The Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) is publishing data in the “Child Kidnappers” section of the War&Sanctions portal on ten individuals and two legal entities involved in the militarization and indoctrination of Ukrainian children in the temporarily occupied territories (TOT) of Ukraine.

At the “Zarnitsa 2.0” competitions held in the TOT of Ukraine in May 2026, putin’s “Movement of the First” taught children how to handle weapons and explosives, operate drones, and spread militaristic propaganda among minors.

The purpose of such activities is to destroy Ukrainian identity in children and prepare them to participate in the criminal war against their own country.

Among those exposed are:

• artur orlov — chairman of the board of the “Movement of the First”;
• aleksey lavrentyev, marina tsvetinskaya, ruyal aliyev, yekaterina kozyr and viktoria kostromina — regional “heads” of the “Movement of the First” in the TOT of Ukraine. During the competitions in the occupied territories of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, kostromina stated that the military skills acquired by the children would become a “reliable foundation in life” for them;
• svetlana bespalova — the so-called deputy minister of education, science and youth of russia’s occupation administration in Crimea. Since April 2022, she has been involved in implementing the aggressor state’s educational and youth policies on the occupied peninsula, facilitating the integration of local educational institutions into the russian educational system and the introduction of russian educational and propaganda practices;
• nikita polyakov — chief of staff of the regional branch of russia’s “Yunarmiya” in the TOT of Kherson Oblast. He regularly organizes propaganda events for children involving participants in russia’s criminal war against Ukraine and representatives of russian security forces.

The aggressor state russia is carrying out the forcible ideological “reprogramming” of Ukrainian children in the TOT and shaping a future pool of recruits for its army in pursuit of its aggressive neo-imperial policy.

DIU is documenting the methods, organizers and perpetrators of criminal actions in the occupied territories of Ukraine — inevitable and just retribution awaits each and every one of them.