Russia is forcing university students to become wartime pilots

However, Russia’s efforts to recruit student pilots are moving toward its goal of having 168,000 drone pilots by the end of 2026, according to Kyiv Independent. In that sense, Russia is taking advantage of Ukraine’s success Unmanned Systems Force which became the first branch of the standing military in the world to focus on drones in June 2024.

Russian recruiting services have often promised that university students could become pilots without risking their lives to shoot pedestrians under Ukrainian tunnels and fences. But security is short-term as constant surveillance and the threat of drone or missile strikes have created a “kill zone” that stretches up to 25 kilometers on both sides of the front, according to the head of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Force in an interview with Ukrainian Pravda.

Russian-language news agency BBC news identified 23-year-old Valery Averin as the first known death among Russian university students trained and employed as pilots. Averin’s adoptive mother, Oksana Afanasyeva, was informed of her son’s death on April 6 near the city of Luhansk, in eastern Ukraine.

“The kid was training on a drone for three months, and now we’re throwing him into a conspiracy, into a meat grinder, a man who has never been in the military,” Afanasyeva told BBC News.

Russia has lost nearly 1.3 million soldiers as war casualties since it began its invasion of Ukraine, according to the The head of NATO mentioned in news reports in February 2026. In comparison, Wounded in Ukraine It is estimated that there were between 500,000 and 600,000 soldiers at the same time, including soldiers killed, wounded, and missing.