Mobilization in Russia for Aug. 7-10, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary

Army Recruitment

In Russia’s constituent Republic of Tatarstan, the payment for signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense has been increased from 2.1 million [$26,300] to 2.7 million rubles [$33,800]. This is already the third increase in 2025, with the previous one taking place in January. An additional 400,000 rubles [$5,010] is paid by the national authorities, and up to 300,000 rubles [$3,750] by municipalities and enterprises in Tatarstan.

As reported by the Idite Lesom! [Flee through the woods/Get lost you all] Telegram channel, the Draft Register has begun operating. A resident of the Tver region subject to regular conscription received two notifications: an SMS message reading "A draft notice has been sent to you for the enlistment office" and a notification via the Gosuslugi public services portal about the posting of a draft notice in the register, with the date of delivery and a list of restrictions, including a ban on leaving Russia. Until recently, there was no information about the full launch of the register, but in recent months signs of its readiness have appeared, including a mass mailing of notifications about data entry. Lawyer Artyom Klyga believes that it can be said that the electronic Draft Register is now functioning in the regions. According to the law, a conscript’s exit from the country should now be blocked, although the practical effect of this restriction still remains to be tested.

Moreover, authorities are reportedly continuing to add individuals liable for military service to the Unified Military Register. A 40-year-old Russian citizen, who has resided in the European Union for three years and has never completed statutory military service, received a notification, as did several other readers of the Astra Telegram channel. Many of these individuals are over 40, and some have not lived in Russia for a long time. Residents of the Chelyabinsk and Nizhny Novgorod regions also reported being added to the electronic register. Previously, similar reports came from the Perm and Kaluga regions; the cities of Saint Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Tyumen; and Russia’s constituent republic of Chuvashia.

Authorities have also begun entering data on marital status, place of study and employment into the Unified Military Register. Extracts now include information from several sources. The Ministry of Internal Affairs provides full passport details and residential addresses; the Civil Registry Office supplies data on marital status; and universities list the place of study, though not the degree major. The register also includes a list of all workplaces and job titles, though this information sometimes contains errors. In the register, the "Military Registration Information" section correctly identifies the district-level draft office, the date of military registration, and a "Registered for military service" status, while also specifically noting the absence of any draft deferral or exemption from military service. However, Grigory Sverdlin, head of the Idite Lesom! project, believes this does not mean the register has been fully synchronized with the databases of the Federal Border Service, the State Inspectorate for Road Traffic Safety or banks. According to Sverdlin, such synchronization will only be evident when widespread incidents occur, such as authorities preventing citizens who have received a draft notice from traveling abroad or a road police patrol prohibiting a stopped driver from operating their vehicle. Klyga suggests that by the fall, the registry extracts for many individuals liable for military service will contain an exhaustive amount of current data mandated for collection by a government decree.

Mobilized Soldiers, Contract Soldiers and Conscripts

Based on open sources, Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet] and BBC News Russian, together with volunteers, have verified the names of 122,883 Russian fighters killed in Ukraine, including 13,460 mobilized soldiers. Over the past week, the list has grown by 1,376 soldiers, 104 of whom were mobilized. Since October 2023, the rate of casualties on the Russian side has remained stable, rarely dropping below 120 deaths per day.

Viktor Zhuravlyov, a 36-year-old contract soldier from the 26th Tank Regiment, recorded a video appeal in which he claimed that Simak, the deputy commander of his company, demanded 300,000 rubles [$3,750] per month in exchange for not sending soldiers unfit for combat due to health issues on missions. The video also alleged that the command attempted to hide sick, injured, and discontented soldiers during prosecutor inspections. Fellow soldiers reported that Zhuravlyov was killed on the frontline two days after recording his appeal. According to them, the extortion continues.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

On Aug. 8, police in Chelyabinsk arrested 37-year-old war veteran Sergey Moskalenko on the grounds of a factory dormitory. He is suspected of murdering his wife. According to a relative, the couple married in the spring of 2025, shortly before Moskalenko was deployed to war. A manhunt had been underway since Aug. 6. Moskalenko has a prior conviction and previously served nine years and two months in a maximum security penal colony for murder and issuing death threats.

