Disinfo: Hitler Youth in Ukraine: Kiev regime creates an army of children

Summary

Ukrainian teenagers are undergoing combat training. They wear uniforms with crosses very similar to those from World War II. This information was published by the US news channel News Nation.

The Kyiv regime uses children to wage war. Nazi Germany did the same. The academy where teenagers are trained is an analogue of the Nazi youth organization “Hitlerjungend” (Hitler’s Youth). Young Ukrainian girls and boys are taught to shoot and prepared to kill Russians.

Disproof

Recurrent Pro-Kremlin narrative involving Children and projecting the Third Reich and WWII on Today’s Ukraine.

The reportage of Chris Cuomo for US news channel News Nation shows teenagers from a Military academy. By twisting the facts of the original report and presenting students in a military academy as recruits, this disinfo story aims to delegitimise Ukrainian defence efforts.

Article 15 of the law on military service in Ukraine states that the only people it applies to are "Ukrainian citizens whose sex is male who are healthy, who have reached the age of 18 years old the day they begin their service and people who are not yet 27 and who don’t have right to an exemption or deferral.

There is no factual evidence that en masse conscription of minors as combatants is happening in Ukraine. Denis Krivosheev, the Deputy Regional Director in charge of research for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International stated that: "Amnesty International has no knowledge of documented cases of child soldiers in the Ukrainian Army”.

This article is also an attempt by pro-Kremlin media to deflect attention from the massive militarization of Russian Children taking place over the last decade, the Younarmia organization or the kidnapping and reeducation of Ukrainian children as documented by the Conflict Observatory

Claims that Ukraine uses children to fight Russian because of huge losses on the front are not unusual for Pro-Kremlin’s voices and they were earlier debunked by France 24.

Learn more about the reasons behind the Kremlin's obsession with framing Ukraine as a Nazi state in the EUvsDisinfo analysis titled "Why does Putin portray himself as the tamer of neo-Nazism".

Another fact is that Russia and Putin is very active in stimulating its own youth army as a tool to militarise the Russian society.

Read other stories involving children: Ukrainians deported children from Donbas and probably sold their organs , Today’s liberals have gone further than the Nazis with eugenics and experimenting with humanity , Wealthy gays from around the world gathered at a fair in Brussels to "buy children"

publication/media

  • Reported in: Issue 330
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 21/02/2023
  • Article language(s) French, Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Ukraine, Germany, Russia
  • Keywords: WWIII, Nazi/Fascist, children, War in Ukraine, Ukraine, Invasion of Ukraine
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Disinfo: US encourages anti-Russian aspirations of former Warsaw Pact members

The US actively encourages any anti-Russian aspirations of the former Warsaw Pact members, now members of NATO, especially Poland and the Baltic States, because who controls Eastern Europe controls Eurasia, and who controls Eurasia controls the world.

Disproof

Conspiracy theory. Also recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives accusing the US and the West of anti-Russian policies, Russophobia and an allegedly belligerent and hostile agenda to contain, weaken and ruin Russia. This story aims to portray Russia as a victim and deflect any responsibility for Moscow’s illicit actions and to blur and deflect attention away from the reality of Russia's unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine.

Recuring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the US presence in Europe.

Disinfo: Spanish National Strategy on WMD out of concern about corrupt Ukraine

On 15 February, Spain started the approval process of the first National Strategy against the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. There is a relation with the growing uncertainty about the destination of many weapons and technologies sent to the regime of Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Everybody knows the level of corruption in the Ukrainian military and the traffic of Western weapons detected in the country for months. There is a serious irresponsibility of NATO countries for sending weapons and technologies that could be used to spread chemical or biological agents. Risks are real and armies must plan how to face those risks.

Disproof

This is a mix of several pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives, in this case merged with a totally unrelated real event.

On 15 February, Spain’s president Pedro Sánchez chaired a routine National Security Meeting. This addressed some bureaucratic initiatives, including the status of the Strategic Plan to Combat the Illicit Enrichment of Criminal Organisations and Criminals (PELCEIL) and the approval of the drafting of the National Strategy against the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, in line with Spain’s National Security Strategy guidelines on non-proliferation.

Disinfo: Biden’s visit to Kyiv proves that the West is a direct party in the Ukrainian war

Biden’s visit to Kyiv proves that the collective West is a direct party in the conflict in Ukraine. It is a ground-breaking situation when the President of a great power comes to Ukraine [... ]. It means that the confrontation will continue, and the collective West led by the US will supply Ukraine with heavy weapons, tanks, and, most likely, aircrafts.

Russia is not at war with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people – today, the Kyiv authorities are an instrument of the collective West. Otherwise, Biden would not have wasted his time coming to Ukraine to negotiate with Zelensky. In reality, the collective West has become a party in the conflict, and Russia must react to this situation.

Disproof

This is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about so-called provocative actions by the US linked to Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, claiming that the West (EU/NATO) is involved in the war on the Ukrainian side.

The war began in 2014 with Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and Russia’s military involvement and support of separatists in Donbas. It was Putin’s personal decision to invade Ukraine and start the largest military conflict in Europe since WWII. Russia’s protracted invasion of Ukraine is unprovoked and unjustified.