Mobilization in Russia for Aug. 29–30, 2024 CIT Volunteer Summary
Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising
Authorities in Karelia [Russia’s constituent republic] have introduced a sign-up bonus of 400,000 rubles [$4,360] for individuals who conclude a contract with the Ministry of Defense. This payment will be granted to those who sign contracts for at least one year between Aug. 1 and Dec. 31, 2024. Previously, the region did not offer any sign-up bonuses for contract military service. As a result, the Pskov region remains the only region that has not yet introduced such a payment for signing a contract.
Aleksey Orlov, Mayor of Yekaterinburg, has doubled the amount of a sign-up bonus for concluding a contract with the MoD less than a month after it was introduced. The payment increased from 100,000 rubles [$1,090] to 200,000 rubles [$2,180]. Including regional and national bonuses, a new recruit can now expect to receive a total of 1.1 million rubles [$12,000].
Schools in Saint Petersburg have begun to widely promote contract military service in their groups on the VKontakte social network. The Pervy Otdel [Department One] human rights project discovered dozens of similar posts in the groups of children's clinics, libraries, music schools and kindergartens. According to Russian law, political and military propaganda is prohibited in schools.
In the city of Kazan [the capital of Tatarstan, Russia’s constituent republic], a mobile recruiting center for military contract service was set up at the main event venue during the Republic Day celebrations. The program also included an exhibition of firearms, demonstrations of tactical army combat and a meeting with a "special military operation hero."
The Voyennye Advokaty [Military Lawyers] Telegram channel has highlighted that Russian courts have started to block remote removal from the military rolls. This conclusion was reached after analyzing court rulings. Previously, individuals who had moved abroad could successfully deregister using the Gosuslugi public services portal or through authorized representatives. However, draft offices and later the courts began to deny deregistration requests unless the individual appears in person at the draft office.
In the Yamalo-Nenets autonomous region [Russia's federal subject], Andrey Voronov, the former Mayor of Novy Urengoy accused of receiving a large bribe, stated in court that he wants to join the war effort in Ukraine. According to Voronov, he had initially intended to enlist at the outset of the war but was unable to do so due to work obligations.
A new Higher Artillery Command School has been established in Saratov, with the capacity to train up to 3,000 people
Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers
The list of mobilized soldiers killed in the war has been updated to include Dmitry Popov from Russia’s constituent Republic of Khakassia, Vladimir Nakhashkin from Russia’s constituent Republic of Kalmykia and Roman Oreshkin from the Volgograd region.
Based on open sources, Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet] and BBC News Russian, together with volunteers, have verified the names of 66,471 Russian fighters killed in Ukraine, including 8,610 mobilized soldiers. Over the past week, an additional 949 names have been added to the list. Mediazona noted that over the past four weeks, they have processed more than 4,500 records, which is approximately one and a half times more than the average for 2024. This increase can be attributed primarily to the review of accumulated records. Additionally, journalists have determined that at least 172 conscripts have been killed in the war. Some of these conscripts participated in the invasion as early as February 2022, which was the peak of casualties. Currently, conscripts are deployed in border regions where fighting is ongoing.
The Okno [Window] media outlet has interviewed the family and friends of Zakhar Sosnin, a 19-year-old conscript who had enlisted in contract military service and was killed in the Kursk region. According to their accounts, Sosnin was pressured into signing a contract on three occasions during the initial three to four months of his service. At first, he refused, but later, as friends say, he unexpectedly agreed due to threats and pressure. Mothers of other conscripts confirm that their sons are being forced to sign contracts after surviving the AFU offensive in the Kursk region.
Aleksandr Shishlov, the head of the Yabloko [a social liberal political party in Russia] faction in the Legislative Assembly of Saint Petersburg, has sent an appeal to Andrey Belousov, Russia's Minister of Defense, requesting an investigation into reports of conscripts participating in combat in the Kursk region. Shishlov also urged the minister to "take measures to prevent conscripts from being deployed to the frontlines in the region in the future."
Mobilized soldiers Vasily Grigoriev and Dmitry Davydov from the Pskov region, who had fled from forward positions, are no longer considered to have gone AWOL. According to Maksim Grebenyuk, a lawyer and creator of the Voyenny Ombudsmen [Military Ombudsman] project, the prosecutor's office has accepted their voluntary surrender, as well as their complaint against the command.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
In the Perm region, 27-year-old Artyom Buchin, a participant in the war, is being sought on suspicion of murdering a young woman and her child. In February 2023, Buchin was sentenced to 20 years in a maximum security penal colony for the rape and murder of 23-year-old nurse Tatyana Rekutina in the town of Chusovoy. In August 2023, he signed a contract and left the colony to fight in Ukraine. Just seven months after his sentencing, Buchin returned to Chusovoy, having received a pardon for his participation in the war. Afterward, he signed another contract, was injured and then returned home for good. Before the murder of Rekutina, Buchin had already been convicted of robbery with violence.
The National Police of Ukraine has charged in absentia Zunel Bratov, a serviceman of the 25th Separate Special Purpose Regiment, with violations of the laws and customs of war. According to investigators, in September 2022, he kidnapped a woman in the village of Stanislav in the Kherson region. He kept her locked in a basement jail, raped her, forced her to wash clothes and cook for him and clean the house for two months.
In the Belgorod region, three people were sentenced to 17, 16 and 14 years in a maximum security penal colony for setting fire to relay cabinets in the Stary Oskol district. Investigators claim that the accused received around 100,000 rubles [$1,090] for each burned cabinet from "anti-Russian organizations."
