Russian schoolchildren being trained for war from school, UK intelligence says

UK Ministry of Defence reported the information.

The course, which consists of 11 modules and is designed for 68 training hours, covers a wide range of topics, including general military combat and small arms training.

The aim of the programme is ‘to form values, acquire knowledge and skills that ensure readiness to fulfil the constitutional duty to protect the state’.

However, experts believe that the real goal of the programme is to create a more militarised society.

According to British intelligence, the new youth strategy, approved in August 2024, is aimed not only at raising the prestige of military service, fostering patriotism and responsibility for fulfilling civic duty, but also at preparing pre-conscription age adolescents for military service morally and physically.

In addition, the number of summer children's camps engaged in various types of military activities has been increasing.

The strategy notes that over the past 30 years, youth values have shifted from collectivism to individualism and from nationhood to cosmopolitanism. It argues that the ideological expansionism of Russia's geopolitical rivals has led to a weakening of traditional values and the rise of individualism. The new strategy aims to reverse this process, of which the militarisation of young people is an integral part.

• On September 2, it was reported that Russia had been holding schoolchildren from the occupied Bilovodsk in Ukraine's Luhansk region in a tent city near Novosibirsk for over a month. The children were enrolled in a specialized program called ‘I Serve Russia’ at a military training ground.