Russian educational institutions have spent a combined 16 billion rubles on drones and drone assembly and operation training kits in the four years since Russia launched its full-scale war against Ukraine, the independent Russian news outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe calculated.

Before the war, schools and universities across Russia spent about 350 million rubles a year on such purchases. That figure rose to 600 million rubles in 2022, then climbed sharply to 2.6 billion rubles in 2023 and 9.7 billion rubles in 2024.

Before the war, drones were bought primarily by technology colleges and universities. In recent years, secondary schools have become more active buyers, the outlet reported. The two largest contracts, totaling about 3.5 billion rubles, were signed by two Moscow state agencies that supply equipment to the city’s schools and colleges. Many regional education ministries are also among the largest buyers, Novaya Gazeta Europe reported.

Even kindergartens are buying drones, the outlet reported, noting that it is not always clear what purpose the devices serve there.

The largest supplier of drones to educational institutions is the St. Petersburg firm Geoskan. In 2023, the National Intellectual Development Foundation — known under the brand Innopraktika — acquired a stake in Geoskan, the outlet reported. The foundation is headed by Katerina Tikhonova. Other major drone suppliers to educational institutions include MT-Integratsia, a major contractor for the Moscow city government with ties to business partners of Maxim Liksutov, the head of Moscow’s transport department, and the Prosveshcheniye publishing group, whose primary beneficiary is widely considered to be Vladimir Putin’s friend Arkady Rotenberg.