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The Kremlin-backed program targeting primary-school children in occupied Zaporizhzhia has garnered 10,154 participants, nearly three times the size of Yunarmia, Russia's youth military organization. Petro Andryushchenko, head of the Center for the Study of Occupation, reported additional cadet classes in the same region, totaling 387 participants.

Yunarmia may only represent a fraction of Moscow's strategy for militarizing Ukrainian children under occupation. A Kremlin-backed mass youth group, Movement of the First, claims over 23,000 members in occupied Zaporizhzhia, up from about 14,000 a year earlier. The program spans ages 6 to 18 and includes classroom indoctrination, military games, and weapons training.

Movement of the First acts as a gateway, enrolling children without them joining any military-patriotic structure, then funneling some into specialized programs. In Kherson Oblast, over 2,700 children and young people participated in Movement of the First events in 2024, with the count rising to 6,200 by spring 2025. Programs like Eaglets of Russia, aimed at children aged 6 to 10, have registered 10,154 participants across 97 schools and 626 class-teams in occupied Zaporizhzhia.

By May 2026, children from all four occupied oblasts attended a federal Eaglets session alongside Russian regional children, indicating the occupied territories are already integrated into the system. Military-applied instruction now accounts for roughly half of the OBZR course, Russia's "Fundamentals of Security and Defense of the Motherland" subject, in occupied schools.

The campaign extends from kindergarten through military games, cadet structures, and practical training in drones, tactics, weapons, and military medicine. The pipeline begins in kindergarten, with Conversations about Important Things starting at age 5.