In the Kemerovo region, a court trial has begun for a 20-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman accused of repeatedly setting fire to railway infrastructure. According to reports, the detainees confessed that they acted for financial gain rather than ideological reasons.
In Rostov-on-Don, a trial is underway for Sergey Popov, a resident of the city of Zaporizhzhia. According to law enforcement officers, in June 2022, 17-year-old Popov, along with two adult men, Danila Sokolov and Grigory Babchenko, threw bottles with incendiary mixtures at an administration building in the village of Novobohdanivka occupied by the Russian Army. After this, Popov allegedly removed a Russian flag from its mount and threw it to the ground. The Russian prosecutor's office has charged Popov with desecrating the flag and committing an act of international terrorism—the latter charge implying that the actions in question were carried out outside of Russia.
A court in the Kemerovo region has begun hearing the region's first criminal case under the charge of treason. According to prosecutors, a 28-year-old resident of Novokuznetsk is accused of calling for activities against Russia’s interests on the Internet and collecting money for a fund supporting the AFU.
Nikita Klyunya, a student from Karelia, has had his sentence increased to 19 years and six months for attempting to set fire to a relay cabinet. In June 2024, Klyunya was sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment on charges of organizing a terrorist attack, aiding terrorist activities, treason, collaborating with a foreign state and public calls for or justification of terrorism. The prosecution deemed the initial sentence insufficiently harsh and appealed for it to be increased. The appeal was successful.
The court upheld a fine of 30,000 rubles [$330] against Maria Andreeva, the wife of a mobilized soldier, for failing to report herself as a "foreign agent." The defense argued that she could not be held accountable for a status that was not definitively confirmed, as she had contested the designation of herself as a foreign agent. Additionally, Andreeva's lawyer stated that the protocol on "failure to report" was drawn up only two months after the alleged offense, and the statute of limitations for charging her with a misdemeanor had expired before the protocol was drafted.
Assistance
Deputy Minister of Defense Anna Tsivilyova has reported that post-traumatic stress disorder is being diagnosed in every fifth soldier returning from the zone of the "special military operation." These soldiers require long-term treatment involving both a psychiatrist and a medical psychologist.
In the Krasnoyarsk region, bailiffs have reported seizing vehicles and equipment from local residents to be sent to the frontline. Meanwhile, in the Zabaykalsky region [Russia's federal subject], plans are underway to build two rehabilitation centers for participants in the "special military operation."
Children
Irina Potekhina, the Vice-Governor of Saint Petersburg, shared the results of a pilot project that provided schoolchildren with their first work experience. As part of the program, some children worked at a rehabilitation center, helping wounded war participants. They helped by transporting soldiers to bandaging stations, guiding them to a cafeteria and accompanying them to various medical procedures.
In Chechnya [Russia's constituent republic], an event called "From North to South" was organized for the children of killed participants in the war with Ukraine. First graders were invited to meet with "veterans of the special military operation." Among the veterans was Yevgeny Kim, a former leader of a criminal group in Yakutia [Russia's constituent republic of Sakha (Yakutia)] who had been convicted of forcibly seizing property under threat of murder and had spent several years in prison.
At a technical school in Russia's constituent republic of Tyva, within the "IT Guys" camp, a meeting was held with Wagner Group mercenaries Chimit Saaya and Kaadyr Mongalbyy, along with Akhmat battalion fighter Aziyat Dogdugash. The Vyorstka media outlet discovered that Mongalbyy was sentenced in October 2022 to two years in a maximum-security penal colony for attempted murder and that Dogdugash had been involved in a robbery case in 2009.
Meduza [international Russian-language online media outlet] has published photos from drills conducted in schools and colleges across Russia. During these drills, assault rifles were pointed at people and children hid under desks.
Miscellaneous
Authorities in the Kursk region failed to evacuate 98-year-old Great Patriotic War veteran Klavdiya Tursina-Voytova from the border village of Korenevo, despite having taken photos with her during holiday celebrations. She was eventually rescued from the shelling by volunteers who transported her to a safe location.
Longreads
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty explores the secret prisons and basement jails run by the Russian Ministry of Defense, which initially emerged in the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics and have recently appeared within Russia's borders.
The Cherta [Boundary] independent online media outlet, in collaboration with the Novaya Vkladka [New Tab] media outlet, shares stories from the relatives of mobilized soldiers who have encountered challenges with the rehabilitation and discharge systems. The article discusses why it is difficult for them to assert their rights and what measures can be taken to assist them.
The 7x7—Gorizontalnaya Rossiya [Horizontal Russia] news outlet features an interview with a psychologist about the support needed by the relatives of Russians returning from the war.
Novaya Gazeta Europe [European edition of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta] reports on how Chechen authorities are sending volunteer fighters from other regions of Russia to the war, while "Kadyrovtsy" [nominally National Guard and Police units loyal to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov] are avoiding participating in combat.
The Insider [independent Russian investigative media outlet] covers military-patriotic camps for children, where participants listen to speeches from those involved in the invasion of Ukraine and well-known propagandists, learn to operate drones and weave camouflage nets for the army. Many of the children attending these camps do so at state expense.
Lola Romanova, a Novaya Vkladka journalist, spoke with camp counselors and parents of children who attended the camps on subsidized vouchers intended for the children of war participants, revealing what their experience was like.