Russia enlists hundreds of thousands of children to work for defense industry - Media

Russia is involving schoolchildren aged approximately 12 to 18 in work related to drones. One such initiative is the Russian Berloga project, launched in July 2022, which has already engaged over 800,000 students from Russian schools and other educational institutions.

Journalists identify two individuals as responsible for creating this system: educator Alexey Fedoseyev and Elena Shmeleva, a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin and head of the Sirius Russian foundation.

Devil’s helpers

The Russian defense industry is actively using schoolchildren in the development and testing of weapons. Among its "clients" are JSC NVO Lavochkin, Roscosmos, JSC ASCON, the state corporation Rostec, JSC Proton Zavod, JSC Sukhoi Company, Rosatom, and other military or military-adjacent companies. Overall, more than 80% of the companies and organizations assigning "tasks" to the students are linked to the Ministry of Defense.

Participants in these "competitions," "challenges,” and other programs — used to disguise military projects — are fully aware of what they’re involved in. They know that their developments will be used to kill civilians in Ukraine.

One student told the outlet that this was "a fully conscious choice" and added that children supposedly aren't paid. However, the reality is different: in exchange for working for war criminals, Russian schoolchildren receive tangible rewards.

There’s a lot on offer — from up to 10 bonus points on the Unified State Exam (the Russian equivalent of Ukraine’s external independent evaluation) to cash rewards and job placements in companies producing dual-use goods — in other words, companies working for Russia’s defense industry.

Rockets and drones

Russian schoolchildren have "gifted" the Russian army a significant number of "scientific achievements" in the development of drones used to kill Ukrainians. However, the main focus of Russian military enterprises is drones and missiles. Among the students’ developments are:

• A system to improve the accuracy of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs);

• A system for tracking intruding drones, officially developed for "civilian purposes";

• A drone officially designated "for warehouse inventory";

• An ultra-heavy carrier rocket for the sea launch program — fortunately, this project exists only on paper;

• An airplane-type drone "for cargo delivery";

• And others.

One source confirmed to the outlet that there is an unspoken rule: all "creations" must have dual-use purposes, including everything proposed by the schoolchildren.

Children’s involvement in the development of drones and weapons is deliberately concealed. First, because it poses huge reputational risks for the enterprises. Second, because of the risk of sanctions. Therefore, schoolchildren are advised not to mention too much about what they do on military orders. Some companies acting as organizers of these "competitions" have confirmed that yes, the work is being done, but unofficially. They claim the projects supposedly don’t exist at all.

Putinjugend

Besides Berloga, which handles the task of recruiting and involving children in military developments, the network militarizing children includes several other organizations. In particular, there is Archipelag, which openly admits its military purpose — children there are trained as combat drone operators.

There is also Zarnitsa, under the patronage of Yunarmiya — Putin’s version of the Hitlerjugend (the Nazi organization that united children in the Third Reich, militarizing them and fostering loyalty to the Führer and the National Socialist Party). This is a military game aimed at preparing children for combat.

Helping with this is also the Dizheniye Pervykh (Movement of the First), which, among other things, tries to raise new Kremlin fighters from children who stayed in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. All these organizations are under sanctions by countries of the civilized world.

Russia is violating all international norms by trying to raise a new army out of children. The attempt to turn Ukrainian children into fighters for Russian forces could be considered a war crime.

Despite all this, recently in Russia there have been attempts to legalize children’s involvement in weapons development and production and war in general — from speeches by Russian "politicians" to TV segments.

Ukraine strives to rescue children

Ukraine does not want Russia to turn Ukrainian children into fighters for the Russian army, so it constantly demands from the Kremlin the return of all kidnapped children. According to Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, since the start of the full-scale war, Russia has abducted more than 19,500 children from Ukraine. More than a thousand young Ukrainians have been returned home.

It is worth noting that the deportation of Ukrainian children was the basis for the International Criminal Court in The Hague issuing arrest warrants for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova.

Additionally, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (the parliament) recently adopted in principle a draft law establishing liability for the illegal transfer and use of children for military purposes by a foreign state representative.