Photo: Alexander Shcherbak / EPA
On June 3, the Ukrainian project “I Want to Live” published a list of 1,059 students from Russian universities, technical schools, and colleges who signed contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry and joined drone forces. Novaya-Europe reviewed the list and was able to partially verify its authenticity.
Details. According to the project’s authors, more than half of those on the list are first- or second-year students. Eighty percent of the people listed are young men between 18 and 21 years old.
Is it fake? Novaya-Europe selectively checked 37 people from the published list and confirmed their personal data, occupation, and place of study. Four young men contacted by the reporter confirmed that they are indeed students and that they signed contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry to serve in drone forces.
One student, who had been studying in his final year in a medical specialty, told Novaya-Europe that he signed a one-year contract in March 2026. He was then assigned to a UAV repair unit.
“I was studying under a targeted education contract, and now the contract gives me an opportunity to switch to a state-funded place,” he explained.
Oddities. The list includes mentions of students from the European part of Russia, but their total number is small: for example, one person each was recruited in Kursk region, Stavropol krai, and Nizhny Novgorod region.
The list also includes two students from Moscow region: one is in his third year at K.G. Razumovsky Moscow State University of Technologies and Management (originally from Penza region), and the other is in his fourth year at the Moscow Border Institute of the FSB of Russia (originally from Chuvashia). Why the document does not include other universities from Moscow or St. Petersburg is unknown.
“I Want to Live” did not answer Novaya-Europe’s question about where it obtained the list.
What can be found in the list. Most of the names are students from Siberia, the Urals, and the Volga region, with 42 regions represented in total. The regions with the highest numbers of recruited students are Kemerovo region (129 people), Krasnoyarsk krai (99), Penza region (76), Tatarstan (69), and Novosibirsk region (58).
Most often, the list features students from secondary and specialized educational institutions. Even so, it also includes recruits from prestigious universities: Siberian Federal University (17 people), Tomsk State University (11), South Ural State University (11), University of Tyumen (seven), Ural Federal University (five), and Kazan Federal University (two).