For the past three years, many young men in Russia have been doing everything they can to avoid getting sent to fight in the war against Ukraine. But some Russians are enthusiastically signing up for service in what President Vladimir Putin has called the battle for his nation’s survival by joining a drone brigade offering short stints far from the fighting.Pro-war Russian bloggers have described the unit, Kaskad, as a “sinecure for officials.” Based in an undisclosed location in a part of Ukraine occupied by Russia, it provides a career boost to politically minded recruits, according to Kremlin watchers and military analysts who call Kaskad a “VIP unit.”Thousands of men have been called up to fight in Ukraine since 2022 and have been kept at the front as a terrible toll mounts by the day. But stints with Kaskad tend to be short-term. And given it’s a drone unit away from the front lines, the chances of being put in danger’s way are relatively small, analysts say. Officials assigned to the unit usually stay three to eight months, get plenty of photo ops with automatic rifles and return to their jobs with a hero’s welcome, according to numerous social media posts in which recruits have documented their deployments, and accounts pieced together by analysts.“Enlistment with Kaskad allows elite figures to sidestep statutory military service requirements with guaranteed safety and potentially curry favor with Kremlin,” Britain’s defence ministry said last year.More than 270 pro-Kremlin regional lawmakers and 200 members of the youth wing of governing United Russia party have served in the Russian army in Ukraine, said Andrei Turchak, the party’s chairman. At least six members of parliament, dozens of pro-Kremlin youth activists and even one cosmonaut have done so in Kaskad.In Nov, 12 senior members of United Russia’s youth wing in St Petersburg joined Kaskad on the same day. Among them was Aleksandr Malikov, who promptly updated his profile picture on social media, which shows a clean-shaven man, wearing sunglasses and cradling an automatic rifle, standing in front of a building with shattered windows and smoldering rubble. Just a few months earlier, Malikov was documenting his life as a local council member. Malikov described his decision to enlist as a patriotic duty but declined to describe his role at Kaskad. “Here, I keep on doing the same thing I’ve been doing for many years: supporting my country and taking an active role where I’m needed.”Dmitri V Sablin, a longstanding member of parliament, has been commanding Kaskad since 2022. In 2023, a camouflage-clad Sablin introduced a Kaskad team to reporters. Footage showed two soldiers launching a combat drone from a field and others monitoring drone flights on a computer from a bunker. Kaskad has at least 54 crews operating 10 types of reconnaissance and combat drones along the front line, Sablin said.Stints in Kaskad have been helpful for the careers of some of its veterans. Yevgeny Pervyshov, for instance, was a low-ranking member of parliament when he joined Kaskad in Nov 2022. After his stint with the brigade, he was spotted by Putin at a televised meeting and offered a job. In Nov, Pervyshov became the first Ukraine war veteran to be appointed as a governor.
