Monitoring Report: “Universal Soldier” or Education as the Weapon of Russia in the Occupied South of Ukraine. January–June 2026
This monitoring report covers the period from January to June 2026 and highlights new instruments introduced by the occupation authorities, as well as the intensification of existing mechanisms through which the Russian Federation uses education as a tool of Russification, militarisation, and control over Ukrainian children and young people in the temporarily occupied territories.
The report analyses, among other issues:
- the recruitment of university students into the Russian Federation’s newly established Unmanned Systems Forces through educational institutions;
- the strengthening of digital control through the blocking of independent sources of information, the forced transition to the MAX messaging platform, and restrictions on the use of VPN services;
- the expansion of programmes aimed at the militarisation of children and young people, including UAV operation training;
- the extension of ideological influence over preschool children as part of the proclaimed Year of Preschool Education;
- the introduction of new mechanisms for rewriting history and shaping a Russian identity;
- the continuation of the forced passportisation of children and the strengthening of institutional control over children deprived of parental care;
- the expansion of Russification mechanisms and the further displacement of Ukrainian identity through the education system.
The report also presents statistical data on the participation of children in occupation-controlled youth organisations, analyses newly adopted legal acts of the Russian Federation, and documents specific examples of their implementation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
The full version of the monitoring report is available below.
This monitoring report was prepared by the NGO Centre for Civic Education “Almenda” with the support of the Askold and Dir Fund, administered by ISAR Ednannia as part of the Strong Civil Society of Ukraine – a Driver Towards Reforms and Democracy Project, funded by Norway and Sweden. The content of this monitoring report is the sole responsibility of the NGO Centre for Civic Education “Almenda” and does not necessarily reflect the views of the governments of Norway or Sweden, or of ISAR Ednannia.
