Russia finds new way to recruit young people in Crimea for war, media report
Photo: occupied Crimea is being turned into a main training hub for drone operators (Getty Images)
Russian media claim that the largest UAV operator training center in the country has been established on the peninsula, with no equivalent in any other Russian region.
The training course lasts more than 50 days, and more than 1,500 servicemen have already completed training there.
Crimea’s head, Sergey Aksyonov, says the peninsula is the only Kremlin-controlled region with a "full cycle" system — the selection of talented school and university students, their training, and subsequent inclusion in the army’s personnel reserve.
Propaganda and educational traps
Borys Babin, an expert with the Association of Reintegration of Crimea, notes that the Kremlin instructed regional leaders back in 2025 to maximize the recruitment of drone operators.
"This is happening through the militarization of youth in the form of courses, training sessions, and schools often linked to colleges and universities. The process is accompanied by total propaganda," Babin said.
According to him, the curator of this process is Stanislav Gretsky, who previously oversaw transport issues and was linked to corruption scandals in Simferopol.
Ambitious plans: a military academy
Despite Crimea's proximity to the front line, the authorities plan to expand the infrastructure further.
Human rights activists, speaking anonymously, say that authorities in Simferopol are considering the creation of a military academy for training unmanned systems officers.
Previously, similar initiatives regarding border troops did not find support in Russia’s Defense Ministry due to the region’s vulnerability to Ukrainian strikes. However, Moscow’s interest in UAV specialists has now significantly increased.
Militarization is also being encouraged through a system of incentives.
For example, in Feodosia, Maksim Daniyelyan, founder of a drone training center, was named the best entrepreneur of occupied Crimea.
Strikes on Crimea
Crimea is internationally recognized as part of Ukraine. Accordingly, any Russian military facilities there are considered legitimate targets for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
On the night of February 17, Ukrainian forces struck a Russian Ka-27 naval helicopter in temporarily occupied Crimea.
Several Russian drone command posts were also hit.
It was also reported that Ukraine used three domestically produced Flamingo missiles to strike an FSB intelligence base in occupied Crimea.
