Russia Recruits Bauman Moscow State Technical University Students as Drone Pilots With Pay

Russian universities are recruiting students to serve as drone pilots for the military, offering incentives that include free tuition and pay of more than 5 million rubles for signing up, according to pamphlets distributed at Bauman Moscow State Technical University.

The Straits Times reports that the offer includes a year away from studies to fly drones from far behind the front lines while still qualifying for combat veteran status.

Agenzia Dire

The Straits Times also says at least 270 institutions are actively promoting military contracts, citing the independent magazine Groza, and it frames the push as part of the Kremlin’s adaptation to sustain its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now in its fifth year.

Ars Technica adds that Russian universities are promising free tuition and up to $70,000 to students willing to serve as drone pilots for a year while claiming students can avoid the risk of frontline combat duty in Ukraine.

Students described pressure tactics that go beyond incentives, with the Straits Times reporting that students say universities sometimes threaten their academic standing if they refuse and that a college director at Kazan Innovative University told students they had already been expelled.

In the same reporting, the Straits Times quotes Groza editor Polina Usoltseva saying, “There are hundreds of them, and they only express hopelessness and despair.”

Ars Technica

Russia’s officials deny coercion, with the Straits Times stating that a defence ministry official said in April that students sign on voluntarily and are not forced into contracts.

Ars Technica adds that the effort carries battlefield risk, noting “one confirmed battlefield death” and possibly more among the new cadre of student drone pilots.

The recruitment drive is described as broad in geographic and institutional reach, with DW saying Echo of Moscow counted 57 universities and 11 institutes involved, and with DW also citing that at least 70 educational institutions participate across 23 Russian regions.

DW reports that a Moscow university employee identified as Yuri says directors of several universities were summoned to a meeting with Dmitry Nikolayevich Chernyshenko, and that they were instructed to recruit students for the drone troops.

The Straits Times frames the manpower pressure as urgent, saying the military is trying to tap a population once shielded from frontline recruitment as earlier pipelines targeting prisoners may be close to exhaustion, while Kremlin forces suffer heavy losses on the battlefield.

Ars Technica concludes that the campaign risks depleting Russia’s future educated workforce, and it quotes a student named Andrey telling NBC News, “No one wants to join,” and “No one is interested.”