Russians in Energodar are replacing rescuers and utility workers with children

Russians in Energodar are forming a new practice of replacing the personnel shortage with children. Under the guise of a “security resource center,” they are creating “children’s squads,” which are officially presented as an educational and volunteer initiative.

This is reported by the Center of National Resistance.

In temporarily occupied Energodar, a new practice is being formed of closing the personnel shortage in rescue and utility services at the expense of young people.

Under the guise of creating a “security resource center,” the occupation administration is launching the so-called “children’s squads,” which are publicly positioned as an educational and volunteer initiative. In fact, it is about involving schoolchildren and students in performing auxiliary, and in some cases, physically dangerous tasks in a city located in close proximity to the combat zone.

According to sources of the Center of National Resistance, the personnel situation in the services controlled by the occupiers is critical: some rescuers were mobilized, some resigned due to low payments and the lack of any guarantees, others were transferred to a reduced work regime. Funding from the Russian Federation is received irregularly, full-time positions remain vacant, and the burden on those who remained is constantly growing due to the high level of infrastructure breakdown.

In such conditions, the occupation administration is actively looking for a quick reserve of labor that does not require the payment of salaries, the provision of a social package, or official registration.

Sources of the Center of National Resistance in educational institutions report that the participation of young people in the so-called “security detachments” is actually imposed through schools and colleges as a mandatory practice or socially useful activity. The real scope of training is minimal, and security and insurance issues are completely ignored. At the same time, children are being prepared to perform work in emergency situations – in a city where there is a constant risk of shelling and man-made incidents.

The Center of National Resistance previously reported on similar practices in the occupied Kherson region: students were recruited to work at state-owned enterprises due to personnel and salary collapse, and in the Luhansk region, medical students were used to replace scarce personnel in hospitals.

“Children’s security units are not about education, but about replacing absent workers with cheap and fully controllable force. The occupation authorities are shifting their own managerial failures onto minors, normalizing their participation in risky scenarios,” the Center of National Resistance said in a statement.