Russia plans to launch what it calls a unified school television network, due to start speaking in all educational institutions across the country, and in Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories, in 2027.
Institute of Mass Information (IMI) expert Olena Holub warns of the related propaganda risks targeting children in the temporarily occupied territories.
The project was announced by Russian Education Minister Sergey Kravtsov, Russian state-affiliated media outlet RIA Novosti reported.
Kravtsov said that the project was part of an “educational work system.” Schoolchildren will be shown films and clips after lessons and during breaks. The system will first be tested in 15 pilot regions before being rolled out across Russia.
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IMI’s Olena Holub stressed that the new TV project would become yet another tool for militarising and ideologically indoctrinating children.
“Russia is promoting militarist propaganda not just among adults, but among children too, through organisations such as the Yunarmiya. Launching a centralised school television network could become yet another channel for exerting influence over schoolchildren. Its initiators make no secret of the fact that, alongside learning-related tasks, it will also serve an ‘moral education’ function. So it’s reasonable to assume that the programming will feature Russian patriotic, and possibly outright militarist, rhetoric,” Olena Holub remarked.
The expert stressed that the greatest danger is Ukrainian children living under occupation being drawn into this system.
“If this television network becomes accessible in the occupied territories, Ukrainian children will be included in its audience too. This would create an additional avenue for pushing Russian propaganda narratives onto them and for cultivating a hostile attitude towards Ukraine,” IMI’s media expert concluded.
In February 2026, the Prosecutor General’s Office was investigating 19,546 documented cases of Ukrainian children being forcefully moved to Russia. Deportation is only the first stage of the occupiers’ systematic state policy which ultimately aims to militarise young people and prepare them for service in the Russian armed forces.