Kremlin Trains Young Pilots: Russia Integrates Drones into School Curriculum

Russia is scaling up the involvement of children in drone training.

The OpenMinds analytical project reported that over 30,000 posts on Russian social media show a sixfold increase in content about children and drones since 2022. In the first seven months of 2025 alone, 8,600 related posts were published.

The analysts investigated the facts of promoting the topic of drones among children – from kindergartens to universities – both in Russia and in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

In many regions of the Russian Federation, schools are equipped with specialized classes to teach drone operation.

In the temporarily occupied territories of Kherson and Donetsk regions and in Crimea, seminars on the use and piloting of drones have begun to be held for schoolchildren.

In the coastal city of Henichesk, the occupation authorities have set up unmanned aerial vehicle laboratories at the local technical university. In Berdiansk, a technical park with drone laboratories has been opened for the professional development of teachers.

School drone competitions are included in the Russian educational strategy until 2040, and drone racing has become commonplace, with hundreds of relevant publications appearing online every month.

“This investigation shows how the Kremlin is normalizing military skills for children at the national level and extending this practice to occupied Ukraine,” OpenMinds analysts say.

The Russian Ministry of Education has already begun publishing textbooks on drone piloting, which will be taught as part of school labor lessons.

In June, Putin instructed the Ministry of Sports to lower the minimum age for participation in drone piloting competitions, so that children as young as 7 years old can now participate in such tournaments.

Back in 2023, Putin announced plans to train one million drone pilots by 2030.

At the same time, Ukraine is also actively opening drone operator training centers. Last year, a training center for FPV drone operators for civilians and the military was launched in Kyiv.