The first Ukrainian student recruited into the Russian Federation's drone forces has been eliminated

Near Luhansk, Valery Averin, a 23-year-old resident of Buryatia, was killed in a mortar attack; he became the first officially confirmed student casualty among the new recruits of the UAV units. His death occurred just three months after he began his service and one week after he was deployed to the combat zone. 

This was reported by the BBC Russian Service.

Averin’s death confirms the start of active recruitment of college and university students for the operational control of drones on the front lines. The young man was a senior at a Buryat technical college, where he completed training as a drone operator on March 24. On April 2, he informed his family that he was being sent to the front lines, and six days later, news of his death emerged.

The deceased’s foster mother said that he had been raised in an orphanage and was preparing to receive a degree in construction before being recruited. This incident gained widespread attention due to Russia’s large-scale campaign to recruit students into its technological military units. Currently, human rights activists are documenting an increase in cases of pressure on students at vocational schools to sign contracts with the Russian military.