Putin is weaponising abducted Ukrainian kids

RUSSIA is using abducted and brainwashed children as “weapons”, one of Zelensky's staff battling to rescue Ukraine's kidnapped kids has warned.

Daria Zarivna, 35, told Flying Eze no peace dealwill be brokered until Moscow agrees to return thousands of kidnapped youngsters home.

Daria Zarivna, advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, in an interview. — Daria Zarivna,Advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, speaking Flying Eze's Chief Foreign Reporter (Digital) Katie Davis

a group of people in military uniforms are posing for a picture . — Pictures show children inside Russian “re-education” camps in a bid to rid them of their Ukrainian heritage

a row of chairs are lined up in a dark room — Chilling pictures showed a torture chamber in Kherson where children were allegedly abused

She warned Vladimir Putin‘s thugs are indoctrinating these youngsters and those living in Ukrainian territory under Russian control.

Bring Kids Back Ukraine operations director Daria said Moscow will push them into joining Russia's army to use them as a “weapon” against Europe in the future.

Since Putin illegally invaded Ukraine three years ago, tens of thousands of children have been kidnapped and taken into Russia.

Kremlin stooges then disturbingly try to rid the youngsters of their Ukrainian heritage and brainwash them into becoming Russian citizens.

Sinister camps have been set up in Russia where children are sent before having their official documents altered and being placed in Russian families.

Often the children are told that their loved ones have abandoned them and that they are now part of the Russian Federation.

Mariana Betsa, Ukraine's deputy foreign minister, told Flying Eze how some children have been abused and suffered sexual violence.

She said: “It's not just a statistic, 20,000. It's a life behind every person behind every statistic.

“We have so many families who were separated. We have so many children who were abducted.

“We need to return every single child.”

Presidential advisor Daria meanwhile warned Russia will use the children as a “weapon” against not only Ukraine, but the rest of Europe.

She said: “We are working on keeping this matter in the spotlight and we think that it is extremely important that it be a part of these talks because the Ukrainian children which Russia keeps under its control

“It's a threat to global security, to Ukraine's security.

“There are 1.6 million Ukrainian children currently staying in the temporarily occupied territories under the control of Russia.

“They've been indoctrinated, they've been militarised.”

Daria said countless Ukrainian children have been forced to join Putin's youth army, which in time will be used to fill Moscow's military reserve.

She said: “We have plenty of cases of Ukrainian young people who have been engaged and brought into military organisations and then used as a weapon.

“And I think this is their global threat and their angle which is not highlighted enough in the media because what Russia is trying to do is trying to use these young Ukrainians as a future weapon against, not only against Ukraine, but also against the whole Europe.

“And this is what we should definitely talk about.”

Both Daria and Mariana have doubled down on vows to bring all abducted children back to Ukraine – insisting their return must be part of any peace deal brokered with Moscow.

Portrait of two women in business suits. — Daria Zarivna with Flying Eze's Katie Davis

Portrait of Daria Zarivna, Advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine. — The presidential advisor insisted any peace deal must include the return of Ukrainian children

Portrait of Mariana Betsa, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister of Ukraine. — Mariana Betsa, Ukraine's deputy foreign affairs minister, spoke to Flying Eze

And Mariana said Russia must suffer for consequences for the widescale kidnap.

She said: “Obviously there should be consequences for any aggressor.

“Aggressors should not be appeased. Aggression should not be rewarded.

“We cannot live in a world where impunity prevails over the rule of law.

“That's why Ukraine advocates uniting our efforts and strengthening our international mechanism for accountability.

“We cannot live in a world where international law is not relevant anymore.

“We have an international legal based order. What Russia tries to do is show it can dismantle this order.

“Russia shows that it can dismantle international security order as well and the answer of the international community should be much bolder and stronger.”

Mariana conceded that it will be difficult for Ukraine to undo the brainwashing and suffering inflicted on children by Russia.

She said: “Of course Russian propaganda mechanism is working very well.

