A 23-year-old Russian student is the first known death linked to Moscow’s campaign to recruit university students for the war in Ukraine.
A 23-year-old Russian student has become the first publicly known fatality linked to Moscow’s campaign to recruit university students for the war in Ukraine, exposing a growing effort to use higher education institutions as a new recruitment channel.
According to the Kyiv Independent, Valery Averin was reportedly promised training as a drone operator but died less than two weeks after completing the course, allegedly after being reassigned to an assault unit near Luhansk in the Russian-occupied part of eastern Ukraine.
BBC Russian Service reported that his relatives were given little information about the circumstances of his death.
Averin was in his final year at the Buryat Republican College of Construction and Industrial Technologies in eastern Russia and was due to graduate later this year.
Universities Under Pressure
The case has drawn attention to a recruitment effort that surfaced earlier this year as Russia seeks new manpower without triggering a politically sensitive mobilization wave.
Reports indicate that universities have been encouraged to steer students toward military contracts, with drone units marketed as a more technical, lower-risk alternative to infantry service.
However, the contracts reportedly allow recruits to be reassigned if they are deemed unsuitable for drone roles or if other branches require additional personnel, including frontline combat units.
According to data quoted by the Kyiv Independent, universities had been asked to help send around 2 percent of students, roughly 76,000 people, into military service.
The pressure appears to focus on students in vulnerable academic positions, with universities reportedly approaching students with academic debt or those at risk of expulsion, presenting military contracts as an alternative before formal removal procedures are completed.
The contracts are promoted with fixed-term service, financial incentives, and the possibility of returning to university afterward.
Legal analysts quoted by the Kyiv Independent said Russian law does not guarantee automatic discharge upon the end of the contract period, especially amid the military's manpower shortages.
