FRANCE INVESTIGATION 2. In the footsteps of Denys, a Ukrainian teenager deported and recruited by Russia

“We will win! We are Ukraine! Death to the enemies!” On February 25, 2022, the day after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the director of the Kherson social center, Volodymyr Sagaydak, published a photo on his Facebook account accompanied by this caption. In the image, around fifteen children from the establishment are grouped in front of the yellow and blue flag, in support of the Ukrainian forces.

In the middle of the group of children, Denys Kostev, who was then 16 years old, described as “a patriotic teenager” by Volodymyr Sagaydak, displays a broad smile. However, a few months later, we found traces of this child in a Russian military-patriotic organization, the Yunarmia, created in 2016 by Sergei Shoigu, the Russian Minister of Defense.

By investigating the establishment of the Younarmia in Ukraine since 2022, we noticed, via the VKontakte and Telegram networks, that Denys had become one of the faces of this organization in the areas occupied by Russia. In particular, he affirms in videos his support for Vladimir Putin and his desire to become a Russian soldier. Is this patriotic teenager one of the Ukrainian teenagers indoctrinated by the Russians to serve in their army? The France Télévisions Revelators carried out the investigation.

After the death of his mother in 2017 and due to his father’s inability to support him, Denys lives in the social center of Kherson at the time of the invasion of Ukraine by troops Russians, February 24, 2022. At that time, he regularly appeared in photos posted on the Facebook account of the director of the Kherson social center. Furthermore, in a video published on his TikTok account in May 2022, we see Denys defending Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and asserting that “Vladimir Putin is an asshole.” He posts at least six videos in which he curses the Russian president and praises the courage of Ukrainian forces.

A “holiday camp”

Everything changes in the fall. In October 2022, Kherson, in southern Ukraine, is occupied by the Russians and the Ukrainians are preparing a counter-offensive. At that time, Dionysius left Kherson for Crimea. According to the testimony of one of his classmates, Liza Batsura, broadcast by Reuters, a member of staff at their school told the students that they would go to the seaside for two weeks of rest.

Direction Yevpatoria, far from the conflict, in the west of Crimea, for the Druzhba sanatorium, a name which means “friendship” in Russian. Football field, beach, thermal center, cinema room… On its website, the sanatorium describes itself as a health center. “health which offers inexpensive leisure and care”.

Contrary to what he had been told, at the end of the two weeks of stay the young man did not return to Kherson. At the beginning of November 2022, he still appears in several photos of a football tournament organized in Yevpatoria and broadcast on pages Russian VKontakte.

Unlike Denys, several children from the Druzhba holiday camp were able to return to Ukraine, their parents having come to collect them. They reported, notably to Reuters, that the conditions of the stay were stricter than what had been announced to them. This is the beginning of Russification: physical exercises, Russian patriotic songs, ban on showing any allegiance to Ukraine under penalty of being beaten…

Indoctrination through school

We find traces of Denys at the beginning of 2023, at college no. 27 in Henichesk, in the occupied part of the Kherson region. He appears in several photos posted on the college’s VKontakte page. Denys continues his education in this professional training establishment and participates in school activities: distribution of gifts, sporting events, etc.

For the first time since his departure from Kherson, we find on VKontakte a video of Denys, posted on February 24, 2023, the day of the first anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, by Russia Today. With a Russian flag on his shoulders, he says: “I want to serve in the army” And “I am ready to serve the Russian Federation”. The teenager also mentions the Iounarmia, this organization which provides, among other things, training on military bases.

Denys appears in many videos of the Younarmia branch of the Kherson region. He is present at several public events, including the inauguration of a fresco extolling the heroism of Russian soldiers and a ceremony welcoming new recruits to the youth army.

In a video dated April 2023, Denys is wearing a cap with the inscription “Russia” and affirms his support for Vladimir Putin: “Russia’s goal is to protect us. Its president is guarantor of our security”. In one year, the teenager’s speech has completely changed.

“Russian propaganda narratives are clearly visible”

Does he speak freely? Those close to him contradict this pro-Russian conversion. In a report broadcast by the Ukrainian channel Mariupol 7 in September 2023, his godmother explains having received a distress message from Denys: “When are you coming to pick me up? I’m waiting for you, I miss you a lot, I’m afraid.” According to the NGO Save Ukraine, contacted by Les Révélateurs de France Télévisions, Denys is the victim of Russian propaganda and brainwashing: “Although he does not want to stay in Russia, Russian propaganda narratives are clearly visible when communicating with him.”

His Instagram account shows that he is traveling to the Moscow region in July 2023. Then we lose track of him on social media in December, when he last posted from the Russian capital.

The rest is the Wall Street Journal who tells it. On Thursday, February 22, the newspaper published a long investigation into the history of Denys and his loved ones. After ignoring a military summons, the teenager decided to leave Russia. Helped by the NGO Save Ukraine, he reached Belarus at the beginning of February, then Poland, where he currently lives while waiting to be able to join his loved ones, refugees in Germany. Questioned by the American media, he explains having become “The main actor” of Russian propaganda in the Kherson region in exchange for money and under threats, sometimes with a weapon. “We sent him scripts to read, and often outfits to wear,” specifies the American daily.

Le Wall Street Journal reports that the consequences of these two years spent in territories occupied by the Russians have left their mark: Since his return, Denys has held a speech which echoes the accounts from Moscow on the events of the war, although he aspires to find a life peaceful, far from conflict. Unable to answer the journalist who asked him if he felt Russian or Ukrainian, he described himself as“lost soul”.

Denys is not an isolated case, nearly 19,000 Ukrainian children are still missing. Russia continues to deny any kidnapping and assures that these are orphans it is taking in.