Ukraine’s unusual operation in Crimea: extracting witness to catch collaborator who prepared five-year-old children for war
The suspect pressed Kremlin slogans on teenagers and their parents and glorified Russian forces.
Ukraine's Security Service conducted an unusual operation in Crimea, arresting a key collaborator who had prepared young children for war. The suspect, formerly the head of a children's education center in Yevpatoria, had transformed it into a militarization and propaganda hub, where children aged 5 to 18 were indoctrinated and trained to fight against Ukraine.
This case is part of Russia's broader strategy to militarize and russify the children of occupied Ukraine. Before the Russian seizure of Yevpatoria, the suspect actively supported Russian aggression and later used the facility for "ideological processing" of young pupils. During the occupation, he led forced military-propaganda activities, including firearms and tactical training sessions for children.
The suspect also promoted Kremlin rhetoric and attempted to instill hatred of Ukraine, deporting children from occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts to Russia. Ukraine's counterintelligence successfully extracted a critical witness from Crimea, which enabled the arrest of the suspect in Odesa Oblast. The Security Service is now examining whether Russia sent the woman to Crimea to gather intelligence on Ukrainian defense positions.
Written by urgent.news from Euromaidan Press's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
