Russian students recruited as drone operators die within months at the front

BBC Russian Service has documented the deaths of three young Russian students, aged 18, who signed contracts as drone operators and were killed within months of deployment. Recruited through a wave of military advertising in technical colleges and universities that began in late 2024, the young men were misled about the conditions of service and in several cases were sent to assault units instead of drone divisions.

Russia has been conducting an aggressive recruitment drive in its technical colleges and universities since late 2024, targeting students with promises of high pay, short one-year contracts, and safe rear-line service as drone operators. BBC Russian Service has investigated three cases where young men, all 18 years old, signed up under these conditions and were dead within months.

Vladislav Gorbunov, Bryansk region

Vladislav Gorbunov spent his entire life in the town of Unecha, Bryansk region. From an early age he showed a preoccupation with the war: before he turned 18 he ran a Telegram channel called "Militarists on the Spot," posting clips featuring Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin and writing in public chats about his desire to go to the front. In one message he wrote: "Everything is [rubbish], I'm waiting for the army and a contract so I can croak."

Gorbunov was studying railway construction at the Unecha College of Industrial Technologies and Transport. He turned 18 in August 2025 and signed a contract with Russia's Ministry of Defence in December. His family tried to talk him out of it. He signed as a drone operator, but was initially assigned to an assault company. His friend Sergei said he «miraculously survived» that assignment before being transferred to a drone division. Gorbunov was killed on 6 April «while carrying out a combat mission». His death certificate listed «blood loss» as the cause. From the day he signed the contract to the day he died: just over four months.

Valery Averin, Buryatia

Valery Averin grew up in an orphanage in the village of Timlyuy in Buryatia. At age 11 he was taken in by Oksana and Sergei Afanasyev. He was studying in his final year at the Buryat Republican College of Construction and Industrial Technologies when he signed a contract in early January 2025, telling his adoptive family only after the fact.

«He really wanted to serve, but the army wouldn't take him, said he was psychologically unstable or something. He deceived me, said he was going to earn money at Wildberries,» his adoptive mother Oksana recalled. «When I found out he'd signed a contract, I nearly lost my mind. I said: "What have you done? Where are you going?" He said: "Nothing will happen to me, everything will be fine, don't worry."»

In late March, Valery called to say he had finished basic training and was heading to the front. On 8 April, Oksana learned he had been killed, reportedly during a mortar strike. «The child spent three months training on drones, and we sent him to storm, into the meat grinder, someone who had never served in the army at all,» she said bitterly. His story was first reported by BBC in May 2025, marking the first known death of a student recruited through the college drone-operator campaign, until BBC found another case that had occurred even earlier.

Rakhim Abdullin, Kumertau

Rakhim Abdullin, from Kumertau in Bashkortostan, was already talking about going to war in ninth grade. «Right when all of this [the war] started, around that time he began saying he wanted to go there, to protect Russia, to keep it safe. He said: if they allowed it, I would have gone at 16,» his mother Elena recalled. She says she scolded him for those thoughts but did not take them seriously enough, a fact she now regrets.

Abdullin was studying welding at Kumertau Mining College. He turned 18 in December 2025 and signed a Ministry of Defence contract in early January, telling his mother just two days before shipping out. He chose the drone operator role partly because he believed it was safer. That assumption was quickly shattered. «It turned out they [drone operators] can see the assault troops, and they are on the front line themselves,» Elena said. She added that her son was issued a broken rifle and old equipment, leaving him and his comrades to pool their own money to buy supplies.

A friend of Abdullin's told BBC anonymously that, unlike what his mother believed, Rakhim was motivated not by patriotism but by money. In mid-January, Rakhim had written to him: «You know where you can make serious cash? The [special military operation]. And the state will thank you for it.» When warned that contractors were being sent to their deaths, he brushed it off: «They won't throw you into the assault. I'm a drone operator. And that's [great].»

Rakhim Abdullin was killed on 13 March, two months after leaving home.

A systematic deception

The three cases expose a pattern of systematic deception in Russia's military recruitment. Since early 2023, Russian law has allowed teenagers to sign military contracts immediately upon turning 18. Schools and colleges began receiving visits from war veterans tasked with encouraging students to enlist. By late 2024, the campaign had intensified, with recruiters targeting underperforming students at vocational colleges and universities, including, reportedly, at the Higher School of Economics, promising year-long contracts, high salaries, and safe positions away from the front line.

In practice, BBC's investigation found, the contracts are open-ended for the duration of the war. Recruits trained as drone operators are routinely reassigned to frontline assault units where the mortality rate is far higher. And the equipment issued is often faulty, leaving soldiers to fund their own combat supplies. All three students featured in BBC's investigation signed up believing they were joining a safe, well-paid technical role. All three were dead within months.