Boys and girls from Murmansk are training for war
Under guidance of professional instructors with experience from the war in Ukraine, several hundred teenage kids have spent their summer holiday on a military training ground in the Murmansk region.
The militarisation of Russian youth did not take a summer break. In Murmansk, like all over the country, school kids have spent the summer in military-style holiday camps.
The camps organised in Murmansk by VOIN, a so-called military-patriotic organisation, included 450 teenagers. A total of four 21-day camps were organised and many of the activities included hardcore military training.
Among the activities were shooting exercises, engineering and tactical training. There was reportedly also training in drone flying and tactical medicine, as well as a cultural program, the organisation informs on its Telegram channel.
"It is very interesting, we get a lot of useful skills, for example flying drones with simulators, things that could be useful for us in the future," a young boy named Sergei says to state propaganda channel Vesti Murman.
"We are learning how to do engineering and learn about explosives," adds Matvey, another camp participant.
Among the participants in the summer camp was also Aleksei Torbin. The young man from Alakurtti, the military town located near the border to Finland, on his social media page boasts his military skills. On a photo, he poses together with two friends with automatic weapons in their hands. All of them have their faces covered.
The VOIN summer camps are supported by the regional government and its programme titled 'Time of Young Heroes.' Regional Governor Andrei Chibis himself paid a visit to the campsite.
The VOIN organisation was established on an initiative from top Kremlin officials Sergei Kirienko and Yuri Trutnev in 2023. Involved in the training activities are also militant Chechen groups. Over the past two years, VOIN training centres have been established across Russia.
The priority group is teenage boys in the age 14-18 and the training is aimed at recruitment to the armed forces.
Dmitry Shevchenko is director of VOIN. He himself came to visit the camp in Murmansk. He also met with Murmansk Deputy Governor Anna Golovna.
Almost 3,000 young people from Murmansk have participated in training activities at the local VOIN centre since it opened 1,5 years ago, Shevchenko told the government officials. Many hundred more will undergo training over the next months, he assured.
Before appointed leader of VOIN, Dmitry Shevchenko held the post as so-called first deputy minister of education and science in Russia's proxy government of Luhansk, the Ukrainian region temporary under control by Moscow.
The 41-year-old man is himself a military man.
In April this year, he took part in a ceremony on the donation of sniper rifles to Russian occupation forces. The new rifles will help soldiers perform their tasks more effectively and accurately, he said in the event.
"A sniper is not just a soldier, but a highly skilled specialist capable of solving the most complex combat tasks. For its part, the VOIN Centre is taking responsibility for improving the skills of shooters. Our sniping specialists will travel to the operation zone to train soldiers in sniping to the highest standards. This will increase the level of training and confidence of military personnel on the front line," Shevchenko emphasised.
