Mobilization in Russia for April 5-7, 2026 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
The Russian government has proposed expanding the list of participants in the war against Ukraine whom employers can count toward their disability employment quotas to include former convicts who fought in the Wagner Group or Storm-Z units. The government plans to add a subclause to the relevant decree, allowing employers to count individuals who signed contracts or entered into other legal arrangements with the Ministry of Defense between Oct. 1, 2022, and Sept. 1, 2023, and served in these special military units. Previously, the list included military personnel, law enforcement officers, volunteer fighters and other categories specified in the Law on Veterans.
Army Recruitment
Kazan Federal University held a meeting for senior students with a military recruitment officer and unit representatives, initially presented by officials as a "career guidance" event with mandatory attendance. At the event, recruiters offered students the opportunity to sign contracts, including for "service in Africa," and urged them to join UAV units. According to attendees, a representative of the so-called "Africa Corps" claimed that such service differs from fighting in Ukraine and that the corps is an "elite unit." Before the meeting began, organizers instructed students to turn off their phones and banned recording. Human rights advocates emphasize that there are no "special contracts" tied to a specific country, and those who sign them may be deployed to a combat zone regardless of the stated terms.
According to students at MIREA Russian Technological University, the university has tightened its expulsion rules without any formal notice. Whereas students were previously expelled only if they had five or more academic debts, now even a single outstanding course requirement may be grounds for expulsion, and it must be cleared by April 15. Students say that this change was never officially announced and that they learned about it only by chance through the academic affairs office. According to them, meeting the new deadline is difficult because of the limited number of retake opportunities and the heavy workload of teaching staff. They also added that this new policy was introduced after an active campaign to encourage students with academic debts to enlist in the Unmanned Systems Forces. According to the students, information on all such students had been systematically collected in recent months.
The Idite Lesom! [Flee through the woods/Get lost you all] project reports new cases of recruitment activity in universities and colleges and says it has received information about such campaigning at 55 higher and secondary specialized educational institutions across 24 cities and regions. Journalists from the Groza student outlet say they have identified 269 universities where students are being pressured or encouraged to sign contracts with the Unmanned Systems Forces.
Artyom Klyga, a lawyer with the Movement of Conscientious Objectors [a human rights organization supporting those who refuse to perform military service], has published the MoD’s response to his inquiry about the difference between the one-year contract for service in the Unmanned Systems Forces and a standard military contract. According to A. Pitirimov, acting head of the Unmanned Systems Forces, commanders of military units must follow Presidential Decree No. 580 of Aug. 3, 2023 when dismissing servicemen from UAV units. That decree introduces "exceptional cases" in which discharge may be granted on the basis of decisions by a specialized attestation commission. Subparagraph "b" of paragraph 1 of the decree explicitly states that the discharge of a serviceman is a right of the command, not an obligation, and may be exercised only where exceptional circumstances exist. In practice, this means that servicemen in the Unmanned Systems Forces will face the same situation as all other servicemen: they may submit requests for discharge and attempt to prove the existence of "exceptional circumstances," but are likely to receive refusals that courts then uphold as lawful. According to Klyga, this is already borne out by court practice.
The Tula draft office reported that 12 people have been sent to the military, including five students. All of them signed contracts to serve in the Unmanned Systems Forces.
Penza State University has introduced a payment of 350,000 rubles [$4,430] for students who sign a contract. After completing their service, students are also promised a monthly stipend of 25,000 rubles [$320] until they finish their studies. Earlier, a payment of 100,000 rubles [$1,260] was introduced at Sochi State University, while payments of 50,000 rubles [$630] were also offered at Saint Petersburg State University and the Higher School of Economics.
In Moscow, authorities demanded that a man applying for Russian citizenship sign a consent form to enter into a contract with the Ministry of Defense. The 33-year-old applicant has not previously completed statutory military service and lacks a military ID. Furthermore, his age exempts him from conscription. When he submitted his application along with other documents, officials handed him a consent form to enlist, refusing to accept his documents otherwise. Foreigners attempting to obtain a residence permit in the Belgorod region previously reported similar demands. Such requirements could stem from an arbitrary interpretation of a Nov. 5, 2025, decree permitting male foreigners ages 18 to 65 applying for a residence permit or citizenship to follow a fast-track procedure if they can provide a contract for service in the Russian military or the Ministry of Emergency Situations, a certificate of discharge from either, or a certificate of unfitness from a draft office.
In the Kemerovo region, police officers are offering individuals detained for misdemeanors the option of signing a contract to participate in the war. In March, officers detained a man for smoking near a train station and took him to a police station. There, they filed an administrative offense report against him and then had him sign a "briefing form explaining social support measures for participants in the special military operation and their families," which listed the standard "benefits" of signing a contract. At the end, the form included contact information for draft offices, and the man was asked to indicate whether he was willing to sign a contract. According to the officers, they are required to conduct such briefings with all detainees.
Statutory Military Service
According to the Idite Lesom! Telegram channel, in several regions of Russia, young men and their relatives have been receiving calls and messages demanding that they report to draft offices without being issued an official draft notice. They are threatened with having their cases "referred to the Investigative Committee" or being sent an electronic draft notice if they fail to appear. In some instances, the calls come from personal phone numbers, with callers demanding that recipients report to the draft office immediately "with their passport." Such calls and messages have no legal force, and individuals are only required to appear upon receipt of an officially issued draft notice.
