Mobilization in Russia for Aug. 4-6, 2026 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
The Main Directorate of Special Programs of the President of the Russian Federation (GUSP)—the federal agency for ensuring the mobilization readiness of government bodies—has prepared a bill that would allow authorities to send conscripts to the directorate for statutory military service. Service there is currently permitted only under contract. Under existing laws, conscripts may serve in the Armed Forces, the National Guard Forces, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, state protection agencies, and a number of other national agencies. The bill proposes adding GUSP to that list. The directorate is responsible for the operation of special command posts for the state and the Armed Forces and for the work and security of the president, the prime minister, and other senior officeholders.
Army Recruitment
In Yekaterinburg, officials have begun recruitment into a BARS (Special Combat Army Reserve) volunteer unit that will form mobile fire teams of reservists to protect critical infrastructure and other essential facilities from drone attacks. Those joining the reserve must sign a contract for three or five years. Monthly payments for service range from 2,580 rubles [$32] to 6,792 rubles [$84]. During training periods, which last no more than six months a year, pay rises from 21,496 rubles [$270] to 56,599 rubles [$700]. During those periods, reservists retain their jobs and average earnings. Citizens who have completed military service or military training may join the reserve.
Authorities in Ufa have begun sending draft notices en masse to residents for a "data check-up." According to local media, draft offices impose restrictions for failure to appear, including bans on registering as an individual entrepreneur, completing real estate transactions, and registering vehicles, as well as a temporary restriction on the right to drive. After men appear at the draft office, officials urge them to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense and then lift the restrictions.
Mobilized Soldiers, Contract Soldiers and Conscripts
Vazhnyye Istorii and Vyorstka estimate that at least 344 conscripts were deployed in the border area of the Kursk region in 2024. At least 77 of them were killed, while more than 30 were still listed as missing in action at the time of publication. The outlets also report that around 500 conscripts captured in the Kursk region were returned in prisoner exchanges. Some of them, however, were sent back to the border after returning to Russia—this time to the Bryansk region, where they remained for more than a month. Some conscripts returned home suffering from concussions but have been unable to obtain state assistance because the Russian authorities do not recognize concussion as a combat-related injury.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
The Garrison Military Court in the occupied city of Sevastopol has ordered serviceman Maksim Alistratov, 21, held in a pre-trial detention center pending trial. He is charged with murder, attempted murder, desertion, deliberate destruction or damage to property, and unlawful entry into a dwelling. On Aug. 4, Alistratov opened fire on his fellow servicemen before attacking civilians in the village of Khmelnytske. Four people were killed: one serviceman and three village residents aged 59 to 71. Another four people were wounded.
The Yaroslavl Garrison Military Court sentenced serviceman Maksim Novikov to 14 years in a penal colony after convicting him of going AWOL, hooliganism, and vandalism. According to investigators, Novikov signed a contract with the MoD while serving a five-and-a-half-year sentence in a penal colony, where he had been imprisoned since 2023 for inflicting grievous bodily harm resulting in death. After enlisting, he went AWOL and, during his absence, fired several shots from an air pistol at a trolleybus driver, wounding him in the leg and damaging the vehicle.
The Southern District Military Court upheld the verdict against a contract soldier from Chechnya [Russia's constituent republic], who served in the 177th Naval Infantry Unit, sentencing him to six years in a penal colony for going AWOL. The soldier has been in contract-based military service since September of 2023. Wanting to "temporarily evade military service and rest from his duties," he did not return to his military unit. Later, he voluntarily came to the military investigation department.
In Kabardino-Balkaria [Russia's constituent republic], the Nalchik Garrison Military Court sentenced serviceman Chotchaev to five years in a penal colony for going AWOL. According to the court, the soldier failed to report for duty on Oct. 28, 2025 and remained at home until Dec. 15, when he voluntarily returned to his military unit in Ingushetia [Russia's constituent republic].
The Southern District Military Court sentenced Dmitry Goryainov, 36, and Roman Ponomarenko, 46, two prisoners of war from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, to 18 and 19 years, respectively, in a maximum security penal colony on charges of participating in a terrorist organization and undergoing training for the purpose of incitement to terrorist activities. Both were charged with serving in the Azov Brigade.
Officers of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) have detained three teenagers in the Primorsky region [Russia's federal subject] on suspicion of high treason and charges of participating in a terrorist organization. According to the FSB, the teenagers—residents of Nakhodka and Vladivostok—acted on instructions from handlers representing an unnamed "terrorist organization." Security officials claim the youths surveilled Russian military personnel involved in the war against Ukraine, photographing and filming their homes, workplaces, vehicles, and parking spots. Additionally, the teenagers reportedly identified locations near building entrances suitable for covertly planting explosive devices.
Additionally, the FSB has reported the detention of a 22-year-old resident of the Kaluga region on charges of preparing a terrorist attack. According to the intelligence services, the man acted on instructions from a representative of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), painting anti-war graffiti on building walls and preparing to set fire to a military enlistment office with Molotov cocktails. He was apprehended before executing the attack.
In Chita, police have detained an 18-year-old recent high school graduate on charges of attempted arson. According to the investigation, late in the evening of July 24, the teenager attempted to set fire to the regional and municipal draft offices using an incendiary mixture, but was stopped by a passerby. Investigators reported that scammers had previously hacked her account on Gosuslugi public services portal and tricked her into taking out 400,000 rubles [$4,930] in loans. Posing as law enforcement officers, the scammers then coerced her into carrying out the attack, claiming the draft office housed a "scammers' headquarters."
