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Student drone recruitment
The BBC reported that Russia has recruited university and college students into its drone forces, with Valery Averin becoming one of the first Russian students known to have been killed in Ukraine after signing up for the new drive.
“- Published "He studied drones for three months - and yet they still threw him into a frontal assault, into the meat grinder," said Valery Averin's foster mother Oksana Afanayeva”
Averin’s foster mother Oksana Afanayeva said, "He studied drones for three months - and yet they still threw him into a frontal assault, into the meat grinder," and she complained that he "had never even served in the army."
The BBC said the recruitment campaign began early this year and focused on students at universities, technical colleges and vocational schools, including those struggling academically or considering taking a break from their studies.
It reported that Averin called Afanayeva on 8 April to say he was being sent somewhere "with no [phone] signal," and a week later she learned he had been killed in a mortar strike near Russian-occupied Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.
The BBC also described other former students killed after signing contracts, including Vladislav Gorbunov, who died 4 months after signing on 6 April, and Rakhim Abdullin, who died by 13 March after enrolling at Kumertau Mining College to train as a welder.
Numbers and verification
The BBC said the three former students—Abdullin, Gorbunov and Averin—are among 230,407 Russian soldiers and officers whose deaths have been verified by the BBC.
It added that the real death toll is believed to be far higher, with military experts saying the analysis of open-source data reflects 45-55% of the total number.
That would put the real death toll at between 417,000 and 509,500, the BBC reported, and it said the UK’s biggest spy agency, GCHQ, put the number at almost 500,000 in May.
The BBC reported that Ukraine’s losses are also very high, with President Volodymyr Zelensky last acknowledging 55,000 deaths in February 2026 and an anonymous Ukrainian website suggesting military deaths may reach 213,000.
In parallel, Remocontro framed the broader war as sustained by international availability of “cannon fodder,” describing how volunteers and mercenaries—sometimes called contractors—have been drawn into the Russo-Ukrainian conflict.
Stakes for recruitment
The BBC reported that replacing the dead and wounded has become key to maintaining Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine, and it said authorities have presented the student recruitment scheme as a voluntary route into a modern, high-tech and relatively safe branch of the military.
“- Published "He studied drones for three months - and yet they still threw him into a frontal assault, into the meat grinder," said Valery Averin's foster mother Oksana Afanayeva”
It said students are offered a special one-year contract to serve in a new branch known as "unmanned systems troops," and it described the pitch as telling students they can sign up for only one year, including training, and serve specifically in drone units rather than regular infantry.
The BBC reported that Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov said in November 2025 that the force would primarily seek to attract under-35s because younger recruits were considered more receptive to "new technologies and speeds."
Remocontro, meanwhile, described how Russia has counted on released prisoners, war professionals recruited into the Wagner Brigade, and battalions sent to die by its North Korean ally.
Together, the BBC’s account of recruitment activity in at least 95 universities and colleges by late February and Remocontro’s emphasis on “cannon fodder” underscore how the war’s manpower pressures intersect with new recruitment pipelines and external sources of fighters.
