Based on open sources, Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet] and BBC News Russian, together with volunteers, have verified the names of 106,745 Russian fighters killed in Ukraine, including 12,058 mobilized soldiers. Over the past week, the list has grown by 1,982 soldiers.
Russia’s Labor Ministry has drafted a law that places fighters from so-called private military companies (PMCs) on the same footing as other combatants for pension purposes, authorizing the "simultaneous receipt of two pensions, including one for war-related disability." Eighteen months ago, Vladimir Putin blamed the absence of benefits for mercenaries on the fact that, "formally and legally," Russia has no such companies and "the law does not recognize them." The draft law calls PMCs “organizations assisting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,” yet Russia still lacks a law defining PMCs, leaving their legal status unresolved.
A bill to grant additional allowances to the children of soldiers fighting in the war against Ukraine reached the State Duma [lower house of Russia’s Federal Assembly], brought forward by lawmakers from the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia [right-wing populist and ultranationalist political party] and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. The bill’s authors call for three annual payments while combat is taking place—on International Children’s Day, at the start of the school year, and ahead of New Year’s Eve—with the government responsible for setting the amounts if the bill passes. The draft would also add a salary bonus for service members: an extra 10% for those with one child, 15% for two children, 20% for three, and 30%...
Authorities in the Zabaykalsky region [Russia's federal subject] will raise the one-time regional bonus for signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense to 2 million rubles [$24,200] from 600,000 [$7,260]. When combined with the federal component of 400,000 rubles [$4,840], recruits will receive a total of 2.4 million rubles [$29,040] in incentives.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense has proposed extending the federal sign-up bonus of 400,000 rubles [$4,830], currently reserved for those who enlist to fight in Ukraine, to military personnel taking part in the "counter-terrorism operation" in the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions after Aug. 9, 2024.
Vladimir Putin signed several bills into law:
Andrey Kartapolov, Chairman of the Defense Committee of the State Duma [lower house of Russia’s Federal Assembly], said that the bill permitting stateless individuals to enlist in the Armed Forces targets people from Ukraine’s occupied territories who have lost their Ukrainian citizenship, and residents of European countries who move to Russia and allegedly "face citizenship revocation."
Military personnel who served in areas along the Russia-Ukraine border inside Russia would be granted combat veteran status if a bill approved by the Federation Council [upper house of Russia’s Federal Assembly] would be signed into law. The measure applies to troops, including conscripts, engaged in what the legislation describes as "protecting Russia’s frontier and countering armed provocations." The status would be granted retroactively for service performed since Feb. 24, 2022, and would also entitle personnel wounded during such missions to disabled war veteran status. The Cabinet would set the final list of territories.
Russian authorities may classify the work of OSINT analysts during the war against Ukraine as treason, Vasily Piskaryov warns. A member of the State Duma [lower house of Russia’s Federal Assembly], he chairs its security committee and the commission on foreign interference. According to him, NATO officials are interested in information on the actions of Russian soldiers "in the course of the special military operation" and on schemes to bypass sanctions imposed on the country. Piskaryov claims that these foreign officials use the services of "Russian expatriates who gather intelligence from open sources (OSINT)," adding that Russian investigators may prosecute such cooperation under the Criminal Code’s article on high treason.
Seeking to criminalize the desecration of military graves and memorials, the Russian government has introduced a bill to the State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly] that would amend the title and opening clause of the article on "the destruction or damage of military burial sites, monuments, steles, obelisks and other memorial structures honoring those who died defending the homeland or its interests," by explicitly adding the term "desecration." The amended article sets a maximum sentence of five years in prison. In the explanatory note, the bill’s authors claim that authorities have documented more than 370 "high-profile incidents of desecration" involving military graves and memorials since February 2022. The Sever.Realii...