Putin forces Russian schoolchildren into drone and gun lessons in new sign of war plans | World | News

Russian children as young as 12 years old are being made to take part in drone and gun lessons in school. The move by the Kremlin is being viewed as a clear new sign Vladimir Putin is ready to embark on more years of war. 

It comes as the Russian leader prepares to host Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Moscow for discussions on ending fighting in Ukraine. There are major doubts Mr Putin will agree to any deal, and at the same time he is rolling out military classes indicating he has little interest in scaling back his warfare ambitions which some analysts fear go wider than Ukraine. The classes will see schoolchildren trained to assemble and operate drones as part of the major change to the curriculum.

All Russian pupils will now study drones during compulsory lessons on “Fundamentals of Homeland Security and Defence”, according to government documents reviewed by state media agency RIA Novosti.

The Kremlin-approved course will include drone construction kits, simulators and software-hardware complexes.

The state media openly celebrates “drone crews” being trained from the school desk to learn modern warfare.

“Assembling a drone in three minutes: Schoolchildren will be taught to fly unmanned aerial vehicles,” headlined slavishly pro-Putin Tsargrad media.

Under new rules approved by Russia’s Cabinet of Ministers, schools will be equipped with a whopping 90 types of military-related training aids.

These include full-size mock-ups of Kalashnikov assault rifles and Makarov pistols, AK-74 magazines with dummy rounds, imitation RGD, F-1, RGN and RGO grenades, night vision device and gas masks and chemical warfare protection kits.

These will be used in the war lessons starting at the age of 12.

Tsargrad reported: “Lessons on basic safety promise to be among the most interesting. At least for boys.”

The channel compared the new programme to Soviet military training, when children could assemble a Kalashnikov assault rifle in an average of 30 seconds.

The measures mark a dramatic expansion of military and drone training for minors, embedded directly into the national curriculum.

The initiative is separate from Yunarmia, a Kremlin-backed military youth movement with 1.8 million members that critics call the ‘Putin Youth’.

It is also distinct from a militarisation of the curriculum reaching down into nursery schools, seen as propagandising kindergarten children.

The war lessons come as Mr Witkoff confirmed talks with the Russian president.

“Well, look, we have to go meet him on Thursday,” he told CNBC in an interview, referring to Putin.

“But it’s the Russians who are asking for that meeting. I think that’s a significant statement on their part.”

Moscow also confirmed the talks but it remains to be seen if Mr Putin will make any concessions at a time when his missile and drone strikes on power and heating plants have left millions of Ukrainians freezing.

However, the head of Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, Kyrylo Budanov, has claimed progress has been made.

“We are moving forward,” said the former GUR military intelligence chief.

“I cannot say that we will definitely have peace tomorrow.

“If anyone promises that, it is not true. But we are making enormous efforts to achieve it.”