Mobilization in Russia for Aug. 26-28, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary

Authorities and Legislation

Participants in the war against Ukraine and their families may be exempted from mandatory job placement after graduating from medical and pharmaceutical universities. A new Ministry of Health bill would subject all graduates from state-funded programs to compulsory job assignments. Graduates who refuse their posting would be liable for the full cost of their education plus a penalty of twice that amount. However, the bill creates exceptions for several groups, including participants in the war and their families, children of medical workers who died from COVID-19, individuals with disabilities, orphans, combat veterans, and winners of academic olympiads. If the bill passes, it will take effect on March 1, 2026.

Army Recruitment

Authorities in Cherdyn, a town in the Perm region, will offer rewards to residents for each person they recruit as a contract soldier. Starting Aug. 1, 2025, individuals will receive 50,000 rubles [$620] for a recruit registered in the Perm region and 100,000 rubles [$1,240] for a recruit from any other region. This is separate from other incentives. Since November 2024, the Cherdyn district has also funded a 100,000-ruble supplement for signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense, in addition to the 1.5 million-ruble sign-up bonus financed by the Perm region.

The Idite Lesom! [Flee through the woods/Get lost you all] Telegram channel reports on interrogations at the border of men returning to Russia. Two Moscow residents who were detained and questioned at Domodedovo contacted the channel.

One man had his phone and luggage searched multiple times, was asked why he had not deregistered from the military roll, and in the end was forced to sign a paper obligating him to take a polygraph test. The other had his passport confiscated and was questioned about his attitude toward the "special military operation," his fitness for service, and his military specialty. He was also asked about his readiness to undergo a medical examination, after which he received a notification on the Gosuslugi public services portal that he had been entered into the Unified Military Register.

Idite Lesom! also published a video of a roundup, filmed by one of its subscribers in a parking lot near Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. The footage shows employees of the Investigative Committee and the Military Traffic Police checking the documents of taxi drivers.

An 18-year-old resident of the Chelyabinsk region, Ilya, was allegedly forced to sign a contract under pressure at a police station, according to him and his relatives. He ended up there after a scuffle with an acquaintance. He was taken to the police department and then to a draft office, where he signed the contract. Local authorities claim that no pressure was applied to the young man and that he was given time to think after he allegedly expressed a desire to sign a contract with the MoD. Ilya’s relatives believe he may have been intimidated with a criminal case and the threat of prison for the fight, thereby being coerced into signing the contract. The young man turned 18 in the fall of 2024, had completed only 9 grades of a special-needs school, and, according to his family, was not even able to pass a medical evaluation board.

In Russia's constituent Republic of Udmurtia, a court has suspended a criminal case against a 34‑year‑old local resident after he signed a contract with the MoD to join the war effort. The man is accused of killing an acquaintance, dismembering her body and placing it in a trash bin. The court did not disclose his name.

Aleksandr Sharapov, a member of a Moscow criminal group, has also been deployed to the war from a penal colony. He has reportedly been at the frontline since February 2025. Wanted since 2001, Sharapov, was detained in July 2017. In 2020, he was sentenced to 15 years in a maximum security penal colony for the murders of five people in the period between 1994 and 2001.

In the Arkhangelsk region, the Severodvinsk city court has suspended proceedings in the criminal case against Yevgeny Berg, accused of murdering an acquaintance. In July Berg signed a contract with the MoD and was deployed to the frontline, despite the victim’s mother appealing this decision. Berg has already launched his Telegram channel, where he reports on his military service.

Mobilized Soldiers, Contract Soldiers and Conscripts

An orphan with a third-degree disability was tricked into signing a contract with the MoD to take part in the "special military operation." Twenty-seven-year-old Maksim suffers from an organic personality disorder. In 2023, he responded to a job posting for "rebuilding cities after shelling." When he met with the employer, he was asked if he had a military ID. Maksim explained his condition, after which he was taken to a draft office, where “a friend of the employer” produced a military ID for him in half an hour without any medical examinations. After signing what he believed was a "work" contract, Maksim was sent to a training range and, five days later, deployed to the town of Bakhmut. Only there, after suffering several concussions and two wounds, did he realize he had been deceived. Later, according to Maksim, the military tried to get rid of him by transferring him to an unfamiliar assault unit. He submitted a request for discharge on medical grounds and was sent to a medical unit to confirm his diagnosis. But, not knowing where to report, he returned home. Several months later, Maksim and a fellow soldier made their way to their unit, where he was informed that a criminal case had been opened against him for going AWOL. A medical commission confirmed his diagnosis and classified him as partially fit for military service, and the criminal case was dropped. However, he was not allowed to file a request for leave. According to Maksim, many other soldiers were also waiting for discharge on medical grounds but were instead taken to a training range in Lutugino in the Luhansk region and just a few hours later, sent to Bakhmut. Now, they are slated to be deployed as assault troops.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

Russian courts have convicted 305 members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on terrorism-related charges linked to combat operations in the Kursk region. Of those sentenced, 290 were prisoners of war, while 15 were tried and convicted in absentia. According to available data, 525 Ukrainian soldiers are known to have been captured in the Kursk region. More than half have already received sentences. An additional seven individuals were released through prisoner exchange agreements. Among the remaining 228 detainees, four are confirmed to be under investigation. The legal status of the others remains unclear, with no official confirmation as to whether they are facing charges or being held solely as prisoners of war.

