cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/49412117

When military recruiters arrived at the Lunin College of Transport Technologies in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk last month, they hoped they would find students willing to enlist as drone operators — but few took up the offer.

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“Are you all cowards here sitting and being scared for your lives?” [College president Maria Kirsanova] said, scolding students for what she called a fear of returning home “in zinc coffins.”

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Russia has increasingly turned to universities as a fresh source of recruits for its four-year war in Ukraine as enlistment numbers dwindle and war casualties soar into the hundreds of thousands.

While Russia’s mass army sign-up campaign with promises of high pay started shortly after the full-scale invasion in 2022, efforts targeting students in particular have intensified since January, said Idite Lesom (“Get Lost”), an NGO that helps Russians avoid conscription.

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The timing of these campaigns is tied to the academic calendar. Military recruiters often use the winter exam season to target students, especially those with low grades or retakes, Idite Lesom spokesperson Ivan Chuviliaev told The Moscow Times.

Efforts to push students into the army can take one of several different forms.

Students are typically called to meetings with army representatives and encouraged to sign contracts with the country’s drone forces. In some cases, they are asked to sign attendance sheets or confirm in writing that they have been informed about contract terms.

“One of the arguments they use is: ‘We’ll expel you for poor performance if you don’t sign’,” Chuviliaev said.

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Universities have also distributed Defense Ministry leaflets, screened patriotic films and published profiles of students who have already signed up.

Student media outlet Groza estimates that recruitment campaigns have taken place in at least 201 universities and colleges across Russia.

Ads promoting military service appeared this month at Moscow State University’s prestigious Faculty of Journalism located steps away from the Kremlin.

Students at Moscow Medical College No. 2 were told in February that signing a military contract would be a “ticket to life” and that new recruits would not be deployed to the front lines.

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The Defense Ministry appears to be setting quotas for universities in an attempt to recruit the highest possible number of students.

At Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, former rector’s adviser Marina Barinova published internal documents showing that the university was required to provide 32 students for recruitment in February alone.

The independent science outlet T-invariant reported that the Russian State University for the Humanities is expected to provide 200 students to sign military contracts.

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A student from the Urals city of Yekaterinburg told The Moscow Times that administrators at his university had allocated class time for meetings with recruiters but “do not seem very willing to cooperate.”

A Ph.D. student, who requested anonymity for safety reasons, said professors she knew “generally take a cautious approach to political issues and aren’t paid to encourage students to sign military contracts.”

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Sergei, an 18-year-old student from the Leningrad region, said he was initially told he would “be handling security remotely and only in St. Petersburg” and considered enlisting to help his mother pay tuition.

“Now they’re telling us to prepare for deployment as drone operators [to the front],” Sergei said in an interview with the Sibir.Realii news outlet, adding that his mother now “won’t let me go to college."

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