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Photo: RIA Novosti
Russia’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) has begun encouraging college students to sign military contracts to serve as drone operators, reports the independent science-focused publication T-invariant. Students are being promised a one-time payment of at least 5.2 million rubles ($65,000 ) and monthly salaries of 210,000–260,000 rubles ($2,600-$3,250), along with the option to terminate their contract after one year. However, lawyers warn that, under a decree issued by Vladimir Putin, such contracts are in fact open-ended.
Students at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) reported the recruitment effort. On Dec. 9, a representative of the university’s military training center gave a lecture in which he suggested that students who were struggling academically could take leave from the university in order to sign a contract with the MoD.
According to the recruiter, the new drone operator units are expected to become operational as early as January 2026. Leaflets handed out to students promised that service would take place 20 kilometers from the combat zone.
Similar recruitment efforts are taking place at other Russian universities, T-invariant writes. Students at Siberian Federal University are being promised a one-time payment of 3.5 million rubles ($43,750) for signing a one-year contract, with “guaranteed discharge” upon its expiration. Students at the Shukhov Belgorod State Technological University have also been urged to join the drone operator units.
Local publication Business Online reports that Tatarstan is also actively recruiting drone operators, and not only among students. According to the outlet, on Dec. 1 all military districts were given orders to recruit contract soldiers for the new unmanned systems units, who will likely serve at the Rubikon center that was established in 2024. The contract offered at the center is standard but includes two addenda. The first requires mandatory training in piloting UAVs, and the second states that the MoD must discharge the soldier at the end of their contract term unless they choose to sign a new one.
Lawyers note that during the “partial mobilization” in effect in Russia since September 2022, a soldier cannot terminate a contract with the MoD. Under Putin’s decree, all such contracts are deemed to be indefinite.
“There are no one-year contracts. Formally, they exist, but you can’t terminate them,” T-invariant quotes Aleksei Tabalov, director of the School of the Conscript, as saying. “If we could see this type of contract and its addenda, we could analyze it. But there is Putin’s decree on open-ended contracts. How can anything be exempt from the decree if it applies to all contracts? And it doesn’t matter what addendum you sign. They might have secured special arrangements to attract young people to this branch of the armed forces. An exception could have been made so as not to scare potential recruits off. But those special arrangements could be just as easily repealed, as the situation at the front is prone to changing.”
It became known in November 2025 that the Russian Armed Forces were creating a new branch dedicated to unmanned systems. According to its head, command bodies for unmanned systems have been established at every level of the army. Ukraine has had a similar branch of service since 2024.
In September, journalists from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty determined that the Rubikon center’s base is located in Patriot Park near Moscow, where it occupies two pavilions of the exhibition complex. The site’s location is officially classified, but reporters were able to identify it using videos published by the Ministry of Defense, the center itself, and propagandist Vladimir Solovyov. In Solovyov’s case, editors forgot to blur out restroom signs bearing distinctive designs and other interior details of the Patriot complex. The center is reportedly based in pavilions labeled C and D.