Main points
- Veteran Mykola Melnyk emphasized the importance of preparing Ukrainian youth for future challenges.
- He emphasized that young people should be able to use technologies such as drones and participate in volunteer initiatives to support Ukraine's defense forces.
Russia has put its economy on a war footing during four years of war and continues to mobilize society, starting with the youth. Ukraine needs to be ready to continue to resist the aggressor.
This opinion was expressed by veteran, Knight of the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky Mykola Melnyk in a conversation with Channel 24 , noting why it is important to prepare young people for future challenges. He explained how this will help protect them from an aggressor country.
How do young people in Russia prepare for war?
Melnyk emphasized that the Russians have logically come to the point that today they are preparing their youth and even teenagers for war. At the same time, in Ukraine, in his opinion, they still continue to “play” at a peaceful life.
Although in reality, the better we prepare our children for the challenges now, the better their chance of survival will be,
– the veteran emphasized.
Russia, according to him, is trying to make the most of the limited resources it has. It is limited because the army is a structure that always has not enough of everything. And war is always a struggle for resources that will be in short supply. Therefore, the side that effectively uses what it has will win.
At a certain stage, Ukraine won, as Melnyk explained, at another – the Russians. Now we are on a certain plateau. And the summer will show who is better prepared and who is using the resources they have more rationally.
I really hope that our country will finally have a large, targeted program to attract young people to the Unmanned Systems Forces and the Defense Forces in general. And there will also be a normal national-patriotic education, because we have lost a certain generation, most of which now feels great from Krakow to Lisbon,
– he emphasized.
These are young people, according to him, who went abroad because they ideologically believe that there is nothing more to do in Ukraine.
Please note! The discipline “Fundamentals of National Resistance” is planned to be introduced in Ukrainian universities. It should be mandatory for all students, regardless of gender, and will replace the current model of basic combined-arms training.
“We lost the battle for ideas, so we now need a fairly powerful program of national patriotic education so that 14-16-year-old teenagers subconsciously believe that we must continue to fight for Ukraine, and not go abroad. This is the challenge facing the authorities and the Ministry of Education today,” explained Mykola Melnyk.
We can continue to tell people in Ukraine that our children should not know what war is. But, according to him, they already know it and are already playing under the bombings.
Not including children in even volunteer programs to support the Defense Forces is a crime against them,
– the veteran is confident.
He added that Ukrainian children should be able to fly FPV and other drones at the age of 15, be able to turn turnstiles to help themselves if something comes flying. They should also be involved as much as possible in all volunteer initiatives, for example, sewing nets.
How is military training for students in Ukraine?
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Recall that from September 2025, all students in Ukraine must undergo basic general military training (BZVP). After that, they will receive a military accounting specialty and take the oath. From this moment on, students become reservists regardless of age. And after 25 years, these people are subject to conscription if their social status, health status and other criteria meet the selection requirements.
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The BZVP program applies to second-year undergraduate students, but does not cover master's or doctoral students.
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Also, from January 1, 2026, medical students must undergo military training under the program for training reserve officers of the medical service. These are citizens of Ukraine who are receiving higher education in medical and pharmaceutical specialties, who are fit for military service due to their health condition and have passed professional and psychological selection.