Putin urges children of special operation participants to be careful in Red Square

On National Unity Day, after laying flowers at the monument to Minin and Pozharsky, Vladimir Putin spoke in Red Square with children of special military operation participants, young volunteers and representatives of youth organizations. The president advised an eight-year-old boy from Belgorod Region who helps build bunkers to be careful.

On National Unity Day, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke in Red Square with children of special military operation participants, representatives of youth organizations and young volunteers after laying flowers at the monument to Minin and Pozharsky. TASS reported that about 30 people attended the meeting, having traveled to Moscow from different regions, including, as RIA Novosti noted, people from the “historical territories.”

“Be careful”

At the start of the conversation, the president asked the young guests whether they were cold. They replied that they were not, journalist Pavel Zarubin reported. One of Putin’s interlocutors, eight-year-old Misha Kalashnikov, an activist with the Popular Front from Belgorod Region, said that he helps his parents build bunkers in the border area. The president expressed surprise at the child’s involvement in such work and advised him: “Be careful. The work requires special attention and compliance with safety measures.”

Памятник Минину и Пожарскому на Красной площади (архив)

Religious leaders and “brothers from Central Asia”

The flower-laying ceremony was attended by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, Metropolitan Kornily, head of the Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church, Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar and representatives of other faiths. Also present were beneficiaries of the Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation, cadets, representatives of Yunarmiya, the Movement of the First, Victory Volunteers and the Association of Special Military Operation Veterans. Responding to Archbishop Ezras of the Armenian Apostolic Church, who thanked him for preserving Christian values, Putin said: “Thank you for such a consistent policy of upholding precisely these values that unite us.”

In his conversation with religious leaders, the president also addressed relations with neighboring countries. “We must certainly maintain these relations with our friends, our brothers from Central Asia,” TASS quoted him as saying. According to Putin, the countries of the region are themselves interested in these ties. Later that day, the president was scheduled to present presidential prizes and state awards at the Kremlin. Russia has declared 2026 the Year of the Unity of the Peoples of Russia.

Video: TASS. Photo: still from TASS video, Wikimedia Commons (archive)

Putin urges children of special operation participants to be careful in Red Square