In mid-June 2023, social media users, including First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the U.N. Dmitriy Polyanskiy, shared a video that allegedly showed proof that child soldiers were recruited in Ukraine to fight against Russia. Although the video is authentic, it does not show Ukrainian Armed Forces training underage soldiers.
The video in question was first published on June 14, 2023, by the Суспільне Черкаси ("Society of Cherkasy" in English) YouTube channel, entitled "The camp of young marines continues to work in Cherkasy." It was also reposted by Typical Cherkassy, a local news account, profiles on Instagram, Facebook, and Telegram, where it reached a wider audience.
The YouTube caption stated that members of the Young Sailors Club learn "how to storm buildings, fly drones and save fellow citizens" and that "for the second year in a row, due to a full-scale invasion, they are left without navigation on the Dnieper, so all skills are being honed on land."
In fact, the teenagers visible in the video were members of the Young Sailors Club in Cherkasy, a city in central Ukraine. As we can read on the institution's website, the club carries out, among other activities, "military-patriotic and sports work" and "provides all pupils with equal opportunities for versatile development and self-determination in their free time from classes, forms the cognitive activity of young sailors, collectivism of defenders to serve in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine."
One of the club's circles is called "A group of marines" where "in addition to naval affairs, students learn the basics of military specialties, such as: tactical fire training, survival techniques in extreme conditions, mountain training, hand-to-hand combat, medical and sanitary training, military English, and also study the history and combat traditions of the Ukrainian army."
Screenshot from junmor.webnode.com.ua/gurtki/ website translated with Google Translate extension
Valery Horbenko, the coordinator of the group, underlined in the video that at the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, almost the entire teaching staff and instructors of the organization went to fight for the country, and "that's why the teenagers self-organized and the older members started teaching the younger ones."
It was not the first time Ukraine was falsely accused of training underage soldiers. In April 2022, a digitally altered screenshot of a CNN tweet reporting on child soldiers fighting in Ukraine was wildly shared online and debunked by Reuters Fact-Checking. Moreover, in January 2023, Russian media accused Ukraine of recruiting teenage soldiers and shared videos of allegedly underage Ukrainians to support this a narrative. It turned out that the people identified from the videos were actually over 20. Looks can be deceiving, which might further fuel false information about Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Ukrainian law states that only people over 18 years old can be recruited to the army, so joining the Armed Forces is illegal for underage Ukrainians. It's worth noting, however, that due to the Russian aggression, many young (but not under 18) Ukrainians volunteered to join the army and protect their motherland. It is, therefore, highly possible that Russian propaganda will use this false narrative again.