Mobilization in Russia for Dec. 11-14, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary

Authorities and Legislation

Nastoyashcheye Vremya [Current Time, an editorially independent US-funded Russian language media outlet] reports that legislative changes now require male foreigners applying for residence permits or citizenship to submit a service contract with the Russian army or the Ministry of Emergency Situations, or a certificate of unfitness from a draft office. This applies to individuals applying for family reunification, those who have already resided in Russia for a long time, and applicants on certain other grounds. Students, highly qualified specialists, participants in the compatriot resettlement program, and citizens of Belarus remain exempt. Nationals of Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Moldova are also exempt, but only for residence permits. Vladimir Putin signed the decree on Nov. 5, 2025, which simultaneously created a simplified citizenship pathway for contract soldiers and their families. Although officials have remained virtually silent about the new regulation, they are already requiring many migrants to enlist in military service before accepting their documents.

The Ministry of Defense has drafted a bill requiring regions where martial law is in effect to establish defense headquarters that consolidate the functions of operations control centers and Territorial Defense headquarters. These bodies would draft regional regulations to enforce martial law and territorial defense, collect and analyze situational data, and prepare proposals for the headquarters’ chief. Their mandate would last until martial law is lifted and would include ensuring consistent martial law measures, carrying out territorial defense operations, and coordinating the efforts of government authorities, formations and organizations.

Army Recruitment

The Supreme Court of Karachay-Cherkessia [Russia’s constituent republic] revised the sentence of former lawmaker ofUnited Russia [Putin’s ruling party] Marat Kumukov, who had been convicted of a group murder, and released him from actual imprisonment in connection with his deployment to the war in Ukraine. In May 2025, Kumukov was sentenced to 13 years in a maximum security penal colony for his role in the murder of three people as part of a criminal group linked to banditry in the early 2000s and associated with the Storozhevskie gang. After the verdict, however, he signed a contract with the MoD, and during the appeal a representative of a military recruitment center petitioned for his release from punishment. The court replaced the prison term with a suspended sentence. Kumukov was elected three times as a United Russia deputy and had previously taken part in the war in 2022 as a volunteer fighter, but was arrested upon his return in connection with the murder case, which had been under investigation for several years.

According to the T-Invariant outlet, the MoD has begun campaigning among students at leading Russian universities to sign contracts with the ministry to serve as UAV operators in the newly established Unmanned Systems Forces. Representatives of military training centers are giving presentations during lectures at MIPT, the Siberian Federal University, Belgorod State Technological University and other institutions, offering students who are struggling academically the option of taking an academic leave to serve as UAV operators. Potential recruits are promised a one-year contract, after which they would be able to return to their studies, payments ranging from 3.5 million [$43,800] to 5.2 million rubles [$65,100] depending on the region, and service "away from combat operations." Lawyers and human rights advocates, however, note that amid ongoing mobilization such contracts are effectively open-ended, and that after signing them servicemen are fully subject to MoD orders, with no real guarantees of nonparticipation in combat operations.

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 155,368 Russian fighters killed in Ukraine, including 16,164 mobilized soldiers. Over the past week, the list has grown by 2,197 soldiers, 69 of whom were mobilized. Volunteer fighters who signed up for contract military service after the outset of the war now make up one-third of all verified losses. A year ago, they accounted for only 15 percent of deaths.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

A court in Krasnoyarsk has sentenced Dmitry Ganzyuk, a war participant, to four years in a maximum security penal colony for attempted murder of his former wife. However, he has been exempted from punishment due to his military service. According to the prosecution, on July 15, 2023, after an argument on the phone, the man drove to his wife's house and attacked her with a machete, inflicting multiple wounds first in the courtyard, and then in a hairdresser's salon where the woman tried to hide from the attack. He was stopped by employees. The man did not admit guilt, stating that he only intended to "scare" his wife amid a dispute over a car and during their ongoing divorce. He signed a contract with the MoD on July 27, 2023, just two weeks after the attempted murder of his wife. He was wounded on the frontline and discharged due to health reasons in September 2024. When handing down the sentence, the court took into account that Ganzyuk has a disability and is dependent on psychostimulants. The court also considered that he has a minor child with a disability and is engaged in "socially useful work."

