By mid-August, media outlets controlled by the occupation “authorities” announced yet another initiative aimed at the militarization of the occupied peninsula’s youth: a “Laser Tag” tactical game in Sevastopol.
This event was organized by the aggressor’s so-called “veterans’ association” through a “military-sports project” titled “Rubezh: Warrior’s Path.” The activities of this association, led by Russian colonizers Roman Kulakov and Artem Litvinov, come as no surprise.
Both men had been transferred to Sevastopol’s Black Sea Fleet “127th Reconnaissance Brigade” prior to the full-scale aggression and subsequently “discharged with honors”, as a privilege unavailable to ordinary Russian cannon fodder.
What is noteworthy, however, is the mass involvement of students from “Olympic reserve sports schools” in these events. Participants included “Simferopol Athletics School No. 2”, directed by Yevgeny Trusov, and Sevastopol’s Boxing School No. 4. headed by city “boxing federation” chief Oleg Balandin, and School No. 8 led by “Wrestling Federation coach” Konstantin Struchkov.
It is worth recalling that in July, the International Olympic Committee provisionally reinstated the Russian Olympic Committee’s membership, noting that the latter “no longer includes sports organizations within territories falling under the jurisdiction of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine” and had “confirmed that it does not and will not conduct any activities in these territories.”
It is worth recalling that as of July 2026, the aggressor-controlled “Olympic council of the Republic of Crimea” was listed as being “in the process of liquidation,” while the “Olympic council of the City of Sevastopol” had been renamed the “City sports council” in April 2025 and was also, and remains, undergoing liquidation.
Yet, on the occupied peninsula, not only do “Olympic reserve schools” continue to operate, but they are also actively being drawn into the aforementioned schemes to militarize Crimean youth, as actions that the International Olympic Committee will simply be unable to ignore in the future.
