"If you go to war, I will have to kill you": Ukrainian soldier foils student recruitment. VIDEO
A closed-door event at Kuban State Agrarian University, where students were being persuaded to sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defence, ended in an unexpected scandal.
Instead of the expected ‘Russian hero’, the organisers brought a man onto the screen who identified himself as a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, reports Censor.NET, citing the publication ‘Meduza’.
Details
During a video conference in a packed lecture hall, a man in camouflage and a balaclava was brought onto the call. The organisers believed him to be a Russian soldier who would speak about the "benefits" of service, but the man addressed the students with a stern warning.
"I am actually a soldier, only not a Russian one, but a Ukrainian one. And I want to tell you: God forbid you come here, I will have to kill you – everyone who signs this contract," he said.
The soldier also noted that the faces of everyone present, including the rector and the campaigners, had already been identified. He added that the Russian army was suffering colossal losses, and commanders were demanding money from their subordinates. After a short speech, the connection with him was cut off.
What led up to this?
The incident occurred against the backdrop of a mass campaign to recruit students at Russian universities, which intensified at the end of 2025.
Students are promised a one-year service term in the drone forces "under special conditions", although human rights activists warn that recruiters cannot guarantee this.
The Russian authorities have set universities a target for recruiting contract soldiers for the war – 2% of the student body, the Faridaily reported on 1 April. It is also known that the Russian Ministry of Defence plans to recruit 78,800 people into the unmanned systems forces by the end of 2026.
