Mobilization in Russia for Dec. 2-4, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
The State Duma [lower house of Russia’s Federal Assembly] approved a bill in second and third readings in a single session that would grant war participants the right to obtain a second vocational education tuition-free in a new field. Lawmakers are also considering another bill to provide a similar benefit to surviving spouses of service members. Meanwhile, universities and trade schools already allocate 10 percent of all state-funded places to participants in the war against Ukraine.
Also in a single session, lawmakers approved a bill in the second and third readings that would amend the Military Conscription and Military Service Act. Initially, the bill was intended only to extend service terms for conscripts by excluding time spent AWOL for more than two days. However, lawmakers introduced additional amendments ahead of the second reading to expand the grounds on which the state may require military academy graduates to repay their government-funded tuition. The state may now recover costs if authorities designate a graduate a "foreign agent," if the individual violates state secrecy laws or poses a threat to Russian security, or if the Federal Security Service decides that granting the person access to state secrets is "inadvisable."
The Supreme Court has stated that assistance to participants in combat operations must be provided regardless of their place of registration. The judges reviewed the case of a serviceman who challenged a provision of a Stavropol region law that granted assistance only to those whose place of residence or service was located in the region on the date the combat operations began. The man was registered in the city of Rostov-on-Don but later arrived in the Stavropol region. He argued that this rule placed him at an unequal disadvantage compared to his fellow servicemen. In the end, the Supreme Court agreed with the decisions of the lower courts and declared the provision partially invalid. Thus, the ruling makes it clear that regions cannot deny social support to servicemen solely because they did not reside in that region "at the required moment."
Army Recruitment
The command of the 35th NBC Protection Regiment tricked conscripted soldiers into signing contracts with the Ministry of Defense. Parents of draftees from the city of Kopeysk said that the young men were subjected to abusive conditions: the conscripts were transported for a week from Yekaterinburg to the unit in Belogorsk without being allowed to sleep or drink, and without access to a toilet. They were pressured to sign a report attaching them to the unit. Twenty out of thirty conscripts signed the document, but upon arrival at their duty station they were given additional sheets that included a clause about participating in combat operations. At that point the conscripts realized that they had signed a contract rather than a simple attachment report. After they arrived, those who wanted to refuse the contract were forced to clear snow and were allowed to warm up only if they claimed they had signed the contract voluntarily. Once the contracts were finalized, the soldiers were told they would be sent to the border, and later to a combat zone. On Dec. 2, the conscripts were sent to undergo basic training, and their families fear they may be taken to the frontline afterward. Human-rights advocates note that forcing conscripts into contracts is not, by itself, grounds for terminating those contracts. Similar cases of coercing conscripts into signing contracts have been reported repeatedly (1, 2, 3).
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin has introduced payments of 1.9 million rubles [$24,500] for mobilized residents of the capital and conscripted soldiers who sign a contract with the MoD. Previously, this payment was available only to Moscow residents who signed a contract at a military recruitment center.
In the Primorsky region [Russia's federal subject], the administration of the Lesozavodsk municipal district has introduced a payment of 50,000 rubles [$640] for assistance in recruiting for the war. They also published instructions stating that those seeking payment must find a "volunteer fighter," come with him to the selection point, and receive 50,000 rubles upon the recruit's signing of a contract with the Ministry of Defense.
The authorities of the Ulyanovsk region have announced the formation of mobile fire teams composed of reservists, who will defend enterprises employing them. According to Aleksey Russkikh, Governor of the Ulyanovsk region, there are "quite a lot" of "especially important strategic objects" that have "already been identified." However, he did not provide the exact number or specify the enterprises. Russkikh stated that the recruitment has already begun, and reservists will be on the payroll of their designated enterprises, as well as receive a salary from the Ministry of Defense during the 54-day annual military training.
In Tyumen, law enforcement officers conducted a raid targeting migrants, resulting in 14 people who received Russian citizenship but did not undergo military registration being taken to the draft office to undergo "pre-conscription procedures." They have already been referred to a medical evaluation board.
Deputy of the Saratov Regional Duma Aleksandr Yanklovich said that more than 32,000 natives of the region are currently fighting in the war against Ukraine. According to the tally of BBC News Russian and Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet], at least 3,684 residents of the region have been killed in the war.
The Otpor [Resistance] Telegram channel claims that in the town of Yenakiieve, employees of the commandant's office stop vehicles passing through a checkpoint and check the men inside. They confiscate the men's passports, regardless of age. After the inspection, the men are not allowed back on the bus. The military then instructs the driver to continue driving while the remaining men are taken away.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
Russian courts have terminated at least 795 criminal cases against participants of the war, the Vyorstka media outlet calculated. Of these, 357 were closed under the law that allows participants of the war to be exempted from punishment if they received an award or were discharged from the army. In 275 cases, the proceedings were terminated due to the defendant’s death; another 107 cases were closed due to reconciliation of the parties; and 24 were closed due to the statute of limitations expiring while the defendant was at war.
