We Are ‘Absolutely Invincible’ – Russian President, Putin Tells Schoolchildren Ahead Of New Military Curriculum

We Are ‘Absolutely Invincible’ – Russian President, Putin Tells Schoolchildren Ahead Of New Military Curriculum

President Vladimir Putin of Russia has told pupils at the start of the school year on Friday that it was impossible to defeat Russia.

He was speaking as Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine grinds through its nineteenth month, and a new curriculum is introduced which includes operating military drones.

“I understood why we won the Great Patriotic War,” Putin said, referring to World War II.

“It is impossible to defeat this kind of nation with this kind of attitude. We were absolutely invincible. And we are the same now,” he claimed.

Barron reports that Putin spoke to the children during a lecture called “Important Conversations”. Thirty high-achieving schoolchildren were selected to attend Putin’s lecture.

“Important Conversations” were introduced after the start of the Kremlin’s assault on Ukraine to boost patriotic sentiment.

The patriotism classes combine World War II revisionism, lessons on Russian values and the Kremlin’s narrative about Moscow’s troops “protecting” compatriots in Ukraine.

Across Russia, schoolchildren have been encouraged to send letters to Russian soldiers in Ukraine and make camouflage nets and candles for the trenches.

During the lecture, Putin said that Russia would seek to “ensure security” in the four Ukrainian regions the Kremlin claimed to have annexed last year without fully controlling them.

Last year Putin travelled to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad for the start of the school year, saying Moscow sent troops to Ukraine to “protect Russia”.

This year, Russian teenagers will learn how to operate military drones.

The curriculum published this week by the education ministry comes after Moscow vowed to re-introduce Soviet-style military training for children.

The drone course will be undertaken by pupils who are aged between 15 and 17. They will “perform practical tasks on drone piloting” as well as “learn the algorithm to counter enemy drones”, according to the curriculum.

The revised military programme also includes a module dedicated to Kalashnikov assault rifles and hand grenades.

The contrast between the back-to-school experiences of Russia’s children and those in the country it has invaded were starkly underlined today.

Children in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv have been living through war for over a year and a half.
On Friday they started their new school year underground, to avoid attacks from Russian missiles.

Earlier Russia said that its air defences had destroyed a drone approaching Moscow, a day after a similar attack on the city.

The capital has been targeted by a barrage of Ukrainian drone attacks in recent weeks after Kyiv vowed in July to “return” the conflict to Russia.

Air defences near the Lyubertsy district on the southeast outskirts of the capital “thwarted another attempt to fly a drone to Moscow,” the city’s mayor said,Sergei Sobyanin, wrote on Telegram.

Air traffic at Moscow’s Domodedovo and Vnukovo airports was briefly suspended, according to a Telegram post by the Russian daily newspaper Izvestia.

The White House said today that Ukraine’s forces in recent days have made “notable progress” against Russian troops in their southern offensive.

“Any objective observer of this counteroffensive, you can’t deny… that they have made progress now,” national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters, calling criticism of the Ukrainian effort by anonymous officials “not helpful.”

Credit: Sahara Reporters