Open source reporting indicates russian children and young people are being taught and trained in the operation and technical underpinnings of unmanned aerial systems at more than 500 schools in russia, as well as 30 colleges with practical training centres. More than 2,500 teachers are reported to have been trained to teach in this field.
This forms part of russia's Minister of Education and Science Valery Falkov's May 2024 stated intention to have trained one million UAS specialists by 2030, the UK Defense Intelligence reports.
Read more: UK Defense Intelligence: russian Record Drone Attacks Push Ukraine's Defenses to the Limit
On June 12, 2025, russian President Vladimir Putin also reportedly stated that the development and deployment of a separate branch of specific unmanned systems forces within the Armed Forces of russia was currently taking place.
The teaching and instruction of russian children and young people in the use of UAS is a notable development in the highly likely continuing militarization of russian education, a trend which has increased since russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Together with Vladimir Putin's reported statement, this also highlights the continually increasing importance of UAS in the war, as well as russia's almost certain intent to significantly increase both its UAS proficiency, and the scope and scale of its UAS capabilities, in the longer term.
As Defense Express previously reported, it has been reported that russian President Putin has reiterated longstanding maximalist demands regarding russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, including for the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the four internationally-recognized Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson.
Read more: UK Defense Intelligence: at Current Pace, russia Needs Four More Years to Capture Temporarily Occupied Regions
