotic education' in an attempt to neutralize community resistance.
The case in Saki shows a dangerous transformation: churches are turning from places of peace into elements of a mobilization machine. When a child picks up a weapon in a sacred place, the war becomes 'sacred' in his or her mind, which actually prepares the new generation for future hostilities.
Earlier it became known that in the occupied Crimea children are actively involved in war propaganda, forcing them to support the army of the aggressor state. Schoolchildren and teenagers are used in "patriotic" videos and camps, turning them into a tool of militarization.
The occupation authorities of the peninsula continue to use children and youth for military propaganda. For example, in the city of Kezlzhv (Yevpatoria), members of the Victory Volunteers movement recorded a video supporting the Russian military involved in the so-called "special military operation" on the occasion of the Day of National Unity.
In this way, children and adolescents in the temporarily occupied territories are deliberately involved in war propaganda, forcing them to express "gratitude" to the army of the aggressor state and creating a false image of war as a heroic cause.
