Mobilization in Russia for Aug. 12-14, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary

Authorities and Legislation

Russian military personnel who need to appear before a military medical board, may soon travel for free. Lawmakers introduced a new bill in the State Duma [lower house of Russia’s Federal Assembly] to cover these expenses. At present, members of "volunteer units," such as BARS [Special Combat Army Reserve], are already entitled to free travel by rail, air, water and road in these circumstances. The new bill would extend this policy to other agencies with military personnel.

Army Recruitment

The Idite Lesom! [Flee through the woods/Get lost you all] Telegram channel reports a third case of digital draft notice delivery. Like the first two (1, 2), the recipient is registered in the Tver region. The Petrozavodsk draft office, in Russia’s constituent republic of Karelia, sent this draft notice through the Gosuslugi public services portal, demanding an appearance on Aug. 15 to "check up military service register data." According to the 25-year-old man, he visited the Tver draft office at age 17 and was granted a one-year draft deferment.

As lawyers note, Moscow conscripts with a draft deferral end up in the Unified Military Register without any indication of their exemption from service. The reason for this may lie in the fact that the Register is currently not synchronized with mos.ru [official web portal of the Moscow government], where information was previously transmitted from the Unified Military Recruitment Center. Because of this, a draft notice for conscription activities may be sent despite the draft deferral.

At one of Ozon’s [e-commerce marketplace] warehouses, law enforcement officers carried out a raid, as a result of which five employees were handed draft notices. First, all employees received an SMS warning about a drone threat, and then the internal fire alarm went off. When everyone was evacuated outside, men in civilian clothes handed five young company employees draft notices summoning them for a medical examination. According to eyewitnesses, this was already the second such raid in recent months.

In the city of Saratov, another raid was carried out to identify naturalized citizens who had not registered for military service. Law enforcement officers conducted checks on over 200 motorists and found 25 unregistered men, who were issued draft notices requiring them to report to enlistment offices.

In Udmurtia [Russia's constituent republic], two men accused of kidnapping a fellow villager and intentionally inflicting grievous bodily harm resulting in death have avoided punishment by joining the war against Ukraine. The criminal case against them has been suspended. According to investigators, on the night of May 4-5, while intoxicated, the defendants kidnapped a 29-year-old fellow villager after a dispute. They transported him in the trunk of a car to the outskirts of the village, where they assaulted him. He died from multiple injuries, and the perpetrators buried his body in the forest. The case against a third suspect, charged only with kidnapping, has been sent to court.

Mobilized Soldiers, Contract Soldiers and Conscripts

Since April 26, when Russia’s Ministry of Defense declared the "complete liberation" of the Kursk region, at least five Russian conscripts have been killed there, according to calculations by the Vyorstka media outlet. In late spring, 22-year-old Mikhail Ulasenko from Noyabrsk was killed. He had been drafted in November last year. On May 31, "while carrying out a mission," Ulasenko triggered a mine. On June 6, 18-year-old Ivan Nizhegorodov from the Perm region [Russia’s federal subject] was killed. Drafted in the fall of 2024, Nizhegorodov was "performing tasks to guard and defend the state border" when he died "while patrolling the border." On June 17, 20-year-old Artyom Borodin from the city of Nefteyugansk, drafted in December, was killed. Since July 8, 21-year-old Vladimir Zolotuev from the Zabaykalsky region [Russia's federal subject], drafted in November last year, has not been heard from. On July 13, 20-year-old Vladislav Borodin from Udmurtia was killed. According to his mother, she was told nothing about the circumstances of her son’s death. Meanwhile, reports continue to surface online about conscripts who were killed at the very start of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ offensive. In total, according to Vyorstka’s calculations, at least 33 conscripts have been confirmed killed in the Kursk region.

The Lyudi Baikala [People of Baikal] independent media outlet has reported that a banner featuring photographs of 42 residents who were killed in the war in Ukraine has been installed in the center of the small village of Artyomovsky in the Irkutsk region. According to 2022 data, the village had a population of 908 people, meaning that nearly one in twenty of its residents have been killed on the frontline.

