70 educational institutions in Russia have begun recruiting students for the war.

Recruitment is being conducted in 23 regions of the country.

"Echo" calculated Messages about recruiting students into the military were published on educational institutions' websites. Such calls were issued by 57 universities, 13 colleges, and technical schools. 

A total of 23 Russian regions are participating in the recruitment drive, with recruitment calls also being made in annexed Crimea. St. Petersburg leads the way in terms of the number of universities participating in the recruitment campaign, with Moscow in second place. Tatarstan, Novosibirsk Oblast, and Krasnodar Krai round out the top five. 

However, journalists from the T-Invariant publication wrotethat this is a federal initiative, and in reality there may be more such educational institutions, they just don’t recruit so openly. 

Most often, underperforming students are offered a contract “for just a year”: at HSE, such letters are sent come Those who hadn't passed their exams since January. In the Volgograd region, diplomas were even awarded early for signing contracts.