In the Perm region [Russia's federal subject], a local resident has been detained on suspicion of treason. According to the FSB, he made contact through a messaging app with a representative of foreign intelligence services and, on assignment, photographed transportation infrastructure and oil refining facilities, then passed the data to his handler.
The Supreme Court of Buryatia [Russia's constituent republic] sentenced Vasilisa Shishkina, a journalist with the regional outlet Nomer Odin, to 12 years in a penal colony in a treason case. Shishkina was sentenced back on May 21, and on Aug. 6 an appeals court revised the lower court's ruling on how her time in custody counts toward her sentence: she had originally been credited one day in a pre-trial detention center as a day and a half in a penal colony, but the appeals court ruled that it would count one day for one. Her lawyer said that the journalist has been in custody since July 17, 2025. The specific charges against her are unknown—the case was heard behind closed doors. After the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Shishkina wrote about violations of the rights of mobilized soldiers from Buryatia.
The Kaliningrad regional court sentenced Aleksandr Polyachkov, 48, a Lithuanian citizen who lived in the Guryevsk district of the Kaliningrad region, to 13.5 years in a maximum security penal colony in an espionage case. According to investigators, from 2011 to 2024 he collected and forwarded information classified as state secrets that could be used against Russia's security. The court did not specify to whom the information was passed. Polyachkov, a native of Klaipeda, had served since 2014 as general director of Amberus, a Kaliningrad company that processes amber and manufactures jewelry. He was arrested in June 2024. In handing down the sentence, the court took into account his serious chronic illnesses.
The Southern District Military Court sentenced Novorossiysk resident Yevgeny Kalganov, 34, to 16 years in prison on charges of high treason and financing terrorism. Kalganov left Russia in late October 2021. According to investigators, while living in Poland, he made 15 transfers in 2022 and 2023 to the bank accounts of representatives of the Freedom of Russia Legion. The total amount of the donations was 3,648 Polish zlotys, or 51,002 rubles [$630]. It is unknown exactly when the man returned to Russia or how Russian investigators obtained information about the transfers.
The same court sentenced Sergey Moskalenko, a resident of the occupied city of Berdiansk, to 25 years in prison on charges of undergoing training and participating in a terrorist organization, high treason, attempting to carry out an act of terror, and the manufacture and possession of explosives. According to investigators, in September 2022, Moskalenko retrieved explosives and explosive devices from a cache in Berdiansk at the request of an acquaintance and took them to his apartment, where he kept them until July 22, 2024. In late 2023, the man allegedly agreed to "provide assistance to Ukraine." On June 30, 2024, acting on an assignment from Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR), he retrieved explosives and explosive devices from a cache and moved them to a garage on his cottage property. On July 1, the man allegedly received an assignment to kill a member of United Russia [Putin’s ruling party], and on July 6, he "underwent training" to carry out an explosion, after which he independently assembled an improvised explosive device (IED). According to investigators, from July 2 through July 22, the man monitored the victim’s whereabouts, determined the victim’s work schedule and routes, and selected a suitable location to plant the device. In addition, on July 11 and 16, Moskalenko allegedly surveilled a police station, the grounds of the Berdiansk Interdistrict Court, and nearby vehicles, recorded them on video, and sent the footage to a HUR officer. Moskalenko was arrested on July 22.
Children and Militarization
For the 2026-2027 academic year, Russian universities admitted 41,000 participants in the war against Ukraine and their children under a special admissions quota, according to Minister of Science and Higher Education Valery Falkov. The minister said that a total of 56,684 places had been allocated for this category, meaning the quota was filled by just over 73%. Overall, 117,000 applicants have now been admitted to universities through various quota programs. More than 62,000 unfilled state-funded places allocated under the quotas were transferred to the general admissions process. In total, Russian universities are offering 620,481 state-funded places this year. The 41,000 admissions represent a record number of applicants admitted under the quota for war participants and their families. About 9,000 people used the quota in 2023, more than 15,000 in 2024, and 28,500 in 2025. Earlier, Vazhnyye Istorii reported that more than 4,300 people were admitted under these quotas to 18 of Russia's top universities in 2026.
In the Primorsky region, school students are being offered additional points on the Unified State Exam [graduation examination in Russia’s schools] for completing courses in UAV operation and marksmanship at the Voin [Warrior] training center, which is set to open a branch in Vladivostok. In July, the Yunga children's center hosted the first session of a camp where teenagers aged 14-17 received training in UAV operation, tactics, and firearms skills.
Longreads
The Sibir.Realii online outlet [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] reported on how military commanders classify Russian servicemen who disappear during combat missions and are presumed dead as having gone AWOL, depriving their families of military pay, social benefits, or other payments.
BBC News Russian examines how people are trying to locate relatives who were in the Kursk region’s border areas during the AFU’s 2024 incursion.
The Astra Telegram channel examined the criminal case against Aleksey Marushchenko, founder of the private military company Yastreb, interviewed participants in the proceedings, and reported on how the crimes attributed to him were allegedly made possible, as well as on additional offenses that were not included in the official indictment.