Verstka wrote that more than a thousand schools across Russia have included the manufacture of equipment for the needs of the army in the mandatory school curriculum.
The publication’s journalists, in cooperation with the “Not Al-Qaeda” project, analyzed more than 50 million posts from school public pages on VK and found that many educational institutions have actually become “shoebats” that use child labor to equip Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine.
According to the study, at least 1,017 schools from 77 Russian regions reported that children were making military equipment in technology lessons.
In terms of the number of schools where children are forced to work for military purposes, the leaders are Bashkortostan (67), Krasnodar Territory (53), Tatarstan (52), Rostov Region (40), and Moscow Region (38).
During the large-scale war, Russian schoolchildren produced at least 57 types of various applied equipment. The most common are trench candles, camouflage nets, medical products and aid for wounded soldiers. Children are also forced to sew bed covers, blankets, pillows, bathrobes, pajamas, shirts, jackets, raincoats, gloves, panties, pack tea, dry biscuits and apples and bake cakes. All this work is compulsory and unpaid.
One of Verstka’s interlocutors in the leadership of one of the regions of central Russia said that the Kremlin did not set the task of specifically involving schoolchildren in helping the Russian army. “This was listed as one of the possible activities, initially for people who supported the cause. As long as people are weaving camouflage nets, they are in business,” he added.