Thousands of Russian children to be recruited into Putin’s ‘youth army’ which has been likened to the Hitler Youth

• Orphans as young as eight recruited into Vladimir Putin’s growing ‘youth army’
• Youth army ‘resembles Hitler Youth’ in Nazi Germany and critics say is ‘immoral’
• ‘Yunarmia’ has over 353,000 members with a suspected target of one million 
• Around 50,000 Russian orphans aimed to be added during recruitment drive

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Tens of thousands of Russian orphans, some as young as eight, are to be recruited into Vladimir Putin’s ‘youth army’ where they will be trained to use machine guns and parachute jump. 

Critics have accused Putin’s fast-growing ‘Yunarmia’ of resembling the Hitler Youth in Nazi Germany and say it is an ‘immoral’ bid to swell army numbers.

Others in the Russian government say the recruitment drive is evidence of the increased militarisation of Russia amid deteriorating relations with the West. 

But supporters say the force, set up in 2015 and now numbering more than 353,000 with a suspected target of one million by next year, keeps children out of trouble while fostering patriotism. 

Recruits from eight to 18 are taught military drills, how to handle Kalashnikovs, wrestling, and parachute jumping. 

Scroll down for video.  

A ‘Yunarmia’ youth army ceremony on board the Dmitry Donskoy Russian nuclear submarine

A young Yunarmia recruit in the city of Kostroma in western Russia testing a missile launcher

A flashmob of Vladimir Putin’s ‘youth army’, some which are recruited at the as young as eight, dancing in the street

Declaring this was not ‘normal’, Col-General Viktor Bondarev, who once headed Russia’s strategic rocket forces and is now a senior pro-Putin senator, demanded urgent military training for schoolchildren. 

This coincides with a complaint by a senior military and political figure that modern children are ‘afraid of machine guns’ and do not know how the throw a hand grenade. 

Controversially Russia’s children’s ombudsman Anna Kuznetsova is now backing a move that could see the mass recruitment of up to 50,000 Russian orphans of both sexes join the force. 

She has demanded her regional officials – whose role is to safeguard the interests of children – play an active part in recruiting direct from orphanages for Yunarmia, claimed Novaya Gazeta newspaper. 

Critics say these children will not be able to say no because are under the state’s direct control.

During the Soviet era, orphans were also recruited to the military and KGB. 

Expert Alexander Gezalov angrily hit out at the plan to ‘dress them in uniform’. 

Members of Putin’s ‘youth army’ taking part in exercise drills at a children’s summer camp in Artek, part of the disputed Crimea on the Black Sea which was annexed from Ukraine in 2014

Recruits in the youth force are taught military drills, how to handle Kalashnikovs, wrestling, and parachute jumping from the age of eight to 18

Currently numbering more than 353,000, the youth army has a suspected target of one million by next year, including 50,000 Russian orphan recruits 

He said: ‘Nobody is left to protect orphans if the children’s ombudsmen are pushing them into these military units. 

‘They should be dealing with completely different matters.’  

The aim is to have 500,000 recruits by May and one million a year later when Russia marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War Two, according to reports in the Russian media. 

Psychologist Nikolay Scherbakov complained: ‘This idea is non-professional and immoral.’ 

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A simultaneous drive is underway to recruit children directly in schools – when parental permission is needed – and among the offspring of factory workers in large companies. 

This follows blistering criticism by a senior senator, Education Minister Olga Vasiliyeva, for failing to ensure military education in Russia’s classrooms. 

Bondarev, who formerly commanded Russia’s strategic rocket forces and now chairs the senate’s committee on defence and security, thundered at Vasilyeva: ‘Children are afraid of machine guns. 

‘Children do not know what a grenade looks like or how to throw it. Is it really normal?’ 

Yunarmia members demonstrating a Kalashnikov gun to young children at a school in the Russian city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur

Young members of the Yunarmia on board a nuclear submarine Dmitry Donskoy where a ceremony was held

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ‘Yunarmia’ youth army is targeted to expand its numbers from 353,000 to over one million next year by recruiting 50,000 Russian orphans

He warned that children were not properly educated in military matters in schools compared with in Soviet times. 

He declared: ‘Why did you remove the basic military training course from schools? 

‘You know that a pacifist will never protect his Motherland with poems or brushes.’ 

‘This was even more so when Russia was surrounded by threats’, he added. 

‘What are we afraid of and whose hands are we playing into? 

‘Please, be wise, [military training] must be brought back now. Thanks to pacifists, compulsory army service [conscription] has been cut to only one year.’ 

When it was formed one Russian news website complained that the Yunarmia was ‘plagiarising Hitler Youth’ – but the report was swiftly removed.

‘Something similar to German organisation Hitler Youth is coming from Russia,’ the report stated.

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