Mobilization in Russia for Aug. 31-Sept. 2, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary

Army Recruitment

In the Chelyabinsk region, draft office officials handed a 17-year-old high school student, who was undergoing initial military registration, a document promoting contract military service and requested that he sign it. According to the Idite Lesom! [Flee through the woods/Get lost you all] Telegram channel, draft offices use such documents to put pressure on visitors, but signing them is not obligatory, as the documents have no legal authority.

In Tyumen on Sept. 2, law enforcement officers conducted yet another raid targeting draft dodgers and illegal migrants. This time they detained two men who had received Russian citizenship but failed to register for military service. One of them, being of conscription age, was taken directly to a draft office for pre-conscription procedures, while the second was sent to a medical board for evaluation and subsequent placement in the reserves.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

Residents from frontline villages in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region accused Russian soldiers Soltan Hasanov and Dzhanibek Dzhanburshiyev of raping two schoolgirls aged 14 and 15. Relatives of the girls told this to the Vyorstka media outlet, and a source in the local police confirmed that the families had filed reports of the crime. The soldiers were detained but released after questioning. Their status in the case is unclear, but Hasanov claims that he is "cooperating with the investigation." Vyorstka also reports on how underage girls meet and enter into relationships with Russian soldiers in the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region.

A court in Omsk registered the files of a criminal case on aiding draft evasion during mobilization against 58-year-old endoscopist Oleg Semenko. According to the court, the doctor was paid to insert endoscopes into the stomachs of draft-eligible patients and deliberately inflict damage to their stomach walls through a technique called electrocoagulation. This caused artificial ulcerative lesions, which were then used as the basis for a diagnosis granting exemption from military service. The endoscopist also gave his patients instructions on how to behave at medical evaluation boards. Law enforcement accuses Semenko of six such episodes in total.

On Aug. 31, two inmates convicted in a case involving an attempted arson attack on a draft office—Ivan Koryukov and Aleksandr Cherepanov—escaped from pretrial detention center No. 1 in Yekaterinburg, the outlet E1 reported. According to the Baza Telegram channel, preliminary information indicates that Cherepanov and Koryukov fled through the roof. Media outlets also published wanted notices and video footage of the escape. A day later, the two men, both 24 years old, were placed on the national wanted list, with authorities offering a reward for information on their whereabouts. They had been convicted of attempting a terrorist attack and sentenced last fall to seven and nine and a half years in prison, respectively. In May 2023, they tried to set fire to the draft office serving Yekaterinburg’s Kirovsky and Oktyabrsky districts in exchange for a promised payment of 40,000 rubles [$500].

In Izhevsk, three local residents aged 15, 16 and 17 have been detained in connection with an alleged attempt to blow up a defense industry facility. They have been charged with attempting a terrorist attack committed in a group and placed in custody. According to investigators, in July, the teenagers contacted a representative of Ukraine’s intelligence services via Telegram. Acting on his instructions, they distributed anti-war leaflets around the city for payment. Later, the contact allegedly asked them to retrieve a backpack containing explosives from a dead drop and deliver it to a designated location. In August, the teens were reportedly detained "while attempting to plant an improvised explosive device at the entrance of a defense industry facility."

In Birobidzhan, 18-year-old Aleksey Shoshin has been sentenced to six years in a penal colony over alleged correspondence with the Freedom of Russia Legion, which authorities say was found on his phone. He was charged with treason, participation in a terrorist organization and incitement to terrorist activity. Shoshin was detained on Jan. 3 following a search at his home in the village of Bira near Birobidzhan and was placed in a pretrial detention center a few days later.

In the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, a court has sentenced the administrator of a local Telegram channel to 16 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of treason and public incitement to extremism. The defendant is presumed to be Heorgiy Levchenko, who was the administrator of the RIA-Melitopol Telegram channel. According to Reporters Without Borders, he was detained on Aug. 20, 2023. According to the court, Levchenko, driven by a negative attitude towards the "special military operation," organized a network of correspondents who provided him with data on the locations of Russian Armed Forces units, which were subsequently targeted by Ukrainian rocket and bomb strikes. He allegedly received 20,000 hryvnias [$484] per month for his activities.

In the Tambov region, the Federal Security Service (FSB) has reported the detention of a local resident born in 1987, suspected of "confidential" cooperation with a foreign state. Law enforcement officers believe that the detainee communicated with Ukrainian special services and, at their behest, retrieved technical equipment from a stash, which was allegedly intended for carrying out sabotage and terrorist acts. The investigation is also checking whether the man was involved in other criminal activities.

In the Zabaykalsky region [Russia's federal subject], the FSB detained a 33-year-old firefighter as part of a criminal investigation on charges of high treason and justifying terrorism. According to the agency, the suspect allegedly collected and transmitted sensitive information to Ukrainian intelligence services, including contact details of military personnel and personal data of colleagues who support the "special military operation." The FSB has not clarified how the firefighter gained access to military-related data, and his identity has not been disclosed.

A Moscow court has ordered the pre-trial detention of a suspect in a high treason case. According to the Ostorozhno, Novosti [Beware the News] Telegram channel, the individual in question is Oleg Grannikov, a known LGBT activist based in Moscow. The grounds for the criminal prosecution have not been disclosed.

Children and Militarization

Vazhnyye Istorii [IStories, independent Russian investigative media outlet] has compiled information from various Russian regions about how Knowledge Day [Sept. 1] was celebrated in schools. At least several schools reported that participants in the war in Ukraine attended the ceremonies. In multiple regions, campaigns were held to write letters to Russian soldiers, and some schools announced initiatives where money saved from buying bouquets for teachers would instead be sent to Russian soldiers. The Ne Norma [Not a norm] Telegram channel also prepared its own compilation of propaganda events held on Knowledge Day. Additionally, the project noted that in a number of schools this year, a first-grader with a bell was carried on the shoulders not by a graduating student but by a "veteran of the special military operation."

In some regions, an initiative took place where children of killed soldiers were escorted to school by other participants of the "special military operation" who were not relatives of the schoolchildren. The event, organized by the "Veterans of the Special Military Operation Association" and the Defenders of the Fatherland Fund, was held in more than 20 regions. In the Murmansk region, fourth-graders in Severomorsk were shown certain types of weapons, including anti-drone guns.

In several regions, "Talking About Important Things" lessons [a compulsory lesson held every Monday in schools across the country] were introduced among kindergarten students. These lessons were conducted even in regions where, according to media reports, no pilot programs had been previously planned. In some cases, war participants attended meetings with the children. Additionally, a textbook for the "Talking About Important Things" course was provided to preschool institutions. According to calculations by the Agentstvo [Agency] independent media outlet, every tenth page of the textbook is dedicated to the war or military personnel.

Assistance

Dmitry Makhonin, governor of Russia’s Perm region, has introduced amendments to the regional budget, including an additional 1 billion rubles [$12.4 million] set aside for what officials described as "ensuring stability" and providing social support to "heroes of the special military operation."

Miscellaneous

In Russia’s constituent Republic of Dagestan, 28-year-old Temirlan Abutalimov, a former combatant in Ukraine, has been appointed acting minister for national policy and religious affairs. Abutalimov had volunteered to fight in Ukraine and, in June 2024, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency identified him as one of the suspected participants in the execution of four Ukrainian soldiers who had attempted to surrender near Robotyne in May 2024. Since then, Abutalimov has been enrolled in the Kremlin’s Time of Heroes personnel program.

Longreads

A new investigation by BBC News Russian examines how military propaganda has steadily expanded in Russia’s schools over the course of the three and a half years since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.