Propaganda in Russia: How abducted children become instruments

On site in Ukraine

Russia abducts Ukrainian children – and uses them for propaganda purposes. Our author met one of these children on her trip to the Donbass.

It’s mid-January and it’s noisy in Bakhmut. The battle for the Ukrainian city is in full swing – and it is barbaric. Nevertheless, volunteers go to the largely destroyed area to help. One of the access points: a cellar in which around 30 People life.

As the volunteers descend the stairs, a little girl is already sticking her head through the gap between two curtains separating the basement entrance from the sleeping area. Artillery fire can be heard overhead. It’s dark down here, the sounds from outside are muffled – like putting your head under water.

Melania, that’s the name of the child, widens her eyes and forms her lips into a grin. Her short, dark blond hair sticks out, she wears glittering earrings. The 11-year-old pushes the curtains aside, jumps up to one of the volunteers and hugs him for several minutes. They know each other, have seen each other almost every day for weeks. They play together, he reads to her.

Melania’s family doesn’t want to be evacuated.

Three months later.

Bachmut can no longer be reached by civilians from outside. The Russian fighters have made too great land gains. Lists of names appear almost daily in Russian or pro-Russian Telegram groups. People who were “evacuated”. Into Russian-occupied territory or all the way across the border. It is not always clear whether these are rescue operations or kidnappings.

The big shock: the child was kidnapped by the Russians

It’s April 3rd. And Melania’s name also appears on one of those lists.

A shock for the volunteers. It was only a matter of time. But reality often only really becomes real when it hits you with all its might. It hurts that Melania is now one of the abducted children.

Then the next shock.

About a week later, another Telegram channel pinged. “Artemovsk Bakhmut”. The information in it is shared by a bot that calls itself “rusbakhmutbot”. A Video contribution by the Russian military propagandist Alexander Simonov appears in the chat interviewing Melania and her mother.

Ukrainian girl Melania appeared in a propaganda video.Image: Screenshot / Alexander Simonov

She says that the “White Angels”, a special unit of the Ukrainian police, Kinder out of Bachmut against their will Parents take away Her grandfather was told that her mother had been shot. She later tells of another child who is said to have been separated from his parents. The “White Angels” threatened the parents with guns. But the child went with him voluntarily.

Does she say what she really feels? Some of the statements are far removed from what happened in Bakhmut. The “White Angels” are actually in the embattled cities and evacuating people.

Propaganda video: Statements do not match

But there are no reports of threats to civilians. They work closely with NGOs, including the group that previously took care of Melania and her family. How exactly the correspondence between them and Melania’s family went can no longer be checked. However, Melania’s statements are contradictory.

Melania’s family had kept her hidden from a certain point in time. Even the volunteers in whom the family had built trust eventually lost access to her. They were told that they had already evacuated her. But at that point nobody believed that anymore. There were rumors in Bachmut that the government would soon be forcibly evacuating children. Since then, many who stayed behind hid their children.

In fact, the order for the forced evacuation came in early March. It states that children accompanied by a legal guardian would be forcibly removed from the areas if the military situation permitted.

In order to evacuate them, the “White Angels” try to persuade the people. They show them video messages from relatives, explain how an evacuation works and where they will be accommodated. The broadcaster also shows how the “White Angles” work Deutsche Welle in one post on.

The threat of forced evacuation without Melania’s mother by the “White Angles” is at least unlikely. Especially since, as Melania explains later, she supposedly takes the people with her Waffen threatened to take the children away. Why was Melania able to stay with her family? Why wasn’t grandfather threatened or even shot?

It does not fit.

Russia boasts of kidnapping children

Deported since the illegal invasion Russia Ukrainian children. Moscow speaks of rescue, the rest of the world of kidnapping. Since the beginning of the invasion, Russia has had around 730,000 children from the east of the country Ukraine taken up, said the Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lwova-Belowa, in mid-April.

Other figures can be heard from the Ukrainian side. In March there was talk of around 16,000 children. More recent figures have not been published since then. A request left both the Ukrainian Ministry of Youth and Sport as well as the Ministry of Social Affairs unanswered.

When the Ukrainian government released the number of children, the International Criminal Court had just issued an arrest warrant for Lvova-Belova and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Specifically, it is about the abduction of children – a war crime.

Russia regularly uses children for propaganda

And not only that. Ukrainian children are regularly dragged in front of the cameras of Russian bloggers, youtubers or news channels for propaganda purposes.

Like Melania.

In a propaganda video, Melania reports on alleged threats to Ukrainian units.Image: screenshot / alexander simonov

She looks good in the video. The dark circles under her eyes have disappeared, she wears clean clothes. Sitting outside in a park. The situation has improved for the child. She can live again – without having to fear bombs or Kalashnikovs. At least that’s how it seems.

The reality of the abducted Ukrainians cannot be independently verified. But one thing is certain: Russia uses every form of manipulation. Not just to deceive their own people. The country also conducts propaganda internationally. Videos like Melania’s are a tool for that. They want to tell the world that children in Russia are happier.

One could do that too Research by RTL and “Stern” clarify. This is about 13-year-old Anna. The girl thanking her supposed savior, “Uncle Yuri,” during Putin’s big propaganda show on February 22, shortly before the anniversary of the invasion.

The narrative in Russian media resembles a heroic legend. And “Uncle Yury” plays the main character. According to Russian information, the man is said to have saved almost 370 children up to this point. But what is kept secret: Anna was brought to Russia after her mother was killed in Mariupol by Russian artillery.

After her disappearance from Mariupol, Anna also first appeared in a Telegram channel. Namely, in the one by the Russian RT journalist Julia Martovalieva. Shortly thereafter, Anna’s “rescue” was broadcast in a TV report on RT.

What the journalists from “Stern” and RTL also find: Anna’s social media presence. In it she showed a sad video of herself in black and white. And she writes: “Mom, I want to see you”.

Children are manipulated, maybe even threatened. Videos like those of Anna or Melania, events, ceremonies, solemnly staged passport handovers. The Kremlin knows how easy it is to manipulate them – and how easy it is to influence the world with their stories.