Students at over 70 Russian universities targeted in nationwide military recruitment drive

Russia’s Defence Ministry is actively attempting to recruit students at over 70 universities and technical colleges across Russia to serve in the war in Ukraine, according to an investigation published by Berlin-based independent media outlet Echo on Thursday.

The investigation found evidence that military recruiters were targeting students at 57 universities and 13 technical colleges across 23 regions of Russia, as well as in Russian-annexed Crimea.

Similar recruitment efforts are likely ongoing at many other higher education institutions across Russia, Echo said, with evidence suggesting the existence of a “nationwide initiative” to recruit soldiers from universities and colleges. At least two Russian universities have reported receiving recruitment quotas from the Ministry of Defence.

Exiled Russian political analyst Yekaterina Schulmann told Echo that  “the wide geographic spread, the similar recruitment patterns, and the somewhat hysterical tone of recruiters and university staff” all suggested that the recruitment quotas had been issued by the federal government and “delegated to universities”. 

Recruiters at universities reportedly favour a “carrot and stick” method, compelling students to attend meetings and interviews where they are promised large signing bonuses that, in some cases, are supplemented by the universities themselves. 

Students are generally told that they can join the Unmanned Systems Forces as drone operators, remaining far from the front lines while gaining valuable experience relevant to high-tech industry. Recruitment pamphlets also assure students they can combine active military service with their studies, referring to students sent to the front as being on “academic leave”, with discharge guaranteed after one year.

Despite these assurances, Artyom Klyga, a lawyer for the Russian Conscientious Objectors Movement, found that students recruited from Moscow’s Higher School of Economics who were promised discharge after completing a year of service, had in fact signed regular military contracts that cannot be terminated.

Klyga also found that students who enlisted to join the Unmanned Systems Forces were instead sent to serve in the regular infantry, under the pretext that they did not fulfil the acceptance criteria for the former