In Sevastopol and Mariupol, the Russians have opened two branches of the Nakhimov naval school, where they recruit Ukrainian children from the age of 12. In addition to teaching students to be Russian military and preparing them for entry into Russian military academies, children are also actively used in propaganda. The journalists from the Suspilne investigative editorial office have investigated what Ukrainian children are taught in these institutions.
Earlier, we told how the occupiers are turning Ukrainian children into Russian soldiers, how a branch of the "Warrior" center is being built on the site of a children’s sanatorium in Mariupol, and how Ukrainian young men are being drafted to military service in the Russian army.
Sevastopol: recruitment of children from grade 5
The branch of the St. Petersburg Nakhimov naval school of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation operates in Sevastopol. The Russians opened it in the premises of the Ukrainian Nakhimov Naval Academy, which was captured in 2014. On the social media, there is still a video that shows several dozen cadets of the Ukrainian Academy in 2014 refusing to switch to the Russian side, singing the Ukrainian anthem, and interrupting the Russian celebration.
For some time, the cadets of the Ukrainian and Russian sides lined up separately and raised their flags. The cadets who did not betray the oath to Ukraine were pressured by the occupation leadership of the school and demanded that they leave Crimea. Later, they were transferred to Odesa, and the Ukrainian academy was reorganized into the Institute of Naval Forces.
On March 20, 2014, Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the creation of the Sevastopol Presidential Cadet School. In 2017, it became a branch of the St. Petersburg school. It is open to school students of grades 5-7. They study there until grade 11, after which they can enter military academies of the Russian Federation.
The institution is run by Russian military personnel. Since January 2023, the school has been headed by Rear Admiral Andrei Shishkin, a native of Sverdlovsk region of the Russian Federation. He was previously an assistant to the head of the occupation administration of Crimea.
Each platoon has a class teacher and an instructor. They have to instill Russian narratives. In one of the Russian educational journals, naval school teacher Iryna Kostyuk wrote that within the framework of "military-patriotic education", they implement the programs "Profession to protect the motherland", "Conversations about important things". In addition, children are told about Soviet historical monuments, "lessons of courage" are held with them, for example, "Heroes of operation Z", "Where we are — there is victory", and participants in the war against Ukraine are invited to events.
"The Sevastopol naval school is a vivid indicator of how Russia began to militarize the surrounding space from the first days of the occupation," says Mariia Sulialina, head of the "Almenda" Civic Education Center. "The school has a direct connection with the so-called "special military operation" (this way, Russian propaganda calls the war against Ukraine — Ed.). This includes meetings with military personnel, weaving camouflage nets, making trench candles, and collecting various kinds of aid for Russian servicemen. The main goal of the institution is for graduates to see no other future than in the armed forces of the Russian Federation. In the reports submitted by this school each year, we see an increase in the number of children who link their career with military specialties, entering specialized military educational institutions of the Russian Federation. And for the most part, these are Ukrainian children," adds Sulialina.
The branch of the naval school also hosts an organization whose goal is to spread Russian propaganda, the "Movement of the firsts". All students of the institution are members of the militaristic movement "Young army". This is stated in the branch’s report for 2024.
The same document mentions that children are being involved in assisting the military personnel of the 810th separate marine brigade of the Russian Federation.
In addition, the school has an "interactive map" of the war against Ukraine, which the students on duty update in accordance with the reports of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
"Despite the fact that children are not fighting on the front, they are constantly in the context of war. They update this map and begin to consider themselves involved in it," says Mariia Sulialina.
Most of the school’s teachers are Russian reserve or retired officers. In the 2024-2025 academic year, the school’s branch, according to their report, is educating 654 students.
In addition, the Sevastopol branch patronizes a school in the village of Shchaslyvtseve, Henichesk territorial community of Kherson region. Two cadet classes were opened there in 2023 and 2024.
Cadet students from Shchaslyvtseve study under a special program that includes drill and fire training, topography, and classes with a psychologist. They also have additional classes in sports training and in Russian history.
In July 2024, "Tavria" media outlet wrote that children from the Shchaslyvtseve school had training at the Sevastopol Nakhimov naval school, during which they studied the history of the Russian Navy, learned to navigate boats, and shoot.
Accelerated "Crimean scenario": the first recruitment in Mariupol
On March 30, 2023, Putin ordered to launch a branch of the Nakhimov naval school in occupied Mariupol. A year and 4 months later, the institution was opened in the city. Putin participated at the opening ceremony via video connection.
Unlike the branch in Sevastopol, the Mariupol facility was built from scratch in Primorsky Park, a recreational area of the city. In April 2024, 0629.com.ua media outlet reported that over a hundred trees were cut down at the construction site there.
The branch was opened on September 2, 2024.
Propaganda media say that the institution has 240 students; they are the children in school grades 5-7. In Russian social networks, we found information that schoolchildren from the temporarily occupied territories of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions were also invited to the Mariupol naval school. They were promised "broad prospects for a future career in the Russian Navy".
