Russia pressures university students to become wartime drone pilots

Russia is recruiting university students to become drone operators for its war in Ukraine, framing it as safer military service.

But reporting says some student recruits are being sent to combat zones, with one trainee, Valery Averin, killed near Luhansk.

The effort highlights Moscow’s push to scale up drone warfare while exposing inexperienced students to frontline risk.

It also underscores how central drones have become to the war, and the heavy human cost of that shift.