Russia and Ukraine have once again exchanged prisoners of war. According to the Russian MoD, 84 Russian servicemen were returned from captivity, while 84 POWs from the Armed Forces of Ukraine were handed over in return. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that among those returning to Ukraine are not only soldiers but also civilians, including individuals held by Russia since 2014, 2016 and 2017. Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, clarified that 51 civilians were successfully returned from captivity.

The Ukrainian Hochu Zhit [I Want to Live] project has published a list of service members from the 150th and 20th Motorized Rifle Divisions of the 8th Combined Arms Army of the Russian Armed Forces who went missing in action over the year and a half from the beginning of 2024 to June 2025. The list contains the names of 6,921 soldiers. According to the post, the list only includes those for whom a decision was made to issue monetary allowances to their relatives. Among those missing in action are at least 316 foreign nationals.

A mobilized soldier named Yevgeny from Yakutsk had his two children taken into state custody after his wife’s death, while he himself was declared AWOL. A relative told the Ostorozhno, Novosti [Beware the News] Telegram channel that Yevgeny was mobilized in 2022. While he was on the frontline, his wife was hospitalized with cirrhosis of the liver. After being denied leave, he traveled to Yakutsk without authorization to be with his wife and two children. The woman died in July 2025. Military police subsequently detained Yevgeny and sent him to the Kangalassy military collection point, a facility for soldiers who have left their units. The children, left without parents, were taken by child protective services. Appeals to the prosecutor's office were unsuccessful. According to acquaintances, Yevgeny had to sign a military contract in order to be granted leave.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

The Novosibirsk Garrison Military Court has sentenced Maksim Tivikov, a participant in the war with four prior convictions, to 13 years in a high security penal colony for murder.

In Chita, a man with three prior convictions who had returned from the war has been detained after attempting to rape a 17-year-old schoolgirl. A criminal case has been opened against him for sexual violence committed against a minor. He has been taken into custody and is being held in a detention facility.

The Magnitogorsk Garrison Military Court has sentenced a serviceman to seven and a half years in a penal colony for going AWOL. According to the prosecution, on July 25, 2024, the private, "wishing to temporarily evade military service," failed to return from a medical facility to his unit in the Nizhny Novgorod region and instead went to visit relatives in Miass, where he lived until his arrest on April 23, 2025.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) has arrested a 19-year-old resident of the Kirov region [Russia's federal subject] on charges of high treason and attempting to engage in a terrorist organization. According to the agency, the suspect was allegedly acting under the direction of Ukrainian handlers and intended to enlist in the Russian army, secure placement in a military unit stationed in the Kursk region, gain the trust of fellow servicemen, and subsequently kill as many military personnel as possible before fleeing to Ukraine. Intelligence officials further claim that the man had also planned to burn relay cabinets along the Trans-Siberian Railway in an effort to disrupt the transport of military supplies.

A man has been detained in the Belgorod region on suspicion of high treason and unlawful trafficking of weapons and explosive devices. According to the FSB, the 37-year-old resident of the Gubkin district allegedly engaged in the illicit trade of arms and explosives for financial gain, reportedly "acting under the direction of Ukrainian handlers."

A court in Novosibirsk has rejected the appeal of 37-year-old Aleksandr Levchishin, who was sentenced in May to 14 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of high treason. According to prosecutors, in April 2022, while working as a programmer at a clinical hospital in the city of Bratsk, Levchishin copied electronic medical records of Russian military personnel "with the intent to provide the data to the Ukrainian side." He was also accused of donating 1,400 rubles [$18] for the purchase of a vehicle for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Miscellaneous

At least 1,400 former combatants have registered to run in Russia’s September elections, according to official tallies. In total, more than 1,600 "veterans of the "special military operation" have declared their intent to participate in campaigns at various levels of government. Most of the candidates are seeking seats in local government. Two veterans are running for governor: Yevgeny Pervyshov, the acting governor of Tambov region, and Stepan Solovyov, deputy chairman of the Green Alternative party.

Longreads

The Vot Tak independent media outlet reports on a Russian family in which five men went to fight against Ukraine.