Students in Russia will learn to fly combat drones from the new school year, which will begin in September, Russian Senator Artem Sheykin announced, as quoted by The Moscow Times.

Students in Russian-occupied CrimeaPhoto: Associated Press / Profimedia Images

He clarified that the lessons will be held within the framework of the subject “Fundamentals of life safety”.

Students of classes X and XI will also learn how to use machine guns and grenades as part of the same subject.

The Ministry of Defense of Russia has already approved plans for this, the RIA Novosti agency reports.

Ruslan Talikov, Deputy Minister of Defense, said that the program will also include methods of countering enemy weapons, such as drones.

Britain’s Ministry of Defense also cited the decision in its assessment on Friday morning, which it said was part of an effort to impose a culture of “militarized patriotism” on students.

This is not the first time that young Russians are forced to learn the art of war and the use of weapons. Such training was mandatory in Russian schools before the collapse of the Soviet Union. This continued until the constitutional crisis of 1993, which after ten days of bloody confrontations led to the replacement of the Soviet Constitution of 1978.

The Ministry of Education of Russia already announced last November that it was preparing a project aimed at returning to this situation, after the Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov addressed it.

Images published by Russian media since March have shown that military training of students has already begun in occupied Crimea.

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