Moscow seeks to get youth involved in the war as cheap, non-combat labor.

Russian student retinues will participate this summer in the reconstruction of infrastructure in Maryupol, a city in southeast Ukraine which has been heavily damaged by shelling, a top official in the Russian government announced early this week.

According to Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, more than 1,000 students will be “invited” to join the construction sites as low-skilled labor in the city which Russia considers as part of its territory. 

Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova is responsible for healthcare, youth, and social welfare in Russia. Credit: Focus.ua

"It is important that today you are involved in growing the youth movement in the new regions of our country - more than 1,000 young people will be employed and will have the opportunity to become part of a larger team.

Thanks to you, the Saur-Mohyla memorial complex in the Donetsk People's Republic has already been restored, and this summer, we’ll rebuild the infrastructure of the city of Mariupol,” Golikova was quoted by TASS as saying. 

Some students will be working in the healthcare sector in the Luhansk People's Republic, she added, without elaborating their exact roles. The Luhansk province and its capital with the same name is a major recipient of wounded Russian soldiers and pro-Moscow fighters.

Speaking of the importance of “patriotic education,” Golikova also called on students to take shifts as defense industry enterprises, eventually to help manufacture more weapons.

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Overall, at least 200,000 students will be able to join the ranks of seasonable workers throughout Russia during the summer, the official specified.

Sending students as cheap labor to work at giant construction sites is a Soviet-era practice. But employing youths in a war zone where the Ukrainian counteroffensive is imminent is cynical – the Russian military probably hope the enemy would not fire at civilians.

Tatyana Golikova, one of the richest women in Russia, is under the US and EU sanctions for her support of the Russian aggression against Ukraine.