Russia Is Now Targetting Educational Institutions Luring Students In Joining Military To Mitigate Dearth Of Soldiers.

Moscow; June 2026: Russia is struggling to recruit soldiers required to cover massive casualties in Ukraine, is now sourcing such students from educational institutions for their supply of young soldiers.

Quotas have reportedly been introduced in some institutions, and secret recordings of academic staff and military officials trying to enlist students have gone viral online.

In one recording taped earlier this year, the director of an automobile institution in Siberia was found branding a cohort of 18 years old as ’cowards’ for not signing up. She was found yelling: “What are you afraid of? Who made you this scared? Who is going to protect us? I’m telling you, go to the army right now, and then you’ll get your diploma. Now go sign a contract”.

Experts have attributed these extraordinary recruitment strategy, a sign of how desperate Russian President Vladimir Putin has become to sustain the war, amid financial pressures facing his government and a resurgent Ukrainian military, which has been retaking territory on the battlefield.

While neither Ukraine nor Russia releases official numbers of soldiers killed and injured, many analysts believe Russia’s army has been shrinking for the past five months. The country’s prisons have already been raided, and the government is trying to avoid initiating another deeply unpopular forced mobilisation.

According to reports, Russia has set a quota for 02% of male students to be recruited to the military and it is offering to wipe tuition fees and expunge poor grades for some of those who sign up. As per official sources revealing information’s in anonymity, has reported, there are more than 250 universities and technical colleges taking part in the recruitment drive.

The strategy first emerged in December 2025. What some people believe started as academic officials encouraging young men to serve their country, has quickly become coercion.

A student (name not disclosed by Maverick News 30) from a university in Moscow – is amongst those who have been offered a contract after failing a subject last semester. He told the news reporters that in previous years, reappearing for an exam was a straightforward proposition. Not anymore. “The university said if you agree to fight then you will not be expelled, you can come back to study and the academic debts will be cleared too”, he said. “It’s quite difficult to reappear for any subjects now. It’s as if the university just don’t allow it on purpose. They offered us the option to join the military with some conditions that were just unrealistic”

The student who is just 19 years of age have just managed to exploit a loophole in the system, in which he could avoid signing up by taking a gap year. It required the help of a family friend. “We found a way, but I know people who went to the military. The way I managed to solve my situation was not strictly legal. I was very lucky. Before I realised, we had connections, I was expecting to have to go to the army”.

Meanwhile, the Aunt, of the young University student whose name is been undisclosed by Maverick News 30, was evitably distraught about the prospect of her nephew, who she raised as a child, being sent to war, and she said some universities were trying to fail students. “It’s happening in basically every university”, she said. “We have found out that the universities are paid money for each person who is recruited to the military”.

Universities have been accused of hiking the cost of tuition and reducing state-funded places in favour of giving veterans and widows priority. “I’m shocked by it all. So many boys are being sent to kill. It’s a disgrace”, the Aunt has lamented.

Some of Russia’s top institutions are involved in the recruitment drive, including Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, which held a “drone festival” in February, and the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, which has devoted its website to encouraging students to sign up.

Maverick News 30 while exploring the website of the Plekhanov Russian University has found that:

• Individualised training plan for the students of Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, without losing a year.

• Admission to the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics on a budgetary basis or at the expense of the university.

• Enrolment of children in universities: priority enrolment of children of program participants on a budgetary basis for education at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics.

• Recovery to continue education priority reinstatement at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics to continue their education for students who participated in the program after completing their military service.

• Transfer of students to a budgetary basis or at the expense of the university.

• Maintaining the form and duration of training with the provision of an individual training schedule using distance learning technologies.

The Social benefits which the University offers are:

• Guaranteed dismissal: Upon expiration of the special contract, the program participant is guaranteed to be dismissed;

• Liberation: from the need to undergo military service;

• Compulsory education: under the special training program in the training units of the UAV troops of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for two months;

• Employment guarantees: job retention; the right to additional leave of up to 35 days per year; preferential length of service and total work experience – 1 day of service for 3 days;

• Obtaining unique, in-demand knowledge and skills: mastering the professional use of unmanned systems, which are in demand both in the Russian Ministry of Defense and other law enforcement agencies, as well as in many sectors of the modern economy;

• Regular service: Selected military personnel who meet the requirements and agree to be appointed to military positions in unmanned aircraft units are prohibited from being sent to other positions in other units.

• Legal guarantees: conditions of service from the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation;

• Lifelong right to receive spa treatment in the institutions of the Ministry of Defense: at the recreation centres of the Russian University of Economics (Ruzsky District of the Moscow Region, Anapa, Krasnodar Territory) for program participants during their studies/work at the University after service;

And, last but not the least – the financial & economical benefits are extraordinarily hysteric:

• 400,000 ₽ as Federal payment; One-time cash payment upon signing a contract.

• 254,000 ₽; Minimum take-home wage with an additional establishment of a monthly supplement for special conditions of military service to the salary for a military position in the amount of 300%.

• 1,900,000 ₽; as Regional payment; One-time cash payment upon signing a contract.

• Lifetime payment: Monthly payment for life in accordance with the status of a Combat Veteran.

• Exemption from transport tax: in accordance with Federal Law No. 425-FZ of November 28, 2025.

• Repayment of loans up to 10,000,000 ₽: Credit and tax holidays during military service.

• 50% discount on housing and communal services.

• Free travel on public transport.

• Admission to government institutions without waiting in line.

• Free visits to museums, theatres, and libraries.

Meanwhile, Analysts believe Russia is now sustaining about 35,000 casualties a month. Even before this, Russia’s losses were so severe, the war was described as Vladimir Putin’s “meat grinder”.

Ukraine has had a mobilisation in force for men aged 25-60, with some exceptions, since Russia’s full-scale invasion began, alongside a voluntary recruitment and incentive-driven programs.

Russia’s previous partial mobilisation in 2022 was fateful. While 300,000 men were drafted into the army, it is estimated hundreds of thousands also fled the country.

Keir Giles, an expert in Russia’s military and the author of multiple books, said the Russia was treating another round of forced recruitment as a last resort. “I think if it were politically viable, Putin would have done it by now. The fact that this is still being avoided, even when the Russian armed forces have gone through minor manpower crises in the course of this conflict, indicates what a hard decision it is to make”.

For many Russians, life has become much more difficult, and expensive, than it was before the full-scale invasion.

Natia Seskuria is a senior research fellow in Russian and Eurasian security at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based independent defence think tank. She described Moscow’s campaign to enlist students as “aggressive”. “Looking at some of the websites of major Russian universities, we see that there is quite a lot of campaigns online in terms of sourcing and influencing the students’ decision to join this war effort”, she said. “This is quite extraordinary. We haven’t seen this previously when Russia fought its wars”.

Soldiers have been filmed giving speeches to students inside Russian universities and technical colleges in recent months, promulgating the benefits of joining what is officially referred to as the “special military operation” in Ukraine. Students have reported receiving assurances they will serve in units far from the front lines, and that they will be freed after a year, but not everyone is convinced.

“These contracts cannot be trusted. It really depends on what sort of battlefield necessities Russia will have”, Seskuria said. “There have been a lot of cases where people suddenly ended up on the front lines without having much training, just to sustain the war”.

Under Russian law, military contracts currently bind people to indefinite service or at least until the Ukraine war ends, whenever that might be.

Team Maverick.