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Berdyansk University Becomes Recruitment Ground for Russian Forces as Students Resist
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Russian forces from the “Dnieper” group have initiated an active recruitment campaign at Berdyansk State Pedagogical University, which has been renamed “Azov State Pedagogical University” by the Russian authorities and integrated into their “Melitopol University.”
According to sources from the OTPOR movement on March 12, recruitment is taking place directly within the university, leaving students with limited options.
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The methods employed by the Russian authorities are both straightforward and coercive.
“The data of students who receive failing grades is immediately sent to the military commissariat. Each of them is then individually counseled on the importance of joining the Russian Armed Forces,” OTPOR stated.
However, the recruitment efforts have begun to encounter resistance. Many students are actively rejecting the propaganda and refusing to fight on temporary occupied territories.
“This openly frustrates the occupiers and forces them to intensify their pressure with new methods. Studying becomes a tool of blackmail, and the university, once a place of knowledge, turns into a hunting ground for cannon fodder,” the movement added.
Meanwhile, recent reports revealed that Russian educational institutions have become a key recruitment channel for the Kremlin's newly formed Unmanned Systems Forces, with at least 91 universities and 112 vocational schools actively enlisting students, according to an investigation by Verstka.
The recruitment efforts, often masked as “information meetings,” involve university administrators and military personnel promising students lucrative salaries, a guaranteed discharge after one year of service, and the assurance that their academic standing will remain intact. The campaign even extends to female students, with the Yakutsk Institute of Water Transport offering the opportunity for women to serve together in the same unit.
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The tactics employed in these recruitment drives vary from aggressive persuasion to outright deceit. For example, at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, students were reportedly pulled from classes under the pretext of meeting with the Vice-Rector, only to be given a lecture on the advantages of joining the drone service. Promises included priority admission to master's programs and automatic passing grades through online exams while deployed.
In a new report by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab, it has been revealed that stolen Ukrainian children are being forced into labor at Russian factories producing drones and other military equipment for Moscow’s armed forces.
The investigation identifies 210 facilities tied to Russia’s systematic campaign of kidnapping, deportation, indoctrination, and coerced adoption of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children.
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-111f0e5095e02c02446ffed57bfb0ab1.jpeg "Photo of Roman Kohanets")
