Nizhny Novgorod television showed a story about training students for UAV troops

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The Nizhny Novgorod regional media “By the way” published a story about students who took academic leave to serve in the unmanned systems troops. The report was filmed at one of the military training grounds, where future UAV operators are trained to control FPV drones and use them in combat.

The footage shows classes at the training ground, training with ammunition and interviews with students who signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense. One of the filming participants says that he studied construction, but decided to interrupt his studies and undergo training for service in unmanned systems units.

According to the instructor, the course takes about a month. The first ten days are devoted to theoretical training, followed by training on simulators and practical training. After this, students receive permission to fly with a warhead. At the final stage, he claims, the cadets are already practicing the use of drones against real targets.

The story became one of the few materials on regional television showing in detail the training of students who took academic leave to enter into a contract and serve in the unmanned systems troops.

Previously, the Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University named after R. E. Alekseev announced the recruitment of students for contract service in the troops of unmanned systems. The publication "Groza" noted that other large universities in the region took part in the propaganda campaign, namely Nizhny Novgorod State University named after N. I. Lobachevsky, Nizhny Novgorod State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering and Nizhny Novgorod State Linguistic University named after N. A. Dobrolyubov.

Are there other cases?

In April, Evgeny Kulikov, a propagandist for the state TV channel Rossiya 24, released a report about students who could allegedly serve in the unmanned systems forces under a one-year contract.

This story was brought to the attention of the head of the legal department of the Conscious Objector Movement, Artem Klyga. In his opinion, the report contained statements that did not comply with current legislation and established law enforcement practice.

Already in May, DOXA wrote that the Ministry of Defense and the Telegram channel associated with the department, “Heroes of Special Operation Z,” began publishing a series of propaganda videos with students who left their studies to serve in the unmanned systems troops. The heroes of the video were students of the Don State Technical University and Tomsk Polytechnic University.

Students killed in the war

On June 23, the BBC published a major investigation into students recruited into the drone forces. Journalists from the publication told the stories of three students who believed this propaganda and died a few months after signing the contract. Among them are 18-year-old Vladislav Gorbunov from the Bryansk region, 23-year-old Valery Averin from Buryatia and 18-year-old Rakhim Abdullin from Bashkortostan.

Gorbunov signed a contract in December 2025 and went to the Nizhny Novgorod region for training. Relatives learned about his decision after signing the documents. Despite the fact that he was registered as a UAV operator, he was first assigned to an assault company, and only then transferred to a drone unit. On April 6, 2026, Gorbunov died. A little more than four months have passed since the contract was signed.

Valery Averin entered into a contract in January 2026, while being a final year student at the Buryat Republican College of Construction and Industrial Technologies. According to his adoptive mother Oksana Afanasyeva, he was previously not accepted for military service due to health reasons. After three months of training to become a UAV operator, Averin, according to his family, was sent to an assault unit. He died on April 6 during a mortar attack.

Rahim Abdullin signed the contract shortly after his eighteenth birthday. He studied at the Kumertau Mining College to become a welder and chose the specialty of a UAV operator, considering it less dangerous. However, already during his service, according to his mother, it became clear that drone operators also find themselves in close proximity to the line of combat contact. Abdullin died on March 13, just two months after being sent to the front.

According to estimates by the BBC, Mediazona and the independent team Volunteer:k, at least 18,026 Russians under the age of 23 have died since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. We are talking only about cases confirmed by open data, so real losses could be much higher.

Separately, journalists note that among the dead, at least 711 military personnel were already 18 years old, and about 80% of these deaths occurred in 2024-2025 - the period after the State Duma allowed concluding a military contract immediately upon reaching adulthood.

According to the BBC, at least 1,020 Russian UAV operators have been killed during the war. Their losses are comparable to the losses of artillery units, and the drone pilots themselves have long become one of the priority targets at the front.

What do human rights activists say?

