Recruits in Moscow were offered to replace military service with an "annual" contract with UAV soldiers.
In Moscow, they began offering recruits to sign a contract to send unmanned systems (UBS) to the forces instead of mandatory military service. Maxim Loktev, the military commissar of the capital, spoke about the "innovation" in an interview with TASS. "An alternative to the usual 'conscription' has appeared: citizens subject to conscription have the right to enlist in the Airborne Forces under a special annual contract in exchange for military service - this is considered conscription," he said.
According to Loktab, the recruitment is for the positions of drone operators, engineers and technicians; priority is given to candidates with experience in IT, electronics, radio engineering and aircraft modeling. He also said that recruits learn about UAVs already at the recruiting station and try to interest them by offering to try themselves as UAV operators.
The Ministry of Defense announced the creation of unmanned systems forces in November 2025 and relied on students, for whom it engaged hundreds of educational institutions across Russia, including the country's leading universities, in recruitment. Their leadership, according to Pridial sources, received the task of recruiting at least 2% of the students to the service. In their campaign, many universities also claim that the contract can be concluded for a year, and promise various bonuses for volunteers: from payments to free training. In addition, students are guaranteed that they will have to serve "away from the combat contact line".
At the same time, President Vladimir Putin's decree provides for the automatic renewal of contracts during enlistment, and human rights activists have discovered that the seal can be sent to assault units in the war with Ukraine. The BBC previously reported on three Russian students who agreed to become drone operators and ended up dying on the front a few months later. One of them, 18-year-old Vladislav Gorbunov, was sent to an assault company for the first time.
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