Mobilization in Russia for Dec. 19-20, 2024 CIT Volunteer Summary

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Police detained 22-year-old Rodion Maksyuta in the Moscow metro, took him to a police station and later to the military collection point on Ugreshskaya Street. Two months earlier, Maksyuta had changed his place of residence and registered with a draft office in the Moscow region. The young man was awaiting the date of his medical evaluation examination, having previously received a draft notice for Jan. 31. He has a severe ankle ligament injury confirmed by an earlier diagnosis. According to Maksyuta, however, police officers ignored both this document and the previous draft notice. Only through the intervention of his lawyer and legal representative did the authorities release him from the military collection point on the evening of Dec. 19, handing him a new draft notice for April 2025. It is worth noting that the Moscow military commissar had announced earlier this week that the conscription campaign in the city was complete, but human rights advocates have questioned the veracity of his statement.

A draft board in Ufa declared Ilyas Khasanov fit for military service, even though the young man has been diagnosed with hypertension. Authorities are currently holding him at a military collection point. His lawyer insists that the draft board violated existing regulations, as the condition disqualifies individuals from serving in the military.

In Saint Petersburg, police raided several construction sites, checking over 400 individuals. Authorities sent two of them to the draft office to register for military service.

Former Russian National Guard officer Aleksey Golovin, accused of murdering an investigator, will not be allowed to go to war. Golovin will remain in a pre-trial detention center and the murder trial will continue. Earlier reports indicated that the defendant had signed a contract and would be sent to the front.

Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers

According to Mediazona, in collaboration with BBC News Russian and a team of volunteers, the names of 84,761 Russian soldiers killed during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine have been identified through open sources. This figure includes 10,105 mobilized men. Over the past week, 1,423 additional names have been added to the list, including 54 mobilized men. In its final 2024 summary, Mediazona presented interim conclusions, noting that the outgoing year may prove to be the deadliest of the three years of war. However, this cannot yet be confirmed due to the significant delay in casualty data, which makes figures for 2023 and 2022 more complete. As of now, 18,983 fatalities have been documented for 2022, 33,550 for 2023, and 20,364 for 2024. The date of death for 11,860 soldiers remains unknown. In 2024, volunteer fighters ranked first in the number of fatalities. In 2022, Russian Airborne Troops bore the brunt of the fighting and suffered the most casualties. In 2023, convicts—most of whom were killed during assaults on the town of Bakhmut—topped the list. The geographical distribution of losses has also shifted. Russia’s constituent republics of Bashkortostan and Tatarstan now lead the way significantly, with nearly 2,000 casualties each from these regions in 2024.

A former convict who joined the war from a penal colony has complained that he received no compensation after suffering a severe injury. Instead, he was left to pay for his treatment out of his own pocket. Additionally, he and other ex-convicts have been denied combat veteran status and the associated benefits, including awards and official recognition.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

In Russia's constituent Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), five people died and seven others were injured in a fire at a detention facility where servicemen who had gone AWOL were being held. This was reported by the Yakut operational headquarters, citing the local draft office. The fire occurred on the night of Dec. 20. According to a source from RIA Novosti [Russian state-owned news agency], the deceased servicemen allegedly set themselves on fire in an attempt to escape. In May, the Free Yakutia Foundation reported that wounded servicemen who refused to return to the frontline were being held at the facility. According to the foundation, they were tortured. Later, the Military Prosecutor's Office confirmed that refuseniks were being held at the detention facility.

In Khakassia [Russia’s constituent republic], a court has sentenced serviceman Vladimir Mongush to one and a half years in a penal settlement for causing minor bodily harm with the use of a weapon. In October 2023, while intoxicated, he quarreled with an acquaintance and stabbed him with a knife.

Military personnel with socially significant illnesses, including hepatitis C, were granted the right to early discharge from military service in 2023, regardless of whether they are contract soldiers or mobilized soldiers. As noted by the Voyennye Advokaty [Military Lawyers] Telegram channel, according to legal practice, a diagnosis of hepatitis C in a serviceman suspected of going AWOL or failing to obey orders constitutes grounds for terminating criminal prosecution. In such cases, the serviceman is not deemed a subject of military crimes and is discharged from service.