Sergey Lebedev, a mathematics teacher at a school in Syktyvkar, has been detained in Komi on suspicion of sabotaging a locomotive during the early hours of Aug. 27. Investigators allege that Lebedev carried out an act of arson under external instruction, resulting in the disruption of train traffic and substantial damage to the Russian Railways [Russian fully state-owned railway company] infrastructure. Lebedev has been placed under arrest for a two-month period. As of now, the specific charges against him have not been publicly disclosed.

In the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania (Russia's constituent republic) the Federal Security Service (FSB) allegedly prevented  "terrorist attack" at Vladikavkaz Airport. Law enforcement officers reported detaining a 25-year-old man who, according to them, had planned to set an airplane on fire and also tried to persuade an airport employee to join in the arson. Criminal cases were opened against the detainee under the articles on preparing an act of terror and aiding terrorist activities.

Denis Falikov, a 40-year-old resident of Leningrad Oblast, suspected of setting fire to a facility containing supplies for the military in the town of Podporozhye, has been added to the registry of extremists and terrorists. Falikov has been charged with an act of terror.

A 14-year-old Maksim Shelkovnikov from Novosibirsk Oblast has been added to the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Russian Federation (Rosfinmonitoring registry), who is now the youngest person on the Rosfinmonitoring list. He is probably being prosecuted for setting fire to a relay cabinet on the Kargat–Ubinskoye railway section, an act he carried out together with his 15-year-old friend allegedly in exchange for a reward of 20,000 rubles [$250]. Both teenagers are being prosecuted under the article on preparing an act of terror.

A criminal case for treason has been filed against Aleksandr Sarbayev, a 40-year-old resident of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, over a 400-ruble donation [$4.98] to Ukrainian military medics made in February 2022. Sarbayev informed Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet] of this in a letter from a pre-trial detention center. Sarbayev, a trade company employee, was detained in March 2025. Initially, he was charged with "disturbing public order" and sent to a special detention facility for 10 days. After his term expired, authorities charged him with treason and then arrested him. Three weeks into his detention at the pre-trial detention center, he was sent for psychiatric evaluation. According to Sarbayev, he never concealed his anti-war stance.

The FSB branch in the Tula region reported detaining a 29-year-old Tula resident suspected of financing the AFU. The detainee faces treason charges. According to investigators, the man transferred cryptocurrency to support the Ukrainian army. The suspect's name and other case details remain undisclosed.

In occupied Donetsk, the FSB detained a man on suspicion of treason and illegal possession of explosives. Law enforcement officers claim the man "proactively" established contact with a representative of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and, on assignment from Ukrainian intelligence services, prepared caches of explosives in cemeteries while photographing administrative buildings and critical infrastructure facilities in the "DPR."

FSB officers detained a 35-year-old Volgograd resident accused of preparing an act of sabotage at a military airfield in Engels. Law enforcement officers claim the man lived in the Lviv region from 2019 to 2022, where the SBU recruited him "to commit sabotage in exchange for citizenship." After training in Kyiv, he traveled to Volgograd and then to the Saratov region. In Engels, the man rented an apartment where, according to the FSB, he equipped a navigation module for attack drones. He faces criminal charges for "confidential" cooperation with foreigners.

Irina Zaitseva, a resident of Russian-occupied Luhansk, was sentenced to 12 years and two months in a penal colony on treason charges. Prosecutors said the 42-year-old began gathering information on Russian troop deployments in August 2023 and relayed it via a messaging app to Ukraine’s intelligence services before she was detained. News of her arrest surfaced in July. Zaitseva pleaded guilty, expressed remorse and struck a pretrial cooperation deal with prosecutors.

Children and Militarization

In Yekaterinburg, a war veteran has been appointed school director for the first time. Vladimir Strekhov was named acting head of School No. 43. He has worked at the school since October 2022, teaching a course titled Fundamentals of Security and Defense of the Motherland and serving as deputy director for law and security. "I want to share with students everything I went through and learned on the front lines, in the rear and in my work as a dog handler," Strekhov wrote on social media.

Miscellaneous

Veteran of the war Yevgeny Pervyshov has raised 65 million rubles [$808,900] for his campaign to become governor of the Tambov region—75 times more than all his competitors combined. The source of his funding has not been disclosed. Only 4.3 million rubles [$53,500] were spent on campaigning; the rest is listed as "payment for work and services." In the fall of 2023, a year after being sent to the frontline, Pervyshov joined the Time of Heroes personnel program. In November 2024, President Vladimir Putin appointed him acting governor of the Tambov region.

Longreads

The Veter media outlet  spoke with a volunteer who helped locate the bodies of Russian soldiers reported missing in action.

The Vyorstka media outlet reported on a man from the Krasnodar region who, after two years of military service following mobilization, deserted and has been hiding in forests and mountains for nine months.

Bumaga published accounts from sex workers describing how the war has changed their work and the challenges they face when interacting with soldiers.