Russians Recruit Belarusian Youth to Make Drones

Russians have started recruiting Belarusian youth to assemble drones, a report released on Sunday, April 28 from Ukrainian partisans says.

According to the National Resistance Center (NRC), the International Youth Forum on UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) Development has commenced at Belarusian State Technical University under Russian supervision.

The forum aims to “maximize the involvement of young Belarusians in developing and producing UAVs for the Russian Armed Forces.”

“Representatives of the Wagner PMC terrorist organization were spotted at the forum,” the report says.

The Ukrainian partisans said that the forum is overseen by State Secretary of the Union State of Russia and Belarus Dmitry Mezentsev, and Russian Ambassador Boris Gryzlov.

A delegation from Russia’s Kazan Technical Research University, involved in the development of combat UAVs in Russia, also arrived in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, the report says.

The university in Kazan is expected to provide scientific personnel to work for the Russian defense industry.

Ivan Fedorov, head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional State Administration, announced that Russia plans to introduce drone operations into school curricula for occupied territories starting Sept. 1 – aiming to arm every school with drones, as well as soldiers – to teach children how to fly drones.

Training children to operate drones for military purposes, potentially involving them in fighting against their native state, constitutes a war crime.

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Skydio said the sanctions have targeted its sole supplier of batteries from China and warned the industry of similar risks posed by reliance on concentrated supply chains from China.

In February, Ukraine’s National Resistance Center also reported on Kremlin plans to introduce drone training in occupied territory schools.

As per a Ukrainska Pravda report, over the past three months, the Russians have at least doubled the number of drones they’re using on the Russo-Ukrainian front line. Not only has the number of drones doubled, but the Russians are modernizing them, making them harder to spot and destroy in time, the sources in the Ukrainian military disclosed.