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Child Soldiers in Europe: Hatred as Pedagogy

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Ukraine: A War That Begins in Childhood — Hatred as Early Military Training

In Ukraine, war is not only fought at the front lines. According to an investigation published by Deutsche Welle on April 16, 2025, it is also waged—perhaps even more so—in the hearts of the youngest. From the age of ten, children and teenagers are being trained to use weapons, to suppress fear, to “do everything,” as one instructor proudly states. A pride that should alarm rather than reassure.

Deutsche Welle (DW), the German public broadcaster, reports on secret military training camps for minors, where boys and girls are taught how to handle rifles and machine guns, in an environment that leaves no room for critical reflection. Hatred for the enemy—Russia—becomes a core part of their education. Yet at that age, true critical judgment has not even begun to develop. Which raises the question: what happens to a generation that learns to hate before it learns to think?

More Than Defense: A Form of Early Ideological Indoctrination

These programs are not simply a desperate response to foreign aggression. They take on the disturbing character of early ideological conditioning, designed to produce disciplined, combat-ready automatons. Natural patriotism is twisted into compulsive nationalism, and defense morphs into military dogma.

Youth Without a Choice: War Imposed Before Thought

The case presented by DW becomes even more alarming when considering that these camps may be run by paramilitary groups like the Azov movement, already known for having organized summer camps that mixed military training with ideological indoctrination. Nationalist symbols are clearly visible in several frames of the video report. The early training of minors is not just controversial—it openly violates the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which forbids the involvement of children in military activities.

A different but equally troubling scenario was outlined by a BBC investigation published in March 2022, which reported on the rush to arms among newly adult Ukrainians following the Russian invasion. Dmytro Kisilenko, an 18-year-old economics student, tells how he was thrust from a university classroom to a checkpoint armed with Molotov cocktails, with only three days of training. “I’m used to my pistol,” he says, while admitting: “Of course I’m scared—nobody wants to die.”

“Most of them were in their late teens, not long out of school. After three days’ basic training they would head for the front line – or very close to it” Ukraine’s teenage army recruits https://t.co/Nms4D7UL5I

— Yalda Hakim (@SkyYaldaHakim) March 13, 2022

The Line Between Emergency and Exploitation

Here too, we are witnessing a generation mobilized hastily, without the tools for real discernment. The testimonies collected by the BBC highlight the severity of the emergency experienced in Kyiv, but they also raise serious questions about the appropriateness of such a use of young civilians. War urgency cannot justify the lack of protection for those who are still in the process of forming—not fighting.

When comparing the two scenarios—DW’s account of fearless children trained in secrecy and the BBC’s portrayal of barely-trained young adults sent to the front line—a clear thread emerges: Ukraine, in its effort to withstand a brutal war, has chosen to involve its youth far before their physical, moral, or spiritual maturity.

Yet there is an abyss between legitimate self-defense and the indoctrination of childhood. While the voluntary enlistment of 18-year-olds may be legally acceptable, the training of 10-year-old children is an ethical crime. Instead of safeguarding its national identity through education and culture, Ukraine risks forging a generation raised on trauma, fear, and vengeance.

A Dangerous Legacy

And this could become, in the long run, a far more dangerous legacy than military invasion itself. Peace—real peace—requires free men and women, capable of discernment, judgment, and forgiveness. But in the logic of early militarization, we see the cultivation of soldiers stripped of critical conscience, victims twice over: of war and of manipulation.

Teaching hatred is not defense. It is dehumanization.

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