RUSSIAN children are being forced to make parts for flying grenades which are dropped by kamikaze drones to kill and maim – as well as to construct crutches for the war wounded.
Vladimir Putin has unveiled compulsory Soviet-style “labour classes”, where pupils are deployed to make goods for his frontline troops.
Footage has revealed young students finessing pre-made plastic orange “tails” to attach to grenades dropped from Russian drones.
These tails are essential in enabling the grenades to hit Ukrainian targets more accurately.
This is the latest example of underage children being militarised by Vladimir Putin’s regime.
A TV report in the Russian region Tatarstan showed children working on the VOG-17 grenade “tails”.
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“This might look like a toy at first glance – but it’s capable of carrying out a very serious function,” said the report.
“These are tails to help a grenade to hit right at the target, when released from a drone, without flipping in the air.”
In the same region, schoolchildren in woodworking classes are seen making crutches for Russian troops wounded in Putin’s war of aggression against a sovereign Ukraine.
Pupils aged nine-to-12 from Aleksandro-Slobodskaya School are taught how to construct the crutches.
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In this one school alone they had made 60 pairs of crutches, with 40 already sent to hospitals caring for the war wounded.
One pair of crutches takes these schoolchildren two hours to construct.
The same school has made thousands of trench candles for use on the frontline.
Govorit NeMoskva Telegram channel reported: “Schoolchildren across the country are forced to weave camouflage nets, make trench candles, dry soups and amulets for soldiers.
“Now it comes to forcing them to make parts for weapons” – referring to the lethal grenade “tails”.
Meanwhile students in Mozhga, Udmurtia region, were set to work knitting “stump stockings” to supply hospitals for the war wounded.
These are for use by men whose feet or legs have been blown off or amputated.
This came as Putin signed a new law banning the use of mobile phones by schoolchildren in class.
The only exceptions relate to sudden emergencies involving a threat to the life or health of schoolchildren and teachers.
He also made it compulsory from the next academic year to stage labour lessons of the kind when pupils are dragooned into making supplies for the war zone.
Among the other items are camouflage nets, balaclavas, and tourniquets for the wounded.
The Moscow Times reported: “Militarisation has been actively penetrating the education sector since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine.
“By the summer of 2023, Russian schools, colleges and kindergartens had held 200,000 military-patriotic events related to the current war.”
Earlier this year, Russia’s Ministry of Education announced that mandatory training will be given to secondary school children in Russia.
All children of this age group are expected to undergo basic military training developed jointly by the country’s ministries of Defence and Education.
Kids as young as four have also been seen role playing battle scenarios – with boys dressed as soldiers and girls dressed as nurses.
Four and five-year-olds in Beshpagir village have been taught to parade in their schools holding guns.
While a pro-war rally saw “baby troops” marching in the military uniforms of the FSB security service’s border guards.
Russian child psychologist Elena Kuznetsova said: “This is romanticising and decorating the worst thing in our lives — war.”
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Neha Dhillon
