The Ukrainian drone pilot wears a set of white goggles as he works his magic over an obstacle course – in a school gymnasium in Bucha.
Illia might be a 14-year-old student with limited training, but he becomes a drone-flying hero when his nimble fingers zoom a small drone around posts and under arches, creating the same unnerving drone buzz that is today ubiquitous on Ukraine’s front line with Russia.
When Illia loops the drone repeatedly in tight circles through a small ring, just two feet wide, applause erupts from appreciative fellow students who have come to watch the after-school drone club at work.
Why We Wrote This
Before Russia brought war into the lives of Ukrainians, the “Defending Ukraine” course featured marching and sometimes carrying wooden guns. The new reality-based curriculum includes hands-on work with first aid, radios, and drones.
Illia says he relishes the “joy of flying” and is “fascinated by these very precise moves” with his dexterous fingers. It’s his third time flying at the club, but he was so inspired after his first visit that he got hold of a computer simulation drone-flying app to hone his skills at home.
Now, Illia’s drone-piloting prowess is part of a broader effort by Ukrainians to better prepare students to cope with – and survive – a Russian invasion that has burned for 3 1/2 years with no end in sight.
Drone warfare now defines this conflict – along the front lines; with nightly bombardments of hundreds of Russian drones against Ukrainian urban centers and energy infrastructure; and with Ukrainian retaliatory deep-strike attacks on Russian fuel and refinery capacity.
So, as Ukraine mounts a nationwide revamp of its “Defending Ukraine” course curriculum, learning to fly drones is a key priority. The course, which is mandatory for all 10th and 11th graders, also focuses on life-saving tactical first aid and weapons handling and shooting.
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This Bucha after-school program was ahead of the national curve. It’s the pet project of Oleh Azarov, a Defending Ukraine and physical education teacher who took an advanced course on drone use and, last year, set up the “Bucha Aces” club with his own resources.
The new national Defending Ukraine program is in its beta phase, with 70% of Ukrainian students testing a curriculum designed – during wartime – to be far more practical than in the past.
“This is real life”
“I see a huge difference already. Children are much more involved when they have things to work with,” says Mr. Azarov, who wears a NASA hat from a prewar visit to the Museum of Flight in Seattle.
He notes that the new curriculum includes hands-on work with tourniquets, radios, drones, and weapons safety. But perhaps the most motivating factor is the context of full-blown war in which Ukrainian students are learning these skills.
“I tell them: ‘This is real life, and in your life you may be able to be in a position to save someone’s life – so better you learn it here, so the more chances you will be able to save a life,’” says Mr. Azarov.
“I see in their eyes that it interests them and motivates them,” he says.
“I tell them: ‘You have to understand that you are living in one of the most dangerous countries in the world now. … I am not talking you into serving in the army, or you yourself fighting in this war. But we are talking about this new reality that you have to open your eyes up to.’”
That includes asking students, for example: Who has tourniquets at home? Perhaps four out of 30 students raise their hands, but almost none of those four have one tourniquet for each family member.
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“I say, ‘OK, but do you realize that every night there are [Russian] Shahed drones flying over our heads?’” Mr. Azarov recounts. “‘And there is a possibility that a Shahed will strike, and what will you do? Will you be able to save someone? Will you be able to be saved?’”
The new Defending Ukraine curriculum is a far cry from the prewar course, with its roots in Soviet-era Defending the Motherland classes.
Those lessons are widely remembered for students being forced to march “Red Square”-style, for learning by rote the structure of the military, for using wooden guns as props for the real thing, and even for using stones as pretend hand grenades.
Time to revamp the curriculum
When the Monitor first met Mr. Azarov in early 2022, invading Russian troops had only recently withdrawn from Bucha, a district northwest of Kyiv where more than 400 Ukrainians were killed and which became synonymous with Russian atrocities. Bodies had been left lying in the streets – often with hands tied behind their backs and shot execution-style.
The prewar Defending Ukraine course did little to prepare students for the full-scale Russian invasion. Mr. Azarov – exhausted and stressed from weeks of brutal Russian occupation – predicted then that Ukraine’s visceral shared experience would one day be converted into a dramatically revamped curriculum that would impart “why you would need to love and defend your country.”
That is happening now, with upgrading the Defending Ukraine course a top priority for Kyiv. The government invested more than $35 million this year, and earmarked another $24 million next year to provide a concentration of quality materials and purpose-built locations.
“Our aim was a complete rethinking of this program,” says Mykhailo Alochin, the head of the Directorate of School Education at the Ministry of Education in Kyiv. The new curriculum began taking shape in 2024, and should be fully in place for every student by 2027.
“It’s a fantastic amount of money for the Ukrainian education system,” says Mr. Alochin of the long-term investment. But he has seen students take part in mock first-aid courses, where they evacuate battlefield casualties, and can see they “understand that this is something very real.”
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“In one sentence: Students need to have the ability to save their own lives, and those of their loved ones,” he says. “Because we are living in Ukraine, a rocket can fall, or bombing can start any moment, anywhere. That knowledge is not just knowledge, it can really save someone’s life.”
“I think these children are very lucky to have this course because of the practical knowledge,” says Mr. Alochin. “When I was taking the Defending Ukraine course, we were just rewriting copy books for two years, and learned the rules of the army. I held a wooden model of a gun one time during those two years.”
Drones in the news
The drone emphasis also reflects the technological trajectory of this conflict – and the likely direction of future wars, Mr. Alochin adds.
“The children now in school see the news from the front line every day. They see that drones are flying to Ukraine from the Russian side,” he says. “They run to shelters with their parents, understanding that drones are a threat.”
Indeed, drones could not be more ubiquitous in this war. The U.N. Human Rights Council’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine last week found that Russia had committed crimes against humanity by “systematically” targeting civilians with drones in the southern city of Kherson.
Also last week, Ukraine’s commander of unmanned forces, Maj. Robert Brovdi, a combat drone expert with the call sign “Madiar,” announced that his units had 15,000 vacancies. Though they make up only 2% of Ukraine’s armed forces, he said in a recruitment pitch, the drone teams account for 35% of all verified strikes against Russian targets.
“We have drones waiting for pilots, not the other way around,” he said.
For Mr. Azarov, the overhauled Defending Ukraine course – and its critical drone-flying module – is a necessary and welcome evolution.
“It is happening,” he says. “You had a whole generation unprepared for war. Now, we are catching up.”
Oleksandr Naselenko supported reporting for this story.
