ABC News Australia’s new documentary, Ukraine’s Stolen Children, released this week, brought me to an image I couldn’t shake: a young child holding a rifle, smiling proudly.
asserted
I → steal → rifle
I had seen it before.
asserted
I → see → it
What was impossible to ignore, however, was the similarity in what children were being taught and the methods being used to teach them.
asserted
children → ignore → them
The documentary examines Russia’s removal of Ukrainian children, including children taken from orphanages, care facilities, and camps.
asserted
documentary → examine → orphanages
More than 20,000 have been identified by Ukrainian authorities as deported or forcibly displaced, although the true number may be considerably higher.
uncertain
number → identify → authorities
Yet it was what happens to some of these children afterward that caught my attention.
asserted
that → happen → attention
International investigators have documented efforts to absorb Ukrainian children into Russian society through citizenship, adoption, and what authorities call “patriotic education.”
asserted
authorities → document → what
That education is not confined to flags, songs, and lessons about national history.
asserted
education → confine → history
The United Nations has documented military drills and practical weapons training for older children, alongside programs intended to reinforce Russian national identity and loyalty.
asserted
Nations → document → identity
That context makes the rifle in the documentary more than a disturbing image.
asserted
rifle → make → image
It places the weapon inside a larger system concerned not only with training a child to handle it, but with conditioning a developing mind to understand what that weapon represents, where loyalty belongs, and who has been designated the enemy.
asserted
who → place → what
That is also why the footage immediately made me think about Gaza.
asserted
me → make → Gaza
For years, Hamas has exposed children to its own version of ideological and military preparation.
asserted
Hamas → expose → preparation
The U.N. has documented Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades and Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s al-Quds Brigades organizing summer camps where children were exposed to military content and activities.
asserted
children → document → content
Previous U.N. reporting described weeklong camps involving children as young as 14, while earlier reporting said Hamas’s military wing had reportedly operated a military camp involving 25,000 children and young people between the ages of 15 and 21.
uncertain
wing → describe → 15
The numbers matter, but the pattern matters more.
asserted
pattern → matter → ?
Children are placed in military settings and exposed to rifles, drills, and ideological instruction.
asserted
Children → place → rifles
Weapons are introduced not simply as instruments of violence, but alongside messages about identity, loyalty, and struggle.
asserted
Weapons → introduce → identity
This is where the psychological component becomes as important as the military one.
asserted
component → become → one
Teaching a child how to hold a rifle is one thing.
asserted
Teaching → teach → rifle
Teaching him from a young age what that rifle represents, who his enemy is, and why violence against that enemy should be associated with loyalty, duty, or pride goes considerably further.
asserted
violence → teach → loyalty
The ideological conditioning taking place alongside it may ultimately be more consequential.
uncertain
conditioning → take → it
That was the connection I could not shake while watching the documentary.
uncertain
I → shake → documentary
Russia and Hamas are not the same, nor do they need to be for the comparison to matter.
asserted
comparison → need → ?
What is recognizable is the method: reach children young, surround them with an ideology, define the enemy, and make military preparation part of how they understand their place in that struggle.
asserted
they → reach → struggle
The younger the child, the more disturbing that process becomes.
asserted
process → become → ?
It is an effort to shape how a developing mind understands history, identity, allegiance, and the people it has been taught to regard as enemies before that child has the maturity or independence to interrogate those lessons for himself.
asserted
child → shape → himself
Russia’s treatment of Ukrainian children adds another dimension.
asserted
treatment → add → dimension
Some have been removed from the country and communities that formed their identities in the first place.
asserted
that → remove → place
They can then encounter a different version of history, a new national identity, and, increasingly, military preparation.
asserted
They → encounter → history
Calling this “patriotic education” does not make the implications any less disturbing.
asserted
implications → call → this
It also raises a question I cannot understand why we are not asking more loudly: Where is the outrage?
asserted
outrage → raise → question
People have filled streets, university campuses, and public squares around the world over causes they believe demand moral attention.
asserted
they → fill → attention
Surely deliberately preparing children for warfare should produce outrage, too.
asserted
preparing → prepare → outrage
Where is the international movement against putting rifles into children’s hands?
asserted
movement → put → hands
Why does the world become so loud when discussing what war does to children, yet seem comparatively quiet about those deliberately preparing children for war?
asserted
war → become → war
People should, no pun intended, be up in arms about it.
asserted
pun → intend → it
Because this is not simply about a photograph of a child carrying a rifle.
asserted
this → carry → rifle
The weapon is what we can see.
asserted
we → see → what
The ideological conditioning taking place alongside it may ultimately be more consequential.
uncertain
conditioning → take → it
…and 6 more, not listed.
The Aporia