In a conversation with DOXA, the head of the legal department of the Conscious Objector Movement, Artem Klyga, says that the appearance of such stories on regional and federal television looks like part of a campaign to popularize the service of unmanned systems in the military.

In his opinion, such materials should give the audience the impression that this is a relatively safe form of military service, which is accompanied by numerous guarantees: the opportunity to serve one year, earn money, and then return to study.

Klyga notes that most known cases of recruitment occur not at large universities, but at colleges. According to the data that the human rights activist relies on, we are talking about approximately six thousand recruited students, but these figures can hardly be called sufficient from the point of view of the military department.

He pays special attention to the issue of academic leaves. According to the human rights activist, a decision cannot be considered completely voluntary if a person makes it without full information about the consequences.

“Voluntary choice exists when a person knows all his rights, responsibilities and consequences of his decision. When a student is told: take a leave of absence, serve for a year and return to study, this misleads him. In practice, he leaves to serve not for a year, but as long as the mobilization decree is in effect,” says the human rights activist.

According to Klyga, exceptions are possible, but are mainly associated with severe injuries and other circumstances in which military personnel are declared unfit for further service.

In addition, he emphasizes that the decision to sign a contract is rarely made in conditions of complete freedom of choice. Students are simultaneously exposed to financial incentives, government propaganda, and various forms of pressure.

“If a person is influenced by money, propaganda, psychological pressure, then such a choice can hardly be called completely voluntary. I don’t think there are many students who sign a contract absolutely freely and consciously. In most cases, we are talking about either misleading or pressure that is put on young people,” says Klyga.

DOXA also spoke with education human rights activist Timur Tukhvatullin. According to him, such materials simultaneously serve as a kind of “reporting” to the state and serve as a propaganda tool designed to convince students that contract service supposedly does not pose serious risks.

The human rights activist notes that in conditions where the law does not provide for special contracts for students, nor guarantees of service specifically in the UAV forces, such reports should dispel students’ fears that after signing a contract they may be sent, for example, to assault units without the opportunity to return to study.

“This fear was one of the main reasons for the failure of the student recruitment campaign. Therefore, it is possible that such a story is needed to prepare a new wave of campaigning and coercion to conclude contracts,” the human rights activist believes.

Tukhvatullin notes that in such materials, viewers are shown students who have already signed a contract, are undergoing training and are outwardly satisfied with their choice. However, in his opinion, it is difficult to talk about a completely voluntary decision in such circumstances.

“The entire campaign is based on lies, intimidation and manipulation. Perhaps someone is really attracted to service in the UAV forces, but it seems to me that they are an absolute minority. The very course of the campaign shows that incentives alone are not enough and the authorities are increasingly resorting to harsher methods of influencing students,” concludes Tukhvatullin.

Context

The unmanned systems force was officially created in Russia in 2025. After this, a large-scale campaign began in Russian universities and colleges to attract students to contract service.

As Faridaily previously reported, citing sources in the university environment, the Minister of Science and Higher Education Valery Falkov recommended that the management of large universities ensure that contracts are signed with the Ministry of Defense for at least 2% of students: approx. According to the publication's estimates, there could be tens of thousands of new contract workers among university students alone.

Later, an internal document of the Ministry of Defense appeared in the public domain, according to which in 2026 the troops of unmanned systems are planned to be replenished with almost 79 thousand people.

According to the Groza publication, by the spring of 2026, agitation in favor of contract service had been recorded in at least 194 Russian universities and colleges. Reports of recruitment came from St. Petersburg State University, Bauman Moscow State Technical University, UrFU, Far Eastern Federal University and dozens of other educational institutions throughout the country.

In a number of cases, the propaganda campaign was accompanied by pressure on students. Thus, students of the Voronezh State University of Engineering Technologies published a recording of a speech by Dean Alexei Skrypnikov, who, during a meeting with students, used the rhetoric of intimidation and threats, agitating them to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense.