A student recruited into the drone forces was killed in the war in Ukraine — this is the first known case

A student recruited into the drone forces was killed in the war in Ukraine — this is the first known case

The BBC Russian Service has established the first known case of a Russian student being killed after going to war amid a campaign to recruit university and college students for service in the drone forces.

It is about 23-year-old Valery Averin, a resident of Buryatia. He signed a contract with the Defense Ministry in January 2026, trained as a drone operator, and was killed three months after the start of his service, on April 6 near Luhansk.

As the outlet writes, Averin was raised in an orphanage, and at age 11 he was taken in by a foster family. At the time he signed the contract, he was studying at the Buryat Republican Technical School of Construction and Industrial Technologies and was supposed to receive his diploma this year.

The child studied UAVs for three months, and they sent him into an assault, into the worst meat grinder, someone who had never served in the army,

says Valery’s foster mother, Oksana Afanasyeva.

The woman does not know the details of his death: Valery did not tell her the number of the military unit where he served. The military informed Oksana on April 8 that he had died in a mortar attack.

According to her, Valery “really wanted” to serve, but he was not accepted into the army:

He lied to me, said he was going to work for Wildberries. And when I found out that he had signed a contract, I nearly lost my mind. I said: “What have you done? Where have you gone?”

In response, Oksana says, Valery told her that “nothing would happen to him” and “everything would be fine.”

🔵To see how university, college, and technical school students are being recruited to the war as drone operators, watch Dozhd’s report.

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