To Fill Drone Force Ranks, Russia Targets a New Demographic: Students

Scritto il 13/04/2026
da Milana Mazaeva, Nataliya Vasilyeva and Paul Sonne

Recruitment sessions have taken place at hundreds of universities and colleges across the country.A billboard promoting contract military service in the Russian army’s unmanned systems forces, in St. Petersburg, Russia, in January. Recruiters have been recruiting Russian university students as drone operators using similarly lucrative offers.