By Andrew Osborn
MOSCOW, April 2 (Reuters) - Students across Russia are being offered large financial incentives to join drone units fighting in Ukraine as operators and engineers, while companies in Russia's central Ryazan region have been given quotas to sign up workers for the army, documents show.
The recruitment effort, which comes as Russian forces continue to grind forwards on the battlefield in Ukraine and as U.S.-brokered peace talks are on ice due to the Iran war, suggests Moscow is diversifying its push to replenish its army's ranks in what is the fifth year of its war.
But it is not part of a general mobilisation drive, something the Kremlin said this week was not on the agenda. Nor, say top officials, is Russia running short of recruits despite Ukrainian claims - dismissed by Moscow - that Kyiv is eliminating Russian troops faster than they can be recruited.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Security Council, told state media on Friday that Russia's rolling recruitment system, which offers substantial financial packages to volunteers who sign up, continues to deliver. More than 400,000 people had signed up last year and over 80,000 so far this year, he said.
Russia's move to target students suggests though that Moscow is keen to pour more skilled human resources into its drone forces which - like those of Ukraine - play an increasingly pivotal role in what has long become a grinding war of attrition.
Drone operators from both sides typically work some distance from the front line but are regarded as high-value targets who are hunted down and killed if their positions are revealed.
The Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok is promising students who sign up for a minimum of one year extendable academic leave and a guaranteed exemption from any education fees on their return, plus free accommodation and grants. It is also pledging to cover the costs of any military equipment and weaponry needed.
That is on top of what, by local standards, is a substantial financial package: a first-year salary from 5.5 million roubles ($68,433), a one-off payment of 2.5 million roubles after free training, a monthly allowance of 240,000 roubles, and a one-off payment of 200,000 roubles from the university.
"This is not only an opportunity to prove yourself, but also a unique platform for social and career advancement, backed by unprecedented support measures," the university said in a document published on March 19.
'THE NEW INDISPENSABLES'
The Moscow State University of Civil Engineering is offering similar large incentives, telling students in a statement posted on its website that they have the chance to become drone operators, engineers or technical specialists.
The Russian State Hydrometeorological University in St Petersburg is also encouraging its students to sign up. Its offer to students, published on its website, shows a drone operator promising payments from 7 million roubles ($87,000) per year.
There have been unconfirmed media reports that universities have been given recruitment quotas to meet. Reuters was unable to independently confirm that.
The drive to woo students and in particular those studying technical subjects like engineering or aeronautics, coincides with a new billboard recruitment campaign which shows a young drone operator with glowing eyes in hi-tech glasses under the title "the new indispensables."
Meanwhile Pavel Malkov, the governor of the Ryazan region - which has a population of over 1 million - has ordered private and public companies to set recruitment quotas for workers to sign contracts with the Defence Ministry.
His orders, contained in a decree which was published on a government website and publicised by state media, said that companies with up to 300 workers should provide two army recruits, companies with up to 500 employees three recruits, and companies with more than 500 workers five recruits.
The decree did not say what punishment, if any, companies would face if they failed to meet the recruitment quotas, which it said would run from April to September, but indicated that Malkov would personally oversee compliance.
($1 = 80.3705 roubles)
(Reporting by Andrew OsbornEditing by Alexandra Hudson)
