The Russian Ministry of Defense has launched a campaign to recruit students, using promises and blackmail. Students are promised money and academic leave, but the guarantees are not fulfilled.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has launched a centralized campaign to recruit students from leading and regional universities to participate in the war against Ukraine, using financial promises, administrative pressure, and blackmail through expulsion. This was reported by the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, according to UNN.
Details
According to the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, at least 16 universities in St. Petersburg, as well as MIPT, Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Higher School of Economics, Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, and dozens of colleges in Russian regions are involved in the campaign. In January 2026, the Russian Ministry of Defense sent an official методичка (methodological guide) to educational institutions for agitating students to join the newly created drone systems troops.
University administrations are obliged to report to the Main Personnel Directorate of the Ministry of Defense on the number of recruited students. Young people are promised up to 5.5 million rubles "for a year of service," academic leave and return to studies, and are also convinced that the service will allegedly not be on the front line, but in "drone units."
In fact, these guarantees are not fulfilled. In particular, at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, each faculty is required to send at least two students to the front every month, and group leaders are involved in recruitment. Students with academic debts are the first to come under pressure, being offered a choice between a contract and expulsion. They are given only three days to make a decision.
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Advertisements for military contracts simultaneously appeared at St. Petersburg State University, GUAP, Polytechnic University, LETI, RANEPA, GASU, Makarov State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping, Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design, "Voenmekh" (Baltic State Technical University), and other educational institutions. All publications were posted within one week, which indicates the centralized nature of the campaign.
Some universities add their own incentives. For example, St. Petersburg State University promises 50,000 rubles from the educational institution, and St. Petersburg State University of Telecommunications named after Prof. M.A. Bonch-Bruevich even agitates women, offering admission to postgraduate studies without exams upon return. At the Marine Technical University, agitators took students directly from classes and led them one by one into offices for "individual conversations."
However, the promised "right to resign after a year" turns out to be a fiction. At the Higher School of Economics, students were effectively signing indefinite contracts that could not be terminated. Standard contracts of the Russian Ministry of Defense do not contain any restrictions on the type of troops, which allows the command to send so-called "UAV operators" to any units, including assault ones.
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When financial arguments fail, administrations resort to open pressure and humiliation. At the Lunin Novosibirsk College of Transport Technologies, after a mass refusal of students to sign contracts, the director held a "disciplinary conversation," accusing the youth of cowardice and stating that they "came to study to dodge the army."
The Foreign Intelligence Service emphasizes that for many young Russians, universities were almost the only chance to change their lives. Now, this chance is turning into a tool of blackmail: either a contract and war, or loss of education. A system that cannot offer young people a promising future tries to compensate for this with fear and coercion.
Recall
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