Kyiv, Ukraine – When the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Denys Kostev was 18 and living in an orphanage in Kherson. Disgusted by the war, he began posting social media videos criticizing the invading Russian forces.
His stance changed when he was forcibly relocated to occupied Crimea, where he was made to appear as a supporter of the invasion.
Now 22 and back in Kyiv, Kostev told Al Jazeera he played the role of a pro-Russian spokesperson simply to survive.
Affable, articulate, and photogenic, Kostev had previously participated in theater activities at his orphanage in the southern Ukrainian city, where he resided following his mother’s imprisonment and death.
These experiences led him to feature prominently in numerous videos produced for Russian television networks—compliance was mandatory, as refusal resulted in physical harm or threats of imprisonment, he explained.
“It was necessary to play this pro-Russian role,” said Kostev, who has since escaped Russia and is now training to fight for Ukraine. “I wanted to live.”
But staying alive came at a high cost, he noted.
Kostev’s traumatic journey
Russian tanks entered Kherson shortly after the war began. Individuals suspected of supporting Ukraine were detained and interrogated. Some were reportedly mistreated.
In late 2022, while residing in the orphanage, Kostev was also attending a vocational school. As hostilities escalated, he and others were moved to the Luchisty (“Full of Sunshine”) summer camp in Russia-annexed Crimea.
“Each morning began with the Russian national anthem, and every Monday featured a formal raising of the Russian flag,” Kostev recalled about his time at the camp.
The orphans were kept in isolation, he added.
“They lacked parents, with no one to guide them on what was right or wrong,” he said. “Eventually, you start parroting pro-Russian rhetoric.”
At least one teenager Kostev encountered at the camp later enlisted to fight against Kyiv, he claimed.
Ukraine continues efforts to repatriate allegedly abducted children and to gather evidence against those suspected of involvement in their displacement. Over 2,600 children have been returned so far.
The summer camp’s administration has not responded to Al Jazeera’s inquiries. Kyiv has stated that 84 Ukrainian orphans were detained at the facility in 2023.
Those who managed to leave were among nearly 4,000 children forcibly taken from orphanages in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, according to Ukrainian human rights organizations. Kyiv alleges that Moscow has relocated approximately 20,000 Ukrainian minors to Russia for “re-education” during the war.
While the Kremlin concedes that children are undergoing “re-education,” it denies Ukraine’s accusations, asserting that any relocated children were rescued from combat zones.
Some of these children lost their parents due to Russian airstrikes, while others ended up in “summer camps” after pro-Moscow authorities allegedly persuaded their parents to send them for “safety reasons.”
Ukraine claims that some children were abducted from parents who refused to cooperate with Moscow-installed “administrations” in occupied territories.
Ukrainian human rights groups also allege that Russian forces and their local collaborators have interrogated and abused parents—inspecting their bodies for pro-Kyiv tattoos or signs of violence from automatic weapons.
Alarming accounts surface
International human rights organizations have condemned the alleged abduction and indoctrination of children as one of the Kremlin’s most serious violations.
“The physical devastation of this war is evident to all, but the systematic campaign to abduct and ‘re-educate’ Ukrainian children as Russians constitutes something far more sinister,” said Ivar Dale, a senior policy advisor with the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, a human rights watchdog, in an interview with Al Jazeera.
“It is unacceptable,” he stated. “There are deeply troubling reports that Russia is conducting military training with the intention of deploying some of these children in its war against Ukraine.”
Approximately 5,500 young Ukrainians in Russian-occupied areas were reportedly enrolled in Yunarmiya (“Young Army”), a youth organization that provides military training, according to Ukrainian officials.
The earlier the age at which children undergo such conditioning, the more profound the impact on their developing worldview, explained Svitlana Chunikhina, vice president of the Association of Political Psychologists of Ukraine in Kyiv.
“Children possess adaptable minds; they quickly acclimate to new environments and largely trust adults—sometimes without question, because they have no alternative—and accept many concepts as normal,” she said.
This vulnerability makes them susceptible to adopting Moscow’s narratives, she continued.
“However, this doesn’t mean every Ukrainian child will inevitably follow the same path,” Chunikhina emphasized.
While younger children followed the Russian curriculum at the camp, there appeared to be no structured program for teenagers like Kostev.
Alongside friends, he spent time in a Soviet-era compound surrounded by cypress trees, acacia trees, and evergreen shrubs.
They were forbidden from leaving the premises—but occasionally sneaked out to purchase cigarettes and alcohol. Those caught intoxicated were isolated for three days in the hospital and threatened with incarceration by the camp’s security chief, a former member of Ukraine’s special forces who had defected, according to Kostev.
The message that they would “never return to Ukraine” was repeatedly emphasized, he said.
In April 2023, after months in camps across Crimea, Kostev was returned to the occupied southern town of Henichesk—where he discovered that Russian forces had withdrawn from Kherson seven months earlier.
He enrolled in another vocational school and was placed in a dilapidated, freezing dormitory, which he publicly criticized in a video that gained widespread attention.
The following day, Russian-backed police conducted a strip search, accusing him of “spying for Kyiv” and threatening him with imprisonment, he said.
Subsequently, he was compelled to praise Russia on camera.
In one recording, he claimed to have joined a Kremlin-funded youth movement, wrapped himself in the Russian flag, and announced his intention to enlist.
Yet he revealed to Al Jazeera that he was coerced into promoting Russia and had always sought to escape.
In early 2024, Kostev reconnected with his older brother and grandmother, who had relocated to Germany. He traveled to join them and later crossed into Poland, where he remained for months while waiting for a new Ukrainian passport.
In April, he returned to Ukraine. He reported participating in a military training program and is currently in the initial phase of his service as a drone operator.
“No matter where you are—home is better,” he said, seated in a shopping mall in a Kyiv suburb, just moments before air raid sirens forced everyone outdoors.