A district court in the Amur region has sentenced local resident Sergey Melnikov, who took part in the war, to a two-year suspended sentence on charges of unlawfully depriving a person of liberty without kidnapping, using violence dangerous to health against a knowingly underage victim. According to investigators, in June 2025 Melnikov, while at home and intoxicated, assaulted his own 14-year-old daughter after she returned home drunk. The girl was able to escape the house only the following morning and seek help from neighbors. The court cited Melnikov’s participation in combat operations as a mitigating factor. He partially admitted his guilt.

The Southern District Military Court has upheld the sentences of two servicemen, Denis Utenev and Nikolay Lepishkin, convicted of going AWOL. Utenev signed a contract but later left his unit and went home to Anapa, where he remained for more than a month before being detained. He was sentenced to five years and two months in a penal colony. Lepishkin was mobilized; the verdict does not specify why he left his unit, but it is known that he was absent for more than a year—from July 31, 2024, to Aug. 4, 2025. In court, he expressed his willingness to return to the frontline and stated that he had received military awards. However, on appeal, the court rejected these arguments and upheld the sentence.

The Baltic Fleet Military Court in Kaliningrad sentenced a Russian serviceman to 17 years in prison on charges of high treason and sabotage aboard a military vessel, also stripping him of his military rank. According to the prosecution, the serviceman acted on instructions from Ukrainian intelligence and carried out actions intended to damage the engine of a military ship.

The Russian occupation authorities’ so-called "Zaporizhzhia Regional Court" sentenced Iryna Sukhovei, a 65-year-old resident of occupied Melitopol, to 15 years in a penal colony on charges of high treason. According to the prosecution, in March 2023, while browsing pro-Ukrainian Telegram channels, the woman came across bank details for donations to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and set up recurring payments in a mobile banking app. In October 2023, she received Russian citizenship but continued making donations until November 2024.

In Crimea, a 55-year-old resident of Melitopol was sentenced to 12 years and six months in a penal colony on charges of high treason for donating 1,400 rubles [$18] to support the AFU. The payments, according to prosecutors, were made between October 2023 and November 2024.

Another resident of the Zaporizhzhia region, Maryna Bilousova has been sentenced to 12 years and six months in a penal colony on treason charges. Bilousova was detained in May 2025. Prosecutors say that in January 2024 she used a Ukrainian banking app to transfer money in support of the AFU.

An occupation court calling itself the "Supreme Court of the LPR" has sentenced a former employee of the local Ministry of Emergency Situations to 10 years and six months in a penal colony on espionage charges. According to investigators, in April 2022 the woman was working as a hotline operator for the Ministry of Emergency Situations when she allegedly adopted a "position of non‑acceptance" toward Russia’s "special military operation," began corresponding with a representative of Ukrainian intelligence, and passed along "information of a military nature." The court did not disclose her full name or age.

The administration of Saint Petersburg’s Nevsky District has sent a letter to stores and shopping centers proposing that they notify law enforcement about purchases of flammable goods by elderly people and minors. In the letter, dated Dec. 5, the measure is justified by an increase in arson attacks and acts of sabotage at infrastructure sites and in places with large crowds, which authorities say are often carried out by elderly people and teenagers under the influence of phone scammers. Retailers are urged to establish cooperation with law enforcement and to pass along information when such customers buy gas canisters, fuel, or fire-starting liquids without accompanying goods, as well as when staff notice that a customer appears to be receiving instructions by phone from unknown individuals.

Longreads

The Sibir.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet recounts the story of 50-year-old Aleksey Grigoriev, who signed a contract with the MoD and went to the frontline, and who, according to relatives, was killed several months later after being beaten by commanders who extorted money from him.

The Vyorstka media outlet examined Russia’s prosthetics industry and found that the country continues to import prosthetics from Europe worth tens of millions of dollars.