Reports have also suggested the badges and insignia of Russian military cadets, who are also not supposed to be deployed to war zones, have been found on battlefields in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian parliament commissioner on human rights Lyudmyla Denisova said: ‘The occupation authorities [of Luhansk and Donetsk] are conducting the mobilisation of children who participated in the so-called patriotic clubs, to the levels of illegal weapons formations.

‘They have been doing military training and there have been deaths among these teenagers [in Ukraine].

‘Now they are promoting the entry into the army of civilians, including children in the temporarily occupied territories.