While Russia's schoolchildren learn how to operate drones and clean guns, Ukraine's students will take classes on how to navigate treacherous minefields

• Ukrainian schoolchildren will enroll in mandatory landmine safety courses this year.
• Meanwhile, Russian students learn how to operate drones and clean guns.

This upcoming school year, Russian and Ukrainian students will be learning vastly different subjects in the classroom. While Russian schoolchildren will operate airborne drones, drill rifles, and train in hand-to-hand combat, Ukrainian kids will undergo a safety course for navigating treacherous landmines.

The online course, announced by Ukraine's Education Ministry on Monday, will be a mandatory part of the curriculum, according to The Kyiv Independent.

"Education should give a child useful knowledge and skills. Unfortunately, now and for a long time to come, mine safety knowledge and skills will be extremely relevant in Ukraine," Education Minister Oksen Lisovy said, the Kyiv Independent reported.

The Education Ministry said that the course has been developed in cooperation with UNICEF and will feature interactive cartoons, games, and lessons on how to navigate mined areas and best safety practices for avoiding landmines. It'll also have several videos of Patron, a Ukrainian landmine detection dog who became famous in the early weeks of Russia's full-scale invasion.

It's a harrowing reality for Ukrainian children and presents an even bleaker future, with the country now the most heavily mined in the world, according to Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov. Potential cleanup projects are projected to take decades and cost billions of dollars.

Meanwhile, Russian students will face an increasingly militarized classroom this school year.

Pilot courses on rifle drilling and hand-to-hand combat were first reported last March at some schools, with videos showing students in occupied Crimea participating in military lessons.

"Now, more than 60 people are engaged in martial arts, drill training, including kindergarten students and school children," Vladimir Konstantinov, speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Crimea, said at the time. "Children show great interest in activities." The number of schools and children participating in the military lessons was expected to increase this upcoming school year.

One course called "Basics of Life Safety" will also be in Russian classrooms this fall, featuring lessons in drone warfare, hand grenade skills, and assault rifle training. Students as young as year 10 and 11 will learn how to operate combat drones.

For Russia, all of this isn't necessarily to develop genuine capability in these subjects; more likely than not, these lessons are meant to "cultivate a culture of militarized patriotism," Western intelligence said in July.

But the courses speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin's indoctrination of school children, a move that reflects a desire to normalize the invasion of Ukraine and Russian military culture.