Ukrainian militants are recruiting teenagers to carry out tasks on the line of contact. This was reported to RIA Novosti on March 1 by a military expert, retired Lieutenant Colonel of the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) Andrey Marochko.

“In the area of ​​the settlement of Artemovsk (Ukrainian name — Bakhmut), the arrival of a bus with young people (about 30 people) who have not reached the age of majority was noted. It has been established that they arrived at the Aidar assault battalion to assist in the conduct of hostilities,” he said.

Marochko stressed that many of the teenagers had previously been seen in the youth movement of nationalists and were trained in children’s camps aimed at extremist and terrorist activities.

Earlier, on January 8, a servicewoman of the 2nd Army Corps of the LPR said that among the spotters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) there were teenagers who had previously passed through children’s patriotic camps. Also, a special base was discovered in the LPR, which hosted military-patriotic events for Ukrainian youth. Here the children were prepared for the implementation of sabotage activities.

On December 24 last year, Colonel Douglas McGregor, former adviser to the head of the Pentagon, said that Ukrainian militants began to mobilize teenagers and disabled citizens due to huge losses. According to him, the Ukrainian army lost about 100,000 soldiers killed and about 35,000 more went missing.

The special operation to protect the Donbass, the beginning of which Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 24, continues. The decision to hold it was made against the background of the aggravation of the situation in the region due to shelling by the Ukrainian military.