2% of students must sign contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry, supposedly to serve in Unmanned Systems Forces — this is the target that Russia’s Science and Higher Education minister set for university chancellors in April 2026

We break down what that figure means from several different angles

July

2026

Groza, Conscript School

Привет, это редакция «Грозы». Извините, что прерываем, мы хотим попросить о помощи — пожалуйста, поддержите нас донатом.

This post is part of the Russian Youth Month campaign. Throughout the month, Groza — an independent media outlet for students in Russia — is telling the world what young Russians fear and dream about, and how the state prevents them from feeling free, together with media outlets, bloggers, and students from different countries.

There are 2.2 million male students enrolled at Russian universities. Two percent of them are 44,000 people. If the target also applies to vocational schools and colleges, that figure rises to 76,000. For comparison, Moscow State University has 50,000 students.
When Russian propaganda spoke of “partial” mobilization, it claimed that only 1% of the country’s mobilization pool would be called up. Now, when it comes to students, the figure being discussed is already 2%.
On average, that amounts to roughly one student from every two university class groups.
If all 44,000 students serve for one year, as promised, the state will spend at least 44,440,000,000 ₽ (~ $ 568,000,000) on their salaries and other payments. That is equal to the Republic of Altai’s entire annual budget for 2026.
If all 44,000 students who sign contracts are killed during their service, the state will spend at least 713,600,000,000 ₽ (~ $ 9,119,000,000) on payments to them and their families. That is 150,000,000,000 ₽ (~ $ 1,917,000,000) more than the annual budget of the Republic of Tatarstan, which has the fourth-largest regional budget in Russia.
More than 18,000 young people aged 18 to 23 have already been killed in Russia’s war against Ukraine. They account for one in every 13 of all those killed.
At least three students who signed contracts supposedly to serve in Unmanned Systems Forces have already been killed in Russia’s war against Ukraine: Vladislav Gorbunov — his branch of service at the time of his death is unknown; Valery Averin — killed during an assault; Ilya Ulyanov — killed while serving as a drone operator.