Anarchist Roman Shvedov, who was sentenced to 16 years in a maximum security penal colony on Dec. 18 for setting fire to an administration building in the Rostov region, was found hanged in a pre-trial detention center hours after his sentencing. According to the SHOT Telegram channel, his body was discovered during a routine lunchtime inspection. The Federal Penitentiary Service confirmed the death of an inmate to Mediazona but declined to identify him. A source from 161.RU [Rostov-on-Don city online media outlet] reported that Shvedov "couldn't come to terms with the court's verdict and his two failed appeals." Human rights activist Ivan Astashin told the No Future project that Shvedov had declined offered assistance, stating "there's no way to help me now, I'll rot in prison, help those who can still be helped."

The Pervy Otdel [First Department] human rights project has published a study on criminal cases involving state treason and espionage since 1997. According to their calculations, 792 out of more than 1,000 known defendants in these cases were charged after the start of the full-scale war with Ukraine. In the occupied territories of Ukraine, at least 201 people have been convicted during this period. In 2024 alone, 359 people were convicted on "espionage" charges. At least nine convicts in espionage cases died while imprisoned, and seven died in pre-trial detention centers before sentencing. The human rights advocates identified 112 defendants whose cases had not been previously reported in the media. Pervy Otdel notes that the number of espionage cases is almost triple the official figures provided by the Judicial Department of the Russian Supreme Court.

On Dec. 20, multiple arson attempts and similar incidents occurred.

A 16-year-old high school student in the village of Falileyevo in the Leningrad region attempted to set fire to a local administration building. The teenager managed to pour lighter fluid inside the premises before being spotted by staff, who quickly alerted the police. No official charges have yet been filed against her.

A man was caught on camera in Saint Petersburg hurling a Molotov cocktail at the city’s draft office. The footage, captured by a bystander, shows the man throwing the incendiary device first at the office door and then at a window before fleeing the scene. According to media reports, authorities later detained the suspect, a 20-year-old from the village of Kuttuzi in the Leningrad region. A criminal case has been initiated, classifying the act as a potential terrorist attack.

An elderly woman in Saint Petersburg set off fireworks inside a bank building on Lunacharsky Avenue on December 18. The following day, a 19-year-old student set off fireworks inside another bank in the city of Zheleznodorozhny in the Moscow region.

In Moscow, a man set off fireworks inside a bank on Yan Rainis Boulevard. No injuries were reported, and the suspect was detained by the bank's security service. Meanwhile, on Korovinskoye Highway, an unidentified individual poured a flammable liquid inside a Sberbank branch. According to RBC [Russian media group], the suspect attempted to break open an ATM using a fire extinguisher before setting it on fire. No injuries were reported in this incident.

The Baza Telegram channel reported another ATM arson incident in Krasnoyarsk. A 19-year-old student entered a bank branch with a canister of gasoline. While pouring the gasoline onto the ATM, she splashed it on herself, causing her to catch fire. She was transported to the hospital with second-degree burns.

There were also multiple incidents of police vehicles being set on fire. In Moscow, police and bailiff vehicles were torched in the Butovo and Nagatinsky districts, with one suspect apprehended at the scene. In the Krasnogvardeysky district of Saint Petersburg, a minor was detained for setting a police car on fire. In Tver, a police van parked near a district police department was set ablaze. A young man approached the vehicle with flammable liquid, doused it, and ignited the fire while filming the incident.

A Kamchatka resident who holds a Ukrainian residence permit has been convicted of treason and sentenced to 14 years in prison. According to intelligence services, the man had resided in Ukraine with a residence permit for a long time. With the outset of the war, he is reported to have initiated cooperation with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), providing information regarding his family member's service in the Russian army. He then relocated to the Kamchatka region, where he collected intelligence for the SBU about the work of the FSB border service, war participants and other data relevant to the Russian Armed Forces.

Miscellaneous

Dmitry Simkov, the deputy head of the Rostov-on-Don Administration for Transport, has stated that the city is currently experiencing a shortage of 51 percent in bus drivers. According to Simkov, former drivers have either gone to the war or joined private companies, and the majority of prospective employees are not interested in a salary of under 200,000 rubles [$1,930] per month.

Longreads

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, in collaboration with experts, has conducted a detailed analysis of the recent amendments to the Criminal Code concerning treason and armed rebellion, adopted by the State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia].

The Kavkaz.Realii [Caucasus.Realities, part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] media outlet has published an article on the impact of the war on the quality of psychological assistance for teenagers.

The Okno [Window] project has reported on the reaction of mothers of conscripts to Putin's direct line, where he left unanswered all questions about their sons who are either in Ukrainian captivity or missing in action.