Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov defended Russia’s drive to recruit students for drone units fighting in Ukraine, saying the program was voluntary and open to all.
“This is a completely open offer... to join a new type of unit,” Peskov told reporters, presenting it as an opportunity for technically skilled young people rather than evidence of mounting wartime manpower strain.
Students across Russia are being offered large financial incentives to join drone units fighting in Ukraine as operators and engineers, in a sign of how Moscow is widening its recruitment drive while avoiding a new general mobilization.
According to Reuters, universities including Far Eastern Federal University and the Moscow State University of Civil Engineering are advertising packages that include academic leave, tuition benefits, free accommodation, and salaries that can reach up to 7 million rubles ($87,000) per year. The offers are aimed particularly at students in technical fields such as engineering and aeronautics.
The recruitment campaign reflects the growing importance of drone warfare in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Although the positions are marketed as being away from the front line, the work remains high risk and directly tied to combat operations.
The push also suggests the Kremlin is trying to replenish manpower without resorting to another mass call-up, something it has repeatedly said is not currently under consideration.
As Kyiv Post reported earlier this week, Moscow has increasingly turned to vulnerable recruits for lower-level but strategically important operations as traditional systems come under strain. That model has included students, migrants, refugees, and other groups seen as easier to pressure, incentivize, or replace.
After European countries expelled hundreds of Russian diplomats in the wake of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian intelligence increasingly shifted from professional operatives to what analysts described as more “disposable” networks. These recruits were seen as cheaper, easier to scale, and useful even when exposed or arrested, because they could still spread fear and instability.
Russian officials maintain that enlistment remains voluntary. Recruitment materials present the new drone formations as elite units and brand their members as “the new indispensables.”
The campaign comes as Russian forces continue offensive operations in Ukraine. At the same time, Russia is losing troops faster than it can replace them and is struggling to replenish battlefield losses.