Russia is expanding its recruitment of female students into UAV units
Russia has expanded its campaign to recruit female students into its unmanned aerial vehicle units, enlisting educational institutions across the country. According to the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation, students are being offered contracts, specifically in exchange for the forgiveness of their student loans. The center states that this indicates a shortage of personnel in the Russian army. This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.
In Russia, there is evidence of an expanding campaign to recruit female students into unmanned aerial vehicle units, which, according to the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, has gone beyond the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and has spread to educational institutions across the country.
As noted by the Center, such cases were previously recorded mainly in the occupied territories, but now recruitment efforts are already underway at universities and colleges in various regions of Russia.
Recruitment is carried out directly within educational institutions—via text message campaigns, announcements on information screens in universities, and personal conversations with students after classes. It is also reported that female students with outstanding tuition debts may be offered contracts with military units in exchange for debt forgiveness.
The Center for the Prevention of Discrimination emphasizes that the Russian Ministry of Defense is attempting to present service in UAV units as a safer alternative, claiming that such units allegedly do not operate on the front lines. At the same time, the Center states that such claims do not correspond to reality. “Russia is scaling up the recruitment of female students into UAV units. While this practice was previously observed mainly in temporarily occupied territories, it has now spread to educational institutions across Russia,” the Center noted.
The Center also reported the death of one of the recruited students: a 23-year-old student from Buryatia, according to their data, signed a contract in early 2026 and was killed in April in the Luhansk region.
The Center believes that the expansion of such programs indicates problems with manning the Russian army and the gradual recruitment of new social groups, particularly students, into military structures. “Russia is cynically turning educational institutions—both in the occupied territories and within the country—into a conveyor belt for replenishing UAV units,” the Center stated.
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