Across Russia, students at universities and other educational institutions are being funneled into Defense Ministry drone units with offers that frequently prove misleading. Recruiters promise short, one-year contracts, about 5 million rubles (roughly €50,000 / $58,000), free tuition after service and assignments far from the fighting in Ukraine. Observers and support groups say many young people end up signing open-ended contracts and some are dispatched to the front, where the risk of death or serious injury is high.
University websites and student Telegram channels show administrations arranging meetings with draft offices and military training centers to advertise the supposed benefits of signing up. The Russian outlet Echo reported that at least 70 educational institutions in 23 regions — including ones on the annexed Crimean peninsula — have taken part in the drive, with nearly half located in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
A university employee who spoke under the pseudonym Yuri said university leaders were summoned to a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, who oversees education and science, and instructed to organize student recruitment for drone service. He described a range of tactics: draft board officials, veterans of the “special military operation” and university staff hold group talks with students, and individual approaches vary by institution.
Some regional education ministries have issued guidelines, and reporting by The Insider shows university administrations sending emails offering Defense Ministry contracts. The independent outlet T-invariant says recruitment has spread well beyond technical colleges to all kinds of universities. What began by targeting technical students, and then those facing expulsion, has widened to encompass entire student bodies. Institutions reportedly operate with quotas and use a mix of incentives and pressure — from extra payments for signing to threats to block retakes of failed exams — to hit targets.
Yuri said quotas typically range from 0.5 to 2 percent of a university’s students. Administrators who miss those targets may be accused of disloyalty; rectors or vice-rectors risk losing their posts. He described a recent rise in failure rates at his university, after which students facing expulsion were given a stark choice: sign a military contract to serve in a drone unit or face regular conscription.
Promotional materials frequently reassure students they will serve for a year and then return to civilian life. But Artem Klyga, a lawyer with the Movement of Conscientious Objectors, says these short-term promises are at odds with current legislation. He and court rulings argue that the contracts being signed operate as open-ended until President Vladimir Putin ends the partial mobilization; the contracts therefore do not guarantee a fixed one-year term. Russian law also does not guarantee that signees will remain in drone units — if a contract soldier fails to meet requirements, commanders can reassign them to other units rather than discharging them.
Support networks for deserters and conscientious objectors report numerous broken promises. The Get Lost (Idite Lesom) movement, based in Georgia, said students who signed contracts in St. Petersburg expecting local technical work were later told they would serve on the frontline as drone pilots. DW spoke to a contract soldier in January who said he was initially assigned to a command-staff role as promised but was later moved to an engineering unit clearing mines; DW lost contact at the end of January and later learned the soldier had been killed in the Kharkiv region.
Yuri said he has tried, where possible, to warn students against signing Defense Ministry contracts but that openly opposing recruitment is difficult, as dissent can be reported to university management. He noted that some students understand money cannot compensate for the risk of death or disability. Reflecting on the changes, he said universities increasingly resemble barracks and that his humanist convictions prevent him from sending students to war.
This article was originally published in Russian.