Children kidnapped from Ukraine are being forced to fight for Russia against their own country once they turn into adults, a new report has suggested.
The kids are reportedly being forced to wear Russian khakis and head to the front when they hit 18.
According to Human Rights Watch, Ukrainian children are being taken to "re-education camps" where Russian soldiers tell them their parents "have abandoned" them.
Some estimates put the number of abducted children as high as 35,000, with Ukraine suffering one of the worst birth rates in the entire world.
Citing Ukrainian government officials, a spokesman from the Ministry of Defence said the kidnapped children are made to take a "direct part" in the war against their fellow Ukrainians once they turn of age.
The MOD's intelligence update read: "The Russian senior leadership almost certainly views, at least in part, abducted Ukrainian children as a potential source of both current, and future personnel for the Russian military.
"The abduction and forced conscription of Ukrainian children into the Russian military fits into the Russian senior leadership's long-standing Russification policy in illegally occupied Ukrainian territory, which seeks to extirpate Ukrainian culture, identity and statehood."
Member of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's staff Daria Zarivna, previously said that Russia plans to use these kidnapped children as a "weapon" against Ukraine and Europe more broadly.
Protests have been held around the world demanding the return of Ukrainian children
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Since Putin's war began in 2022, the population in Ukraine has shrunk by more than 10 million, or around a quarter.
The country now has one of the world's lowest birth rates and one of the highest death rates - 18.6 deaths per 1,000 people, according to the US Central Intelligence Agency.
The birth rate has simultaneously fallen to about 0.9 children per woman, down from 1.16 before 2022, according to a government official.
The United Nations says that is one of the world's lowest and experts say action is vital now to head off future fallout.
Hundreds of thousands of people of reproductive age have been killed or wounded and millions more have fled, many with no plans to return.
LATEST FROM THE FRONTLINE IN UKRAINE
Protests demanding children are released from Russia have been held in London
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Head of Projects at Bring Kids Back UA Maksym Maksymov said: "In Russia’s war, Ukrainian children have not only undergone trauma and displacement, they have also suffered systemic deportation, illegal adoption, and forced assimilation.
"If that’s not enough, Russia is subjecting Ukrainian children to militarisation, conscripting them to the Russian Army and forcing them to fight against their home country.
"For those of us who have observed Putin’s actions up close for more than a decade, we are well accustomed to their evasion, distortion and calculated indifference.
"But even we are appalled by the deliberate cruelty and disconnection from reality when it comes to the fate of our stolen children.
"For the sake of global peace, Russia must return Ukrainian children home, then we can speak about a credible path forward."
Vladimir Putin met with China's President Xi Jinping and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un earlier this week
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Today Sir Keir Starmer has held a coalition of the willing between other European leaders, where he said President Putin "cannot be trusted" as a force for peace.
A Downing Street spokesman told GB News: "The Prime Minister said Putin could not be trusted as he continued to delay peace talks and simultaneously carry out egregious attacks on Ukraine.
"That was further underlined by the indiscriminate attacks in Kyiv last week, causing significant damage to the British Council and EU delegation buildings, he added.
"Discussing the latest military planning for the Coalition of the Willing, the Prime Minister emphasised that the group had an unbreakable pledge to Ukraine, with President Trump's backing, and it was clear they now needed to go even further to apply pressure on Putin to secure a cessation of hostilities.
"The Prime Minister also welcomed announcements from Coalition of the Willing partners to supply long range missiles to Ukraine to further bolster the country's supplies."
Sir Keir Starmer hosted the virtual meeting earlier today
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Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country would "fully support" Russia's army as a "fraternal duty",
President Putin called the two countries' ties "special" as the pair flanked Chinese President Xi Jinping at a massive military parade.
Reacting to the news of the three leaders meeting, defence editor of the Evening Standard Robert Fox told GB News: "Putin looked extremely pleased with himself in Beijing.
"But it's very, very odd what the messages are. He says one thing. 'Oh, we'll go on. We'll fight on'. It's not going terribly well. Their summer offensive was supposed to have taken out the whole of Donetsk."
Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell told GB News: "The kidnapping, indoctrination and militarisation of Ukrainian children is a war crime and a form a child abuse.
"Throwing young people into Putin’s meat grinder in Ukraine is not only inhuman and barbaric, it is also a sign of Russia desperation and weakness.”