LATVIA-UKRAINE-RUSSIA-CONFLICT-DEMO ©(Photo by GINTS IVUSKANS/AFP via Getty Images)
All Latvian high school students have been forced to learn how to use guns due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
Latvia, the Eastern European NATO country that borders Russia, has been on high alert since Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Not only does the country have conscription — compulsory service for young men — and a draft lottery if too few volunteers enlist, it also has a mandate for students: they must learn to use firearms. (RELATED: Christians Forced To Worship In Catacombs Allege Ukrainian Government Is Persecuting Their Faith)
“The purpose is not to train soldiers, but to develop more responsible citizens,” Col. Valts Āboliņš, a Latvian military officer who oversees the national education program, told Politico. “We want to remove the phobias many young people and their parents have when they encounter anything military.”
People stand at the site of a destroyed building follwong a Russian air attack, in Odesa on March 28, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. One person was killed and 11 others were wounded, including a child, after residential buildings and a maternity hospital were struck in Ukraine’s Odesa region, authorities said Saturday. (Photo by Oleksandr GIMANOV / AFP via Getty Images)
In Latvia, as well as in Estonia, another Baltic Sea country that borders Russia, students are required to participate in “National Defense Education,” Politico reported. In addition to handling firearms and other weapons, students learn first aid and land navigation skills, military marching and drilling, and military history, according to the outlet.
However, Latvia’s requirements are far more intense compared to Estonia, Politico reported. Latvia mandates that students participate in 112 hours of drill instruction over two years, while Estonia requires 35 hours of a classroom course.
And it’s not only boys who are forced to participate; girls must do so, too.
Sindija Brakovska, an 18-year-old girl featured in Politico’s article, told the outlet that although she dreams of becoming a dance teacher or hairstylist, and was nervous to take the course, the mandatory training “makes sense.”
A young woman holds up a poster in the colors of Ukraine reading “Less Vladimir, more Volodymyr” during a demonstration in solidarity with Ukraine on April 3, 2022 in Daugavpils, a southeastern Latvian city with an overwhelmingly Russian-speaking population and situated close to the borders with Belarus and Lithuania. (Photo by GINTS IVUSKANS/AFP via Getty Images)
Instructor Andris Skanis acknowledged that many young Latvians consider themselves pacifists, including his own teen daughter.
“My 19-year-old is a pacifist,” he said. “She remembers my deployments to Afghanistan. She was a little girl then. To her, my being a soldier means being away from her.”
But, according to Skanis, Latvia does not “force anyone” to use a gun if they are true pacifists or if they have a religious exemption; in that case, students must watch a classroom presentation instead.
“If war comes to Latvia, everyone needs to be ready,” Skanis told Politico. “Some say they’ll fly away, but there won’t be any planes leaving anymore.”