By Murad Rakhimov | 2025-07-10

In just two years, Russian children barely old enough to ride a bike will learn to fly drones -- skills already reshaping the battlefield in Ukraine. Backed by the Kremlin, a new program will begin training children as young as 7 to pilot unmanned aircraft, raising concerns that Russia is blurring the line between classroom and combat zone.

Set to launch in 2026, the Pilots of the Future National Drone Piloting Championship will offer educational, technical and competitive events. The Kremlin-aligned youth group Movement of the First and the Drone Racing Federation of Russia will run the program, according to a recent directive by the movement's supervisory board.

While Moscow promotes the initiative as a way to boost technical creativity, critics call it part of a broader effort to militarize children under the banner of innovation and sport.

Drone training

By lowering the age for participation, the Kremlin is opening drone training to elementary school pupils. Organizers plan to expand drone racing infrastructure and promote the sport among youth. They must submit a report on preparations by October 1.

Authorities will create a new position in elementary schools, advisor to the principal on educational matters. Those officials' duties are supposed to include working with budding drone pilots.

The plan reflects the Kremlin's recognition that modern warfare is changing, Alisher Ilkhamov, director of Central Asia Due Diligence in London, said.. He pointed to Ukraine's "brilliant Operation Spider's Web," which exposed weaknesses in Russia's territorial defense.

That drone operation in June damaged or destroyed more than 40 Russian warplanes extending from the Far North to Siberia.

The Kremlin sees Ukraine's advantage in drone warfare and is trying to catch up by cultivating talent early, Ilkhamov told Kontur.

Ideological push

Some analysts view the effort as part of a deeper ideological push.

Anvar Nazirov, a political scientist in Tashkent, called the program part of a broader effort to militarize Russian society, beginning in preschool and continuing through higher education.

"Without a doubt, this is part of a general policy of militarization," he told Kontur.

He compared the initiative to the Soviet-era military game Zarnitsa, a form of military sports training for children, and drew parallels to Nazi Germany's Hitler Youth.

The Kremlin is giving children a militaristic mindset from an early age, he said.

In doing so, it is preparing youth for future conflicts, combining military training with a mighty propaganda campaign, Nazirov pointed out.

"The regime is deliberately preparing the younger generation for a future conflict with Europe," he said.

The program aligns with broader changes in Russian education.

In 2023, educators renamed the high school course Fundamentals of Life Safety as Fundamentals of Security and Defense of the Homeland and expanded it to include drone operations, drone-aided reconnaissance and counter-drone tactics. Students learn to handle rifles, provide first aid and use F-1 and RGD grenades.

Sweeping ideological campaign

Alongside combat training, Russian schools are now teaching revised history lessons on the war in Ukraine.

Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov has long demanded indoctrination of schoolchildren. As early as April 2022, he announced plans to institute patriotism classes in elementary schools.

Such lessons distort reality and reinforce state propaganda, say critics.

Pupils are absorbing a "primitive, black-and-white picture" where Russia is always right and outsiders are enemies, exiled Russian human rights activist and blogger Alexander Kim said.

Russians raised this way are in for an unwelcome surprise, he predicted.

"When the regime collapses -- and sooner or later, it will -- Russians may be shocked to discover that the real world looks very different from the one they've been taught to believe in," he said, citing the early 1990s, when long-blinkered Soviet citizens suddenly collided with reality.