Russian college students asked to donate vapes so parts can be used to make drones to attack Ukraine: report

Russian college students are being asked to donate their used vapes to the country’s military so parts from the e-cigarettes can be used to make combat drones to attack Ukraine, according to a report.

Students at the University of Samara in southwest Russia have been collecting discarded vapes from their peers to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — touting the slogan “1 e-cigarette= 1 drone attack on the enemy!”, Ukrainian outlet the Kyiv Post reported Monday.

The university’s “Falcon patriotic military club” organized the electronic cigarette drive and created a flyer, a riff off the famous Soviet-era anti-alcohol poster, but with the saying added and an Elf Bar instead of a drink.

The vapes’ microcircuits and batteries can be repurposed to operate ammunition release systems from combat drones, the club said, according to the outlet.

The drive organizers said they were approached by “people involved in the special military operation” — meaning Russia’s invasion and ongoing attack on Ukraine — and decided to help out by placing collection boxes throughout the college campus, the Kyiv Post reported, citing an independent Russian news report on the effort.

The Falcon military club, which was founded in 2008 to provide students with a patriotic education, has been collecting faulty cell phones, camping stoves, clothing and food since Russia’s invasion last year.

Ukrainian students were the first to think of ways to reuse spent vapes in the ongoing war, the Kyiv Post reported.

Students at the Chernivtsi Polytechnic College began recycling used e-cigarette parts to make drop mechanisms for drones and power banks so troops could recharge their phones as needed while deployed in the field.

The powerbanks were designed by a student at the college who gave the first one he made to his father who is fighting on the front line, according to the publication.