“Children’s administrations of Crimea” or how the occupiers are preparing a personnel reserve
After the temporary occupation of the Ukrainian territories, the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as the RF) has been actively implementing various mechanisms of influence on children and youth, trying to replace their national identity and impose a pro-Russian worldview. To achieve this goal, more and more money is spent from the federal budget every year, and the total budget of the “youth policy” expenditure item has increased almost 100 times since 2014.
Read more in the report “Crimean Scenario 2.0: How the Russian Federation is Eradicating Ukrainian Identity in Children in Occupied Territories
Various movements, organizations, and projects are becoming tools for implementing youth policy. One of them is the project “Children’s Administrations of Crimea”, which, under the rhetoric of developing leadership skills in young people, is aimed at raising a generation loyal to the occupation regime.
What are Children’s Administrations?
The Children’s Administration project (hereinafter referred to as the project) was first organized by the occupation authorities in 2021 in the temporarily occupied territory of Saki. Later, by analogy, it was launched in 2022 in the occupied city of Simferopol and, at the end of 2024, in the TOT of Yevpatoria.
According to statements by representatives of the occupation authorities, the purpose of this project is to provide civil, patriotic, spiritual, and moral education for children and youth, as well as to form a personnel reserve for them. This project has become another tool of Russia to influence children, assimilate them, and eradicate their Ukrainian identity.
“We used all the spheres managed by the Simferopol administration and added life spheres — patriotism, education of the younger generation, how they will live, love and serve their homeland (note: Russia).” “We want the children who will gain knowledge from the curators to choose a profession, enter the university, and then return to the administration,”
says one of the project curators, Ibrahim Shirin.
Ibrahim Shirin — Member of the All-Russian political party “UNITED RUSSIA” since 18.11.2024 — the so-called deputy of the State Council of the Republic of Crimea of the third convocation, Chairman of the Public Movement “Heroes of Crimea”. In 2022, he was a member of the Council for the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Northern Federal District. He was awarded the medals “For the Return of Crimea” and “Reunification of Crimea and Sevastopol with Russia.”
The project envisages 14 areas and “positions” in the children’s administration. These include: the head of the Patriotic Education department, the head of youth policy, the head of international and inter-municipal cooperation, the director of public relations and Internet resources, and the head of internal policy.
Who is involved in the project?
The “Children’s Administration of Crimea” project aims at children with excellent grades and activists aged 7 to 18, with whom so-called mentors work. It is worth noting that during the selection process, a psychologist talks to children, which indicates a possible psychological impact on the unformed child’s psyche. Each child is issued a project participant certificate indicating their “position,” which is a pass to the city administration. Such documents shape the children’s perception of the occupation administration as “legitimate” and force them to associate themselves as part of the occupation authorities.
The selected children are divided into two groups by age:
- “Dwarfs” 7–12 years old, whose work is aimed at “patriotic” education;
- “Dolphins” is for 13-18-year-olds; it adds a political focus to the activities.
Who works with children?
The curators’ personalities deserve special attention, as their characteristics allow us to reflect the model of building an image of an “example” for children.
The project’s leading curator is Olena Safonova.
Olena Safonova is a collaborator born and lived in Dnepropetrovsk (now Dnipro, Ukraine), where she had numerous enforcement proceedings to recover debts. In 2014, she changed her place of residence to the TOT of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, where she cooperated with the occupation authorities and participated in the annexation of Crimea, illegal elections. Later, she ran for the so-called Yevpatoria City Council from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.
She positioned herself as a fortune-teller and tarot reader, the head of the “Magic Noir” psychological center. She currently holds the position of the so-called advisor to the head of the Simferopol city administration.
On her page on the social network VKontakte, she expresses an anti-Ukrainian position and openly supports the occupation authorities.
In an interview, Safonova says that she sets a personal example of a “successful political career” for children and also promotes the project “Children of the Crimean Spring” within the framework of the Children’s Administration. The occupation authorities use children born in 2014 for propaganda purposes in the activities of the “Children of the Crimean Spring” project: they organize exhibitions of photographs, weapons, and stories of participants in the annexation of Crimea under the guise of children born in the year of occupation.
In addition to the curator, mentors work with the children. Among the active mentors are the so-called members of the “SVO” — “heroes of Russia”. One of them is Yuriy Nimchenko, a traitor to Ukraine who violated his military oath and went over to the enemy. In March 2022, Putin awarded him the “Hero of Russia” title. After that, Nimchenko was included in the list of Putin’s confidants as a candidate for the presidential election in 2024 and also became a participant in the Kremlin’s Time of Heroes personnel program*.
The program was developed on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin for participants in the so-called special military operation, after which servicemen are appointed to civil service positions and local government bodies (including the occupation authorities in the TOT).
Currently, he is the so-called Senator of the Federation Council from Crimea. By holding and acting in this position, he supports and implements actions or policies that undermine and threaten Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence, for which the Council of the European Union imposed sanctions on 24.02.2025.
This person has already been described in the article by CCE “Almenda”: What does the “Year of the Defender of the Fatherland” mean for the temporarily occupied territories?
In addition to the military, the children are mentored by representatives of the occupation authorities — the head of the department for organizing mass events of the ANO “House of Youth” and the so-called freelance adviser to the Head of the Republic of Crimea Oleksandra Fedyay, the so-called deputy of the State Council of the Republic of Crimea Artur Kurtiev, the so-called head of the Simferopol administration Mikhail Afanasyev, the so-called deputy of the State Council of the Republic of Crimea Roman Tikhonchuk and others.
What are children involved in?
Some of the events that the members of the Children’s Administrations have been involved in recently include:
- The action “Ours” included an exhibition of military equipment and weapons and the participation of Russian military personnel. They taught children how to handle weapons, put on elements of military equipment, and wrote letters and created drawings supporting the participants of the so-called SVO.
- Involvement in volunteer activities to support the so-called participants of the “SVO”, for which children are trained and receive appropriate certificates. On December 28, 2024, the so-called head of the Simferopol administration, Mikhail Afanasyev, presented certificates of completion of the “Volunteering” course to the participants of the “Children’s Administration of the City of Simferopol” project.
“Dialogues” with military personnel and representatives of the occupation authorities:
In December 2024, the so-called deputy of the State Council of the Republic of Crimea, Artur Kurtiev, told children about his experience at a meeting, which is presented as a model of success and an example to follow;
Oleg and Oleksandra Pivovarov, who participated in the war against Ukraine, held a meeting with children in January 2025. In 2023, Oleg Pivovarov was awarded the “Hero of Russia” title.
Such meetings are held to impose on children a positive perception of the Russian military involved in the war against Ukraine. In addition, children are instilled with the obligation to repeat their actions, which are presented as heroic — in fact, this is a persuasion to participate in the armed structures of the occupying country.
The project “Children’s Administration of Crimea” is another step of the occupation regime in assimilating Ukrainian children. Through educational programs, extracurricular activities, “military-patriotic education,” and other forms of integration of children into political and propaganda processes, the Russian Federation seeks to consolidate its influence and create preconditions for a long-term occupation. It is important to remember that these actions are the personal responsibility of specific adults who deliberately involve children in these processes and contribute to their political and ideological processing. Bringing the perpetrators to justice is a necessary step to stop these criminal practices.
This article was prepared with the financial support of the Czech organisation People in Need, as part of the SOS Ukraine initiative. The contents of the publication do not necessarily reflect their position.