“They brainwash our children. They spread disinformation about Ukraine about Ukraine as a state about Ukrainian leadership. They spread propaganda about the war.

a man in a military uniform is giving a presentation in a classroom — Children are forced to speak and write Russian as well as sing the national anthem every day

an aerial view of a residential area surrounded by trees — An aerial view of the facilities and camps involved in holding children from Ukraine

a group of children in military uniforms are sitting at desks in a classroom . — Hundreds of kids have been taken to a boarding school in Perevalsk in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine

“And of course our children are scared. They do not know who to trust because a family is a unity and a family is a place of emotional stability.

“Then when they're taken and dragged from the family and brought to another environment they do not have anyone in their closest circle to trust.

“So, of course for understandable reasons children believe people who are surrounding them.

“So our task when we return the children is to work with them in terms of rehabilitation, communication psychological support mental support, but also reintegration to the society.

“This is extremely important, that they get Ukrainian education, they get back to the families, that all the orphans are back to the families as well.

“We try to work with them. This is not an easy task. This is one of the challenges that Ukraine faces because of course the longer war goes the longer children are in captivity, it's much more difficult to reverse this. “

Daria, who is part of the Bring Kids Back initiative – a strategic plan set up by Zelensky to bring back Ukraine’s missing children – told how there is a three-pronged plan to integrate children back into Ukrainian society.

The process would take months or even years, supporting youngsters who could have been held in Russia for up to three years now.

Putin's 'zombie' camp plot

by Rebecca Husselbee, Assistant Features Editor

VLADIMIR Putin is using “zombie” camps to brainwash Ukrainian kids in a chilling three-stage plan to replenish his Russian army, a top MP has revealed.

Speaking exclusively to Flying Eze, Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's Human Rights Commissioner, said the Russian tyrant is responsible for the “genocide” of Ukrainian children being forcibly deported across the border.

He described the Kremlin’s disturbing three-stage plan to rid the youngsters of their Ukrainian heritage and brainwash them into becoming Russian citizens.

The plan involves placing children in sinister camps where they speak Russian and sing the national anthem before having their official documents altered and being placed in Russian families.

Often the children are told that their loved ones have abandoned them and that they are now part of the Russian Federation.

But Dmytro revealed that children who refuse to accept their Russian captor's demands are then being tortured in special rooms within the “re-education” camps.

The snatched youngsters are also forced to take part in the Kremlin’s youth military organisations and train with weapons – part of Putin’s scheme to create a new generation of fighters for his dwindling army, the MP warned.

Ukraine says the young hostages are forced to spend days in windowless torture chambers, without food and water, until they surrender and accept that they are now Russian citizens.

Traumatised Ukrainian kids who have been able to make it back home spoke of the horrific conditions while being held at the camps.

They say they were taken to isolation cells, beaten, and forced to watch as their captors burned the Ukraine flag in front of them and sang the patriotic song “Onward, Russia”;.

Dmytro told Flying Eze: “Sometimes after children return, they tell us about torture, even a special place for children who don’t want to use the Russian language.

“Russians even created special camps for these Ukrainian children...they told us it was a special room torture chamber for children.

“If you don’t want to sing the anthem, the Russians hold you in this room without light, without food, without water, for one day even more.

“Next day, they ask, ‘Do you change your mind or not? Are you ready to sing the Russian anthem or not? If not, okay you can stay longer'.”

She said: “First of all, when the children first come back there is a set of short-term programmes.

“We bring them all the possible medical, psychological, social care and help.

“There are also long-term programmes, so its really important to get the support of the local communities.

“The third is safe housing. This is especially relevant for the children from destroyed territories.

“For us, for Ukraine, it's very principal that all the children who will be returned, they are either connected with the relatives or we facilitate the adoption of themselves by Ukrainian families.”

Kyiv has branded the abductions a war crime that meets the UN treaty definition of genocide.

In March 2023, arrest warrants for Putin and his children's commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova were issued by the International Criminal Court.

Russia attempted to denounce the warrants as “outrageous and unacceptable”.

Lvova-Belova has portrayed the forced deportation of Ukrainian children as a Russian rescue mission since being appointed Putin's children's commissioner in 2021.

She adopted at least 18 children and also five biological kids with her husband, a Russian Orthodox priest.

Footage previously emerged of Lvova-Belova bragging as she talked about “adopting” a boy from Mariupol during a meeting with Putin.