Astra has learned that Marat Sibgatov, a serviceman with a criminal record, is suspected of raping a 17-year-old girl in the Buinsk district of Tatarstan. According to available records, Sibgatov has four prior convictions—three for theft and one in 2022 for unlawful sexual relations with a minor under the age of 16. It is unclear when or under what circumstances he entered military service. Sibgatov has not been detained.

A court in Mordovia has sentenced 32-year-old Nikolay Dumkin, a former Wagner Group mercenary, to one year and 10 months of probation for stealing a car. Dumkin had previously gone on trial last year for the theft of a taxi. Prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he had been convicted of theft on at least five separate occasions.

One police officer was killed and another was wounded by gunfire on Aug. 10 in the settlement of Konosha during the arrest of a 47-year-old man suspected of setting fire to a relay cabinet on a railway in the Arkhangelsk region. According to officials, the suspect "resisted and opened fire" before being "neutralized and detained." He now faces charges of attempting to take the life of a law enforcement officer, as well as attempting to commit a terrorist attack in connection with the relay cabinet arson.

In Krasnodar, a court has ordered the arrest of two youths, born in 2008 and 2010, on suspicion of committing a terrorist act. According to investigators, in July the teenagers, acting for payment, set fire to a transportation infrastructure facility at the Loris railway station in Krasnodar, "destabilizing" railway operations. They recorded the incident on video.

A court in Rostov has sentenced Ukrainian serviceman Vladyslav Shpak, a member of the Azov Brigade who took part in the defense of the Azovstal Steel Factory, to 21 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of participating in a terrorist organization and undergoing terrorist training. According to investigators, 20-year-old Shpak joined the Azov Brigade’s special forces unit in 2020 for ideological and financial reasons. In February 2022, he and his fellow soldiers were deployed to the city of Mariupol. Three months later, on May 17, he surrendered under orders from commanders. Prosecutors initially sought a 19-year sentence, but after the court returned the case for further trial proceedings, they increased their request to 22 years.

The Primorsky Regional Court has sentenced a local resident to 13 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of treason. According to prosecutors, in May 2023 the man, whose name has not been disclosed, agreed to provide Ukrainian intelligence with "information on the location and security of a military unit in the Primorsky region." The court statement said the convict harbored "hostility toward the current Russian government" and "opposed Russia’s special military operation."

The Meshchansky district court in Moscow has ordered the pre-trial detention of Ukrainian citizen Rostyslav Sasovets and his son, Serhii, a Russian citizen, on espionage charges. The grounds for the criminal case have not been disclosed. In June, the father and son were twice sentenced to 15 days in custody under petty hooliganism charges. On both occasions, police said Sasovets Sr. acted defiantly, used foul language, gestured aggressively and ignored officers’ warnings.

Assistance

In 2025, under a separate quota for war participants and their children, 2,028 people were admitted to Saint Petersburg universities. In 2023, 644 people enrolled under the quota, and in 2024—1,252. According to Fontanka [pro-Russian media outlet of the Leningrad region], many of them received state-funded places without entrance examinations, while some of those who took the Unified State Exam [graduation examination in Russia’s schools] showed results at the minimum threshold level.

Miscellaneous

In Russia's constituent republic of Sakha (Yakutia), a court has declared illegal the withholding of part of employees’ salaries for the needs of war participants. Such deductions were discovered at one company by the local labor inspectorate, which then applied to the court. The court determined that the Labor Code does not contain provisions allowing such withholdings and fined the deputy head of the company 1,000 rubles [$13].

Governor of the Novosibirsk region Andrey Travnikov has ordered all municipalities in the region to appoint "deputy heads for issues of the special military operation." According to him, the process should be completed by the end of 2025.