Fight Censorship!

Contribute
Teachers from the VOIN Centre in Murmansk are going to occupied land. Every instructors at the centre are required to have battlefield experience.

Military youth centre in Murmansk sends its  instructors to war

An organisation that provides 'patriotic education' and military training to children and youth in the Kola Peninsula is sending its instructors to the front line in Ukraine. Battlefield experiences are of major importance for the teachers, according to the VOIN Centre.

Atle Staalesen

Five of the instructors who work at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk are on the way to occupied Ukrainian land. Photos shared by the centre show the men at the city railway station ahead of departure. Their faces are blurred, but they are likely to be among the instructors who are widely promoted on the organisation's VK social media page.

Instructors at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk. They teach local kids to kill and are all of them going to occupied Ukrainian land for battle experiences.
Instructors at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk. They teach local kids to kill and are all of them going to occupied Ukrainian land for battle experiences.
Instructors at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk. They teach local kids to kill and are all of them going to occupied Ukrainian land for battle experiences.
Instructors at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk. They teach local kids to kill and are all of them going to occupied Ukrainian land for battle experiences.
Instructors at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk. They teach local kids to kill and are all of them going to occupied Ukrainian land for battle experiences.
Instructors at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk. They teach local kids to kill and are all of them going to occupied Ukrainian land for battle experiences.
Instructors at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk. They teach local kids to kill and are all of them going to occupied Ukrainian land for battle experiences.
Instructors at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk. They teach local kids to kill and are all of them going to occupied Ukrainian land for battle experiences.
Instructors at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk. They teach local kids to kill and are all of them going to occupied Ukrainian land for battle experiences.
Instructors at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk. They teach local kids to kill and are all of them going to occupied Ukrainian land for battle experiences.
Instructors at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk. They teach local kids to kill and are all of them going to occupied Ukrainian land for battle experiences.
Instructors at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk. They teach local kids to kill and are all of them going to occupied Ukrainian land for battle experiences.
Instructors at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk. They teach local kids to kill and are all of them going to occupied Ukrainian land for battle experiences.
Instructors at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk. They teach local kids to kill and are all of them going to occupied Ukrainian land for battle experiences.
Instructors at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk. They teach local kids to kill and are all of them going to occupied Ukrainian land for battle experiences.
Instructors at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk. They teach local kids to kill and are all of them going to occupied Ukrainian land for battle experiences.
Instructors at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk. They teach local kids to kill and are all of them going to occupied Ukrainian land for battle experiences.
Instructors at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk. They teach local kids to kill and are all of them going to occupied Ukrainian land for battle experiences.
Instructors at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk. They teach local kids to kill and are all of them going to occupied Ukrainian land for battle experiences.
Instructors at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk. They teach local kids to kill and are all of them going to occupied Ukrainian land for battle experiences.
Instructors at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk. They teach local kids to kill and are all of them going to occupied Ukrainian land for battle experiences.
Instructors at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk. They teach local kids to kill and are all of them going to occupied Ukrainian land for battle experiences.
Instructors at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk. They teach local kids to kill and are all of them going to occupied Ukrainian land for battle experiences.
Instructors at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk. They teach local kids to kill and are all of them going to occupied Ukrainian land for battle experiences.

On the station platform to say good-bye was Murmansk Deputy Governor Anna Golovina.

"Today you are setting off on a sacred mission! […] For us, you are the best of the best, our heroes and fellow countrymen," she said in an address. 

According to Golovina, several thousand children and youth from Murmansk have been trained at the local VOIN Centre.

Youth training to shoot at the Murmansk VOIN Centre

The regional government in Murmansk strongly supports the military youth organisation, and Governor Andrei Chibis has incorporated it in his so-called Centre for civic and patriotic education, a unit established by the governor himself in 2023. 

According to VOIN, all of the centre's instructors are to be sent to the front line in order to get battle experience. They will serve at the front in three-month rotating intervals. 

Kids learning to operate drones at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk.

The battle experience is vital for the teachers, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Trutnev has explained.

"We assume that instructors at the VOIN Centre are individuals who not only have combat experience, but are also constantly improving their skills. According to a previous agreement with the Ministry of Defence, they will remain on the front line for three months, as we cannot interrupt the education process. After that, the instructors will be replaced again. In this way, all instructors who work at the VOIN Centre will gain combat experience," the deputy PM said.

Deputy Prime Minster and Presidential Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District Yuri Trutnev has been on occupied Ukrainian territory several times.

Yuri Trutnev, who reportedly himself has been on occupied land with weapon in hand, was instrumental in establishing the VOIN organisation. 

It is today one of the organisations that contribute to the militarisation of Russian children and youth. 

Young boys at the Murmansk VOIN Centre.

VOIN was established on an initiative from top Kremlin officials by Trutnev along with Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Kirienko in 2023. Over the past years, VOIN training centres have been established across Russia.

The priority group is teenage boys ages 14-18, and the training is aimed at recruitment to the armed forces.

Dmitry Ivanov, one of the VOIN instructors, wears a t-shirt from the Chechen Spetsnaz University.

Militant Chechen groups are also involved in the training activities. Apparently, one of the instructors in Murmansk is connected with the Spetsnaz University in Chechnya.

Several of the instructors at the VOIN Centre in Murmansk already have battle experience from occupied land. Among them is Aleksandr Sarpe, who on his private VK page openly brags about his battle experiences from Ukraine.

There is a significant likelihood that the VOIN instructors will never make it back home to Murmansk. After almost four year of full-scale war of aggression, Russia's has lost hundreds of thousands of men. According to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the Russian losses amount to more than 1,2 million killed and wounded men.

Also regions like Murmansk has a major death toll. A list of killed men from the Arctic region assembled and compiled by the Barents Observer includes almost 800 names. 

security murmansk militarisation chechen trutnev war in ukraine voin propaganda in school
Powered by Labrador CMS