When the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Denys Kostev was 18 and living in an orphanage in Kherson.
asserted
Kostev → begin → Kherson
Appalled by the war, he used to film social media videos decrying the invading Russian forces.
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he → appal → forces
But he was soon forcibly transferred to occupied Crimea, and his rhetoric suddenly went in the other direction.
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rhetoric → transfer → direction
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steelmaker → kill → operations
Now in Kyiv four years later, Kostev told Al Jazeera he played the role of a poster child for wartime Russia just to survive.
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he → tell → Russia
Sprightly, eloquent and photogenic, he used to attend a theatre club at his orphanage in the southern Ukrainian city, where he lived after his mother’s incarceration and death.
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he → use → incarceration
The experience helped him “star” in numerous videos for Russian television networks – because refusing to be filmed meant risking physical assault or being threatened with jail, he said.
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he → help → jail
“It was useful to play this pro-Russian role,” said Kostev, who, having ultimately escaped Russia, is now preparing to fight for Ukraine.
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who → play → Ukraine
“I wanted to live.
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I → want → ?
But surviving did not come easy, he said.
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he → survive → ?
Tanks rolled into Kherson days after the war began.
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war → roll → Kherson
People suspected of pro-Ukrainian sympathies were rounded up and interrogated.
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People → suspect → sympathies
Some were allegedly abused.
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Some → abuse → ?
In late 2022, while living in the orphanage, Kostev also studied in a trade school.
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Kostev → live → school
But as the war intensified, he and others were relocated to the Luchisty (“Full of Sunshine”) summer camp in Russia-annexed Crimea.
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he → intensify → Crimea
“Every morning, you wake up to the Russian anthem, and every Monday, there’s a celebratory hoisting of the Russian flag,” Kostev said of his time at the summer camp.
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Kostev → wake → camp
The orphans were isolated, he added.
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he → isolate → ?
“They’re without parents, no one to explain what’s right or wrong,” he said.
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he → ’re → parents
“At a certain point, you begin to repeat pro-Russian narratives.”
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you → begin → narratives
At least one teenager Kostev met in the camp enlisted to fight against Kyiv, he said.
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he → meet → Kyiv
Ukraine is working to return allegedly abducted children and collect evidence against individuals suspected of being involved in their abduction.
uncertain
Ukraine → work → abduction
More than 2,600 children have returned so far.
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children → return → ?
The summer camp’s “administration” has not responded to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.
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administration → respond → comment
Kyiv said that 84 Ukrainian orphans were held there in 2023.
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orphans → say → 2023
Those who left were among almost 4,000 children forcibly taken from orphanages in Russia-occupied Ukrainian regions, according to Ukrainian rights groups.
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who → leave → groups
Kyiv claims that Moscow has herded almost 20,000 Ukrainian minors to Russia to “brainwash” them during the war.
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Moscow → claim → war
While the Kremlin acknowledges that children are being “re-educated”, it rejects Ukraine’s claims, saying that any children who have been moved were rescued from war zones.
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who → acknowledge → zones
Some of these children lost parents during Russian shelling, and others ended up in “summer camps” after pro-Moscow authorities reportedly convinced their parents to let them go for “safety reasons”.
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them → lose → reasons
Ukraine claims that some children were abducted from parents who refused to collaborate with Moscow-installed “administrations” in Russia-occupied areas.
uncertain
who → claim → areas
Russian forces and their Ukrainian collaborators have also been accused by Ukrainian rights groups of interrogating and abusing parents – and checking their bodies for pro-Kyiv tattoos or bruises left by recoiling firearms.
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forces → accuse → firearms
International rights groups decry the alleged abduction and indoctrination of children as one of the Kremlin’s gravest crimes.
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groups → decry → crimes
“The physical destruction of this war is visible to everyone, but the campaign to abduct and ‘re-educate’ Ukrainian children as Russian represents something more sinister altogether
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campaign → abduct → something
,” Ivar Dale, a senior policy adviser with the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, a rights watchdog, told Al Jazeera.
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Dale → tell → Jazeera
“It’s unacceptable,” he said.
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he → ’ → ?
“There are deeply disturbing reports that Russia is carrying out military indoctrination with a view to use some of these children in the armed forces in their war against Ukraine.
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Russia → be → Ukraine
Some 5,500 young Ukrainians in Russia-occupied areas were sent into Yunarmiya (“Young Army”), a movement that provides military training, according to Ukrainian officials.
uncertain
that → occupy → officials
“Children have a flexible psyche; they quickly adapt to a new environment, they mostly trust adults – sometimes involuntarily, but they have no other choice – and take many things for granted,” she said.
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she → have → things
That is why they cannot resist Moscow’s narratives, she said.
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she → resist → narratives
“But it doesn’t mean that the same will surely happen to all Ukrainian children,” Chunikhina said.
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Chunikhina → mean → children
While younger children studied in the camp according to the Russian curriculum, the education system did not appear to have had a thorough, comprehensive programme for teenagers such as Kostev.
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system → study → Kostev
…and 15 more, not listed.
The Aporia