Prosecutors in Yekaterinburg have filed a criminal case against two 16‑year‑old local residents accused of carrying out a terrorist attack and laundering criminal proceeds. Investigators say that in December 2024 the teenagers, acting under the direction of "handlers from foreign intelligence services," set fire to a locomotive at the Sverdlovsk‑Sortirovochny railway station. As payment, they allegedly received cryptocurrency, which they later converted into 91,000 rubles [$1,170].
In the Kurgan region, law enforcement officers have detained a 17‑year‑old local resident on suspicion of treason. Investigators say the teenager expressed a "pro‑Ukrainian position regarding the special military operation," contacted a representative of an unnamed Ukrainian group described by authorities as a terrorist organization "controlled by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU)," and followed instructions to paint graffiti in the city urging people to join the organization. He also allegedly sent the Ukrainian group photos of cars displaying symbols supporting Russia’s military campaign. Other details of the case and the name of the detainee were not specified.
Mikhail Loshchin, a Russian national who also holds Belgian citizenship, was detained at the border in the summer of 2025 and charged with treason for sending money to a former girlfriend from Ukraine. Loshchin moved to Europe in 1999. In July of this year, he traveled to Russia to visit his father, who had suffered a heart attack. At a border-crossing point in the Pskov region, he presented his Russian passport, and border guards asked to inspect his phone. According to relatives, he had not cleared his WhatsApp messages before the trip despite having contacts of Ukrainian friends, as he did not consider communicating with them to be a crime. He was ultimately detained, allegedly for entering a restricted border zone, and placed under guard at a border-area hotel. A month later, he was transferred to a pre-trial detention center in Stary Oskol, where he was charged with treason for "financing the enemy." The charge was based on 2022 correspondence in which Mikhail's former girlfriend had asked him for financial help. In Stary Oskol, Loshchin was placed in a specialized facility for Ukrainian prisoners, where he was tortured.
The Moscow regional court has sentenced 34-year-old physicist Artyom Khoroshilov to 21 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of treason, attacking critical infrastructure, preparing for sabotage and manufacturing explosives. Prosecutors had sought a 25-year prison sentence. Khoroshilov, who holds a Ph.D. in physics and mathematics, is a graduate of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and a researcher at the Prokhorov General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 2022, he transferred nearly 700,000 rubles [$9,030] from his bank account and in cryptocurrency to the Come Back Alive foundation, the Sergey Prytula Foundation and other organizations that support the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He pleaded guilty to this portion of the charges. Additionally, prosecutors allege that in August 2022, Khoroshilov launched a DDoS attack from his computer against Russian Post servers. He was also charged with possessing components for an improvised explosive device and photographing railway tracks near an enterprise of the military-industrial complex in Noginsk. He was detained in late 2023, but the Federal Security Service (FSB) did not report the arrest until August 2024. According to the T-invariant media outlet, Khoroshilov received the longest sentence among scientists and academics prosecuted since the start of the war. Mediazona published the scientist's final statement.
Assistance
Vyacheslav Volodin, Speaker of the State Duma, said that nearly 29,000 participants in the war and their relatives were admitted to universities under preferential terms, while another 20,000 service members and their children enrolled in colleges. For comparison, in 2024 some 15,000 war participants and their family members entered universities in state-funded places.
Children and militarization
Oleg Nikolaev, Head of the Chuvashia [Russia’s constituent republic], announced that authorities are preparing "special military operation veterans" to participate in the education system and in "patriotic education." A professional-development program has been created so that upon completion they can advise schools and organize ideological and educational work with children.
On Dec. 9, schools will hold a "Talking About Important Things" lesson, a compulsory class held every Monday nationwide, timed to the Day of Heroes of the Fatherland. Students will be taught about heroism, with an emphasis on the message that a hero is someone who chooses to be killed rather than surrender.
Miscellaneous
Russian authorities have removed from public access a substantial portion of statistics related to people with disabilities. The Social Fund has stopped posting consolidated data from the Federal Register of Disabled Persons, which previously included data on individuals who had sustained military injuries. The Interior Ministry and the MoD also halted similar posts. The only available data now comes from the Unified Interagency Information System (EMISS). This data shows that the number of people with disabilities increased by 190,000 from 2023 to 2024, marking the sharpest rise since 2006.
Longreads
The Vot Tak [Like This] media outlet published a report on how and why Russian soldiers die by suicide on the frontline.