The Russian military power is recruiting schoolchildren, as young as 13, into its military industrial complex through video games, drone-building contests, and intellectual coding challenges in its Ukrainian campaign, according to The Insider.
A Kremlin-backed gaming platform with more than 600,000 youth users offers university admission incentives and perks for mastering drone engineering and electronic warfare for “task-based” military tech development.
Critics have accused Moscow of childhood weaponization to produce 2,000 attack drones daily, all while escaping the scrutiny reserved for Western nations.
Part of Moscow’s broader objective to recruit minors into the defense sector by framing it as casual school activities, these advancements in military tech projects involve students as young as 13 and are organized with the Agency for Strategic Initiatives – government body supporting young professionals and social projects.
Russian Military Modernization from Classrooms
Sources revealed the training of Russia’s schoolchildren mainly revolves around drone design, coding, and electronic warfare to magnify the current strength of Russian military. In several cases, the young participants worked directly on military initiatives, even attending hardware and software projects inside official defense centers.
One Russian modern military gaming platform identified in the report has already attracted more than 600,000 users. Participation comes with incentives, additional points on the country’s school leaving exam, potentially improving university admission chances.
A related contest using the same major advances in military tech platform, with challenges set by defense contractors, drew more than 16,000 applicants this year. Teenagers interviewed by The Insider revealed that companies working with Russia’s Ministry of Defence hired them for flexible, task-based roles often with parental consent.
If another country trained children to build weapons, Russian military power would immediately label it brainwashing especially if the US were behind it. But Moscow is now quietly turning classrooms to strength of Russian military and into defense laboratories without evoking the same sort of international indignation and scrutiny.
In modern warfare times, propaganda is reconceptualizing what’s was once pre-established acceptance, because Russia’s advanced military tech frames militarizing children as patriotism but attacks the same elsewhere. The lack of international reaction suggests the Kremlin is succeeding in normalizing practices that would otherwise be seen as violations of human rights and child protection laws.
Russia Warns of Stronger Military Measures If Western Pressure Persists
By November, Russia is expected to expand its drone production capacity to enable as many as 2,000 strikes per day, according to Germany’s Ministry of Defense. Unmanned systems have already reshaped the battlefield in the now three-year war between Russia and Ukraine, with drones playing an increasingly main role.
The Kremlin’s recruitment of minors to support its drone program violates multiple international conventions in its military tech development and places children at risk, as drone production sites could become Ukrainian military targets, according to The Guardian.
Moscow is not only escalating its military capacity but also establishing the conflict’s national rules within the next generation of Russian military power society.
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