At the beginning of 2023, teenagers in Russia Allowed Entering into military communications immediately after your eighteenth birthday and. At the same time, educational institutions began to be visited en masse by “veterans”, who encouraged schoolchildren and students to go to the front. And at the end of 2025, a huge mass employment To the unmanned forces: cadets were promised that they would earn good money, serve only a year and away from the front (in reality, this is not true). BBC Russian Service He said Stories of three students who went to serve in the drone forces and died within a few months.
Vladislav Gorbunov, Bryansk region, 18 years old
Vladislav lived all his life in the town of Onitsha, Bryansk region. According to those close to him, the issue of war occupied him for many years. When he was still a minor, he ran the Telegram channel “Military on the Place,” where he posted videos with Wagner PMC founder Yevgeny Prigozhin and wrote in public chats about his desire to go to war. One of the messages was: “Everyone*** [фигня] I am waiting for the army and the contract until I die” (spelling and punctuation preserved).
Gorbunov studied at the Unechsky Technical School of Industrial and Transport Technologies and received a degree in railway construction. In August 2025, he celebrated his 18th birthday, and in December he signed a contract with the Ministry of Defence. What exactly prompted him to do this is unknown. According to one of his classmates, he was having problems in his studies. Brother Danat said that his relatives tried to dissuade him from recruiting for the front, but to no avail.
Vladislav signed a contract as a drone operator, but was first sent to the assault company. “It turns out somehow that there’s a greater need for Stormtroopers. That’s the question.” [почему так случилось] It’s worth asking which part he’s in [контракт] “Sign,” said Vladislav’s brother.
Gorbunov’s friend Sergei said that he “miraculously survived” in the assault company. Only then was he transferred to the UAV Operators Department. Gorbunov died on April 6 “while performing a combat mission.” Danat refused to reveal the circumstances of his brother’s death, but stated that the death certificate mentioned “blood loss” as the cause. It was just over four months from Gorbunov’s signing of the contract to his death.
Valery Averin, Buryatia, 23 years old
Valery was a pupil at an orphanage in the Buryat village of Timlyui. At the age of eleven, he was taken in by the family of Oksana and Sergei Afanasyev. Oksana described her first meeting with her adopted son as follows: “He was prickly like all the children from the orphanage. He said: ‘Why is everyone walking and looking, but no one takes me?’ And when they left, he held on to the glass doors and watched. There was silence on the road for a long time.”
Averin was a final year student at the Buryat Republic College of Construction and Industrial Technologies. He signed the contract in early January 2026 and told his family about it after the fact. “I really wanted to serve, but they didn’t take him into the army, they said he was mentally unstable or something. He deceived me and said he went to make money from Wildberry. And when I found out he signed the contract, I almost went crazy. I said: ‘What did you do?’ Where did you go?” He said: “Nothing will happen to me, everything will be fine, don’t worry.” He said Foster mother.
At the end of March, Valery called her and told her that he had finished his “training” and was leaving for the front. On April 8, I learned of his death. “The child studied on a drone for three months, and we hacked him into a meat grinder, a person who did not serve in the army,” Afanasyeva complained. But she does not know the specific circumstances of her son’s death. She was only told that he died in a mortar attack.
Avren’s story told the BBC for the first time He said In May 2026. At the time, this was the first known fatality of a student who became a drone operator amid mass recruitment at educational institutions. However, the BBC found a student who, as it turned out, had died at the front even earlier.
Rahim Abdullin, Bashkortostan, 18 years old
Rahim, who was in ninth grade, said he was ready to go to war. “Only when it’s all over [война] He began, at about the same time he began to say that he had a desire to go there [на фронт]To protect Russia and keep it safe. “If they had allowed it, I would have gone when I was about 16,” said his mother Elena, who says she scolded her son for having such thoughts, but did not take them seriously enough – and she now regrets it.
Abdulin studied at Kumertau Mining College to become a welder. His studies were not going well. In December 2025, he turned 18, and in early January he signed a call with the Ministry of Defense. He told his mother about this two days before he was sent to the military unit. Rahim later said that he was offered military service first, but he refused. Elena thinks he was determined to go “exactly to.”
Rahim decided to become a drone operator, also because he considered it safer. It soon became clear that he was wrong. “[Оказалось]they see Stormtroopers as well. “They are on the front line,” Elena said. According to her, another surprise for her son was that he received a defective machine gun and an old uniform, so she and her colleagues had to contribute “to the needs of the military operation” from their own money.
One of Abdolin’s friends told the BBC, anonymously, that, unlike his mother, he had never heard him talk about patriotism. According to him, in mid-January, Rahim wrote to him: “Do you know where I can raise money? The state will also thank you.” He brushed aside objections to sending contract soldiers to certain death: “They won’t throw you in the attack. I’m a drone operator. F*** [отлично]».
Abdulin died on March 13, two months after leaving home.