Children from the Melitopol social and rehabilitation center were also offered to join the military institution. This was reported by the Ukrainian Center for National Resistance.
Sergei Anufriev, deputy head for educational work at the Mariupol branch, told a propaganda media outlet that the majority of students are from the occupied territories, while the rest are from 32 regions of the Russian Federation. "Their main goal is to become naval officers. We will instill this desire in them," Anufriev said.
In December 2024, the students of the branch of the Nakhimov naval school in Mariupol took an oath of allegiance to Russia.
"The Mariupol naval school is an example of the accelerated "Crimean scenario". This is evident from how quickly it was built, how quickly it was put into operation, and from the attention that Putin pays to the school. This is evident in speeches about the role of such schools in preparing a "patriotic generation" that is ready to defend the so-called "motherland". They are trying to recruit children from the occupied territories to this school so that they can continue to serve in the Russian Navy.
In both the first (Sevastopol) and the second (Mariupol) cases, this is definitely propaganda for service in the armed forces of the occupiers. They do not hide that their goal is to make children serve in the army of the Russian Federation. And this is a violation of the norms of international humanitarian law, in particular the IV Geneva Convention of 1949 on the Protection of the Civilian Population in Time of War,” says Mariia Sulialina, the head of "Almenda".
All leadership of the branch in Mariupol are the Russian military:
- head of the branch — Sergey Yekimov, a native of Leningrad region, a reserve rear admiral, in the past — a participant in the war in Syria.
- deputy head for teaching — Fyodor Yelenin, a native of Pskov region, reserve captain of the 1st rank.
- deputy head for administrative work — Alexey Ostroumov, a native of Nizhny Novgorod, reserve captain of the 1st rank.
- deputy head for educational work — Sergey Anufriev, a native of Sevastopol, reserve captain of the 2nd rank.
The curriculum at the Mariupol naval school differs only a little from the secondary school curriculum. However, in addition to general education subjects, the curriculum for grades 5-7 includes "Fundamentals of security and defense of the motherland", "Fundamentals of the spiritual and moral culture of the peoples of Russia", and "Fundamentals of naval training".
"These are children who remember Ukraine, who studied with Ukrainian textbooks, who have friends who remember what it is like to have access to the Internet without blocking, who already have some kind of a formed idea of the world. And it is important for the Russians to quickly break these children, especially in conditions of the full-scale invasion. In Crimea, it did not happen like that, not immediately. In Crimea, they tried to show that this was not an invasion, this was not an occupation, they tried to show that Russia was not fighting in Donbas.
Everything is obvious in Mariupol. Russia attacked; it is fighting here. And the occupiers need to quickly break the consciousness of children, because they cannot say that they are not fighting and it is not them, that local residents voted for this in the referendum. This is impossible. Because there are a lot of objective facts that children see around and these facts evidence the opposite. Therefore, it is important for them to work with children of the younger category in order to change their consciousness faster," says Mariia Sulialina, head of the "Almenda" Civic Education Center.
One of the students, a boy from Kramatorsk, told "Komsomolskaya Pravda" about the peculiarities of studying at the naval school. According to him, the children study six days a week, have clubs and sections: online games on military themes, martial arts, hockey, combat sambo, dancing, and boxing.
If the students do not have unsatisfactory grades, they can leave the institution on Sunday.
"I want to connect my life with the navy. To serve on a ship. Not on a submarine, on a surface ship," the Ukrainian boy tells the propaganda publication.
Russian servicemen visit the children. For example, in October 2024, sappers from the demining unit visited the students and showed them samples of mines and explosive devices.
In March 2025, children were involved in the events dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the victory in World War II. Earlier, the Suspilne investigative editorial office told how the occupiers celebrated Victory Day in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, involving Ukrainian children, even preschoolers, in propaganda.
"This is a purposeful transformation of children into citizens of the Russian Federation"
It is difficult to work with the post-truth that Russia is building in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, says Mariia Sulialina, head of the "Almenda" Civic Education Center.
"With these interactive maps, the involvement of the military personnel, and the construction of a hero image of Russian servicemen, Russia is trying to impose the war in Ukraine on Ukrainian children as a continuation of the "liberation struggle" of World War II, a continuation of the "defensive war". Despite the fact that this contradicts reality, children are beginning to believe it," says Sulialina.
She adds that the pervasive militarization of education, which the Russian Federation is implementing in the occupied territories, is destroying Ukrainian identity:
"What Russia is doing to our children in the occupied territories should be considered a crime against humanity. Because their final goal is to ensure that there is not a single person left there who identifies oneself as a Ukrainian. And they start with children – with those who, due to age characteristics, are still in the process of forming consciousness and identity. They give children specific military skills so that they can be recruited into the army and sent to war against their own country. And we should consider this fact not in a vacuum, but in the sphere of general policy. The occupiers want teenagers to think that it is really cool to be a soldier, and that being in a military school is also cool, being in the "young army" is cool. This is a purposeful transformation of children into citizens of the Russian Federation," Mariia Sulialina states.