Underage college students in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai are being recruited to sign statements pledging to enlist with the Defense Ministry in the future, Molnia, a project that defends students’ rights, reported.
Military personnel have been visiting schools to promote service in drone warfare units and pulling students aside for one-on-one conversations, where they offer contracts to sign.
Students under 18 are being asked to write a letter addressed to the head of the contract service selection office in Krasnodar. The document, a photo of which Molnia published, requests that paperwork be drawn up to enlist the student as a volunteer and includes the phrase “I pledge to sign a contract.”
The statement itself does not commit a student to going to war, but could make it easier to formalize a contract later and increases the risk of pressure and manipulation, Molnia wrote. The document has no legal force, but a student “may be left with the false impression that backing out is no longer possible,” the project wrote.
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