Russia has started the construction of the "Warrior" center in the territory of the former children’s summer camp "Eaglet" in occupied Mariupol. The main task of the "Warrior" center is to teach children and adolescents military skills: shooting, parachuting, mining and demining territories, providing first aid, and flying UAVs.
Thus, the fourth branch of the "Warrior" center will appear in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. There, on the shores of the Russia-occupied Sea of Azov, Ukrainian schoolchildren and students will be taught to become Russian military personnel.
Earlier, the journalists of the Suspilne investigative editorial office told about the "Warrior" center and its activities to turn Ukrainian children into Russian soldiers.
Now we have examined how actively this center is operating in Mariupol, and have found out who is the main customer for the construction of a military camp instead of the "Eaglet" children’s camp.
Construction near the sea, where the Marine base was to be located
The former "Eaglet" children’s camp is located in Vinohradna Street, on the Left Bank of Mariupol. The camp’s territory adjoins the Sea of Azov.
On March 17, 2025, Petro Andriuschenko, the former advisor to the mayor of Mariupol and head of the NGO "Center for the Study of the Occupation", announced that a branch of the Russian "Warrior" center for military-sports training and patriotic education was being built in Mariupol.
On March 18, the Mariupol City Council also stated this.
"In the camp territory, the Russians initially planned to build housing for displaced people from Belgorod and Shebekino. But they did not start the construction and gave this land to the Russian military," says Andriuschenko.
The fact that the "Warrior" center is being built in the territory of the former children’s camp is evidenced by the construction certificate of the facility. In addition to the large "Warrior" logo, it also contains the inscription: "Construction of the "Warrior" center for military-sports training and patriotic education of youth".
The construction certificate was shown in a video by local resident Andrii Zonder. The video, which appeared in the Telegram group of the occupied city, shows that the construction work has already begun.
Video from Andrii Zonder’s social media
The "Eaglet" children’s camp in Mariupol was opened in the mid-1960s. It was subordinate to the "Azovstal" plant. It operated until 2007. The "Metinvest" company, which includes "Azovstal", explained the closure of the camp by the fact that employees did not want to send their children there.
In 2017, the Mariupol City Council took ownership of the "Eaglet" property complex, and in August 2020, the council decided to transfer it to the state ownership. At that time, it was said that a military base for marines according to NATO standards would be built on the site of the camp, as well as residential buildings for the families of the military.
On the cadastral map of Ukraine, the facility is still in the communal ownership of the Mariupol city community. No construction work had begun in the camp’s territory before the full-scale invasion.
By the way, some local residents were against the Marine Corps military base. Complaining that it was a densely populated area of the city, they even filed petitions demanding a ban on construction.
Such open indignation of the Mariupol residents, who remain under occupation, towards the construction of the Russian "Warrior" center is unlikely, given the consequences that may follow from criticism of the Russian military.
The "Warrior" center: Ukrainian children are turned into Russian soldiers
We told about the Russian "Warrior" center, which militarizes Ukrainian teenagers in temporarily occupied territories, in the investigation "Ready-made soldiers": how Russia turns Ukrainian children into Russian soldiers in children’s camps".
The center was established on the instruction of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin in September 2022. On May 11, 2023, 11 branches of the center were opened simultaneously in the Russian Federation. As of the beginning of 2025, there were at least 25 branches.
The "Warrior" branches in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kherson regions appeared in 2024. The branch in the occupied territory of Zaporizhzhia region is planned for 2025.
The "Warrior" center not only spreads Russian propaganda, but also organizes military camps for Ukrainian teenagers. For example, more than 2,500 teenagers aged 13 to 17 from the occupied parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions visited the military-patriotic camp "Vanguard" in Volgograd region of the Russian Federation. There, children were taught the basics of shooting, working with drones, means of communication and electronic warfare.
There is no information yet on the official opening of the "Warrior" center branch in Mariupol either on the center’s website or on the pages of the occupation administrations. However, the Suspilne investigative journalists found out that the representatives of the center intensified their activities in the occupied city in 2024.
In particular, in August 2024, the head of the "Warrior" branch in Donetsk Alexander Kamyshov visited Mariupol and signed a cooperation agreement between the center and the Pryazovskyi State Technical University.
Later, the information appeared on the university’s website that the "Warrior" center plans to train UAV specialists at the university. On March 14, 2025, it was reported that the Pryazovskyi State Technical University was merging with the Moscow State University of Civil Engineering.
In January 2025, the "Warrior" center organized a meeting of students from one of the Mariupol schools with the so-called "volunteers".
The photo taken during the meeting shows children in the uniform of the "Warrior" center. We can assume that these are children from the cadet class. The introduction of such classes in schools in the temporarily occupied territories is part of the Russian program to militarize Ukrainian teenagers.
"Wallet" of the deputy prime minister of the Russian Federation
The construction certificate shows that its customer is the "Single customer in the construction sector". This is a public company established in 2021 and headed by Marat Khusnullin, the deputy prime minister of the Russian Federation.
"This is, in fact, Marat Khusnullin’s wallet. All the funds allocated to Mariupol from the federal budget for construction, repairs, that is, for everything, go through this "single customer". Further, this company announces bidding procedures for smaller subcontractors," says Petro Andriuschenko.
The general contractor, according to the construction certificate, is the Moscow region capital repair fund, and the contractor is "Energostroyproekt" LLC. This is a company with a legal address in the city of Belgorod. Its page on the Russian social network says that in August 2022, they opened a branch in Donetsk. In Mariupol, the company began construction activities in 2024.
"When the Russians began the "great restoration" of Mariupol, everyone was building there. There were companies that had been previously engaged in, let us say, public toilets. Because these are billions of rubles with no control. Again, why are they in a hurry? There are no building codes there, they do not require construction permits, as they do under Russian law. That is, they simply get a permission to build from Pushilin (Denis Pushilin is the head of the occupation administration of Donetsk region — Ed.). In case of such a camp, there is no need for any unnecessary bureaucracy at all," says Petro Andriuschenko.
According to the construction certificate, the occupiers plan to open the "Warrior" center in the "Eaglet" territory in the fourth quarter of 2025.
