Russians are scaling up the militarization of youth: the largest military camp is being completed in Mariupol

The policy of militarization of Ukrainian children in the occupied territories, which is actively being implemented by Russia, is taking on new, threatening dimensions. The most aggressive project in this system has become the “Warrior” center, whose branches are already operating in Berdyansk and Luhansk, and in Mariupol they are currently completing the construction of a large-scale training ground.

This was stated by the head of the Center for the Study of Occupation, Petro Andryushchenko. Behind the “Warrior” project are Putin’s trusted figures, in particular, the head of the Russian presidential administration, Sergei Kiriyenko. Unlike the ideological “Youth Army”, this center focuses on purely applied military training. The new camp in Mariupol, which is planned to open in the summer of 2026, will be able to simultaneously accept up to 1,500 children per shift.

Features of training teenagers in the center “Warrior”: instructors are exclusively veterans of the so-called “svo” who have real combat experience; children are taught tactics of fighting in urban conditions and handling weapons; a mandatory part of the program is mastering the skills of controlling combat drones; in the camps, teenagers are socialized together with adult Russian military personnel, which contributes to the heroization of war.

Petro Andryushchenko emphasizes that the Russians use psychological manipulation and game forms of training, involving the team of Maria Lvova-Belova in cooperation. In the Russian Federation, branches of this center are opened mainly in regions with the highest mobilization rates, where children are instilled with the cult of revenge for their dead relatives. Such a policy is aimed at the total militarization of Ukrainian youth aged 17 to 35.