In Samara, a 26-year-old man who received an electronic draft notice had his driving privileges restricted after failing to appear. He only learned about the restrictions after the fact, when he was pulled over by the State Inspectorate for Road Traffic Safety. A document check revealed that in addition to driving, he had also been barred from registering vehicles and registering as an individual entrepreneur. Residents of the Omsk region are also reporting the imposition of restrictions. There, a conscript was additionally banned from leaving Russia, registering real estate and vehicle transactions, and obtaining loans.
Mobilized Soldiers, Contract Soldiers and Conscripts
Authorities in the Vladimir region announced the death in the war of 43-year-old mobilized soldier Andrey Gubanov. According to official records, he was captured, released in a prisoner exchange in late 2024, then returned to the frontline, where he was killed on Nov. 21, 2025.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
As the Vyorstka media outlet has found, Russia is actively applying amendments to the Criminal Code adopted in 2024 that allow for conditional release on probation upon signing a contract with the MoD, receiving state awards, or being discharged from service due to wounds. According to their tally, at least 263 individuals have received suspended sentences or been released from penal colonies, among them people convicted of drug trafficking, battery, theft, fraud, robbery, driving under the influence, corruption offenses such as bribery, as well as defendants charged with murder, inflicting grievous bodily harm resulting in death and at least one person convicted of rape. Most of them signed contracts while being held in pre-trial detention centers, after which courts commuted their prison sentences to probation or released them outright. The outlet also notes that defendants who have signed contracts are often not brought back from the frontline even to attend their own court hearings.
A court in Barnaul sentenced contract soldier Denis Striganov to 10 years in a penal colony on charges of going AWOL, attempted drug distribution and possession of large amounts of narcotics. Prosecutors said that in April 2025, Striganov did not return to his unit from leave and began making money by placing hidden drug stashes. On the day of his arrest, Oct. 22, he placed four such stashes and planned to place 50 more. He had previous convictions and likely enlisted from a penal colony to take part in the war.
In the Kursk region, the Federal Security Service (FSB) detained a 52-year-old man suspected of preparing a terrorist attack, treason, attempting to kill a state official, money laundering, receiving terrorist training, participation in a terrorist group and illegally making explosives. The agency said the man, originally from Ukraine’s Vinnytsia region, contacted a representative of Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence via Telegram. He was instructed to monitor a regional administration building and collect photos and videos of an official’s movements. In a video released by the FSB, the man said he photographed the government building from different sides and sent the images to "the Ukrainian side" to receive instructions on where to plant a bomb. He was detained while trying to retrieve an explosive device from a hidden cache.
The Supreme Court of the Komi Republic sentenced a 24-year-old local resident Sergey Lebedev to 15 years in prison on charges of sabotage. Prosecutors had sought a 14-year sentence. According to investigators, on the night of Aug. 27, 2025, Lebedev, acting on instructions from "unidentified individuals," entered a depot in Syktyvkar and set fire to the cab of a diesel locomotive, causing significant damage. He was detained shortly after the incident and placed in pre-trial detention. Before his arrest, Lebedev worked as a teacher of algebra and geometry at a gymnasium in Syktyvkar. In court, he stated that he had fallen victim to scammers posing as intelligence officers, who convinced him that he was taking part in a "secret operation."
The Moscow Regional Court sentenced Nikolay Dmitriev to 17 years of imprisonment on charges of high treason. According to investigators, acting on the instructions of a person working in the interests of foreign intelligence, he collected and transmitted information for its "use against the security of Russia." Dmitriev was reportedly detained in Moscow no later than December 2024 and was placed in custody on Dec. 12.
In November 2025, Shamil Artsuev, a 47-year-old native of Chechnya [Russia's constituent republic] who previously lived in Ukraine, was detained at the Verkhny Lars checkpoint while returning to Russia. He was sentenced to two consecutive administrative arrests under articles on petty hooliganism and disobedience to police officers. According to relatives, while held in a detention facility in Vladikavkaz, he reported beatings by FSB officers and pressure aimed at extracting a confession, with mention of a high treason charge. After the second arrest ended, Artsuev was, according to the detention facility, taken away by unknown masked individuals who identified themselves as law enforcement officers, and his whereabouts have remained unknown since then.
Assistance
Authorities of the Khanty-Mansi autonomous region–Yugra [Russia's federal subject] plan to send approximately 4,000 children from the families of participants and veterans of the war against Ukraine on summer vacations in 2026. Compared to last year, the number of children sent for recreation outside the region will increase by 1,000.
In the Novosibirsk region, authorities will grant non-repayable subsidies of up to 500,000 rubles [$6,320] to war participants and their family members to start their own businesses.
Miscellaneous
The Vot Tak [Like This] media outlet has calculated that since April 2023, at least 153 museums dedicated to the war in Ukraine have opened across Russia and in occupied territories. Exhibitions have been identified in 61 of Russia’s 84 regions, as well as in annexed Crimea and other occupied areas. Nearly 60 percent of these museums are located in institutions for children and youth: 64 in schools, 10 in colleges and technical schools, and at least five in kindergartens. In most cases, the exhibitions are aimed at schoolchildren and students and are presented as tools for "patriotic education."