Putin targets students: ‘Are you cowards?’

Vladimir Putin’s war machine is now knocking on classroom doors. As the conflict drags into its fifth year, reports say the Kremlin is scrambling for fresh troops — and universities across Russia are being handed recruitment quotas.

Human rights groups and students claim campuses nationwide have been pulled into an “official campaign” to sign up contract soldiers.

According to the group Conscript School, academic institutions are being given targets to persuade students to enlist.

“This is an official campaign across the country,” said Alexey Tabalov of Conscript School.

“Reports are coming in from many regions. Previously students were left alone. Apparently, now there are simply not enough volunteers.”

At one faculty of Plekhanov University, an internal message reportedly called for two volunteers per month to sign contracts “in drone units,” according to channel T-INVARIANT.

A student at Bauman Moscow State Technical University said the pressure is relentless.

“The administration is doing everything it can to force [us] to serve under contract,” the student claimed.

In Novosibirsk, the push took a dramatic turn.

Maria Kirsanova, director of the Novosibirsk College of Transport Technologies, publicly scolded students who refused to enlist.

“I just thought that all of you, four hundred 18-year-olds, I was sure that ‘my children’ would be the first to defend their Fatherland,” she said, “Are you all cowards, sitting here, afraid for your lives?”

Students reportedly shot back with a chilling question of their own: “Yeah, are we going to arrive back in a zinc coffin or something?”

“Where does this fear come from? Who instilled this fear?” Kirsanova demanded.

The incentives are eye-watering.

Some universities are said to be advertising signing bonuses of up to $58,000 or more for one-year contracts.

There are also promises of serving in drone units rather than frontline assault roles.

But legal experts warn those assurances may be paper thin.

Lawyer Artem Klyga cautioned that once students sign up, leaving may not be so simple.

“After a year, those who want to leave will most likely be unable to do so,” he said.

“In reality, you could find yourself on the frontlines, including as a member of an assault unit.”

The recruitment surge comes against the backdrop of staggering losses.

Estimates cited in the report suggest total Russian casualties have reached around 1.2 million.

Those figures cannot be independently verified.

Earlier in the war, recruitment drives focused on prison inmates and students facing expulsion.

Now, the net appears to be widening.

Reports indicate the campaign includes students studying law, medicine, engineering and other disciplines.

From lecture halls to potential battlefields, the pressure is mounting.

As the war grinds on, Russia’s campuses may become the latest front in a conflict showing no sign of easing.

Key Takeaways

• Universities across Russia are reportedly given quotas to recruit student soldiers.

• Students are offered bonuses of up to $58,000 but warned they may end up on the frontline.

• Casualty estimates stand at around 1.2 million as the war enters its fifth year.

Desperate Putin turns to recruiting students as soldiers: "Are you all cowards?"