On June 10, 2025, during the “Po Forme” program on News.by, anchor Anna Litash claimed that Baltic officials had handed over their youth to curators from London and Warsaw.
“The Baltics handed over leadership of all children’s and youth organizations to Britain and Poland. Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia signed an agreement to that effect. Now, under the supervision of London and Warsaw, the right ideas will be instilled in the minds of Baltic children. The report also noted that, under the agreement, British experts would be involved in all militarized youth organizations in the Baltics. It remains unclear how much, or for what, Baltic officials sold their children."
To support the anchor’s claims, the broadcast showed screenshots of two articles with the headlines “Britain and Poland to train Baltic teenagers in military affairs” and “The Baltics will hand over their children to be raised by other countries.”
One of the articles was published on the Eurasia Expert website. The author cites information from Baltnews.com. The second headline is from Baltnews.com, which in turn references the ZhS Premium Telegram channel—a frequent entry in our fake news rankings for publishing falsehoods. The WTF team found the original post about cooperation between the Baltic states, the United Kingdom, and Poland.
“In Riga, the ‘fabulous five’—Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Britain, and Poland—signed an agreement on jointly ‘taking care’ of the next generation. Now, Baltic teenagers will be taught not just math but also military skills—sharing experience, expertise, and, of course, the ‘right’ ideology,” ZhS Premium reported.
The post included a photo that allowed WTF journalists to identify the event in question and determine which documents were signed. It was a meeting of youth cadet organizations from Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, and the United Kingdom, held in May 2025 in Kuldiga, Latvia. Participants signed an agreement on cooperation and organizing joint international camps, competitions, and cultural events. In other words, the goal was to share knowledge and experience.
ZhS Premium’s authors left out the fact that this wasn’t something new. Events like this have taken place before. Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia have been working together in this area since 2002, with the United Kingdom and Poland joining the exchanges in recent years. The countries take turns hosting youth events. For example, in previous years, competitions were held in Latvia, while Lithuania organized a camp.
Cadets from the United Kingdom participate in exchange programs not only with the Baltic states. We found information about joint camps involving young people from Canada, India, the United States, Italy, Australia, and Norway.
