Mobilization in Russia for Dec. 23-25, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary
Army Recruitment
Authorities in the Saratov region will increase the bonus for signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense to 1 million rubles [$12,800] starting Jan. 1, 2026. In late October, regional officials slashed the benefit nearly fivefold, reducing it from 2.2 million to 450,000 rubles [$27,600 to $5,650]. Six other regions in the Volga Federal District took similar cost-cutting steps. More recently, however, authorities in the Mari El Republic, like those in the Orenburg region, announced plans to raise the sign-up bonus on Jan. 1, 2026, this time to 2.1 million rubles [$26,900].
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
In Belgorod, Sergey Zhmurkov, a veteran of the war against Ukraine, was tried twice in 2025 for causing grievous bodily harm. While a judge initially sentenced Zhmurkov on Aug. 20, 2025, to one year and seven months in a general-regime penal colony for the first offense, a subsequent verdict on Sept. 16 increased the sentence to nine years in a strict-regime penal colony. Zhmurkov committed both crimes while intoxicated.
The Kursk Garrison Military Court sentenced Sergey Ermishkin to 12 years in a maximum security penal colony for six counts of large-scale bribery and one count of large-scale fraud. Investigators said that Ermishkin accepted 9 million rubles [$115,100] from other servicemen in exchange for transferring them to units in the rear. The court, which did not disclose the soldier's unit number, position, or rank, ordered the confiscation of the funds.
In the Tyumen region, Federal Security Service (FSB) officers killed a 48-year-old native of Ukraine’s Vinnytsia region during his arrest. According to the security services, the man—who also held Russian citizenship—was acting on instructions from Ukrainian intelligence services and was allegedly attempting to carry out an explosion at a Transneft main oil pipeline control station. During the arrest, he reportedly offered armed resistance and was "neutralized." The FSB released surveillance footage of the man as well as images of a car riddled with bullet holes. The video shows that the man was armed with a revolver and a rifle with an optical sight; however, as Vazhnye Istorii [IStories, independent Russian investigative media outlet] notes, the rifle and handgun shown in the footage were in cases inside the man’s car, as if they had not been used. Russia’s Investigative Committee reported that a criminal case has been opened for an attempt on the lives of law enforcement officers. This is already the 74th case of a person being killed during an FSB arrest since the start of the full-scale war.
The FSB also reported that in the Kaluga region its officers shot dead a native of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, who was allegedly preparing explosions at a federal gas storage facility and in a parking lot belonging to a defense company. The authorities claim he had been corresponding with a representative of Ukraine’s intelligence services and received instructions on how to manufacture explosive devices. This incident became the 75th case of a person being killed during an FSB arrest since the start of the full-scale war.
The Second Western District Military Court sentenced 43-year-old animal rights activist Yevgeniya Konforkina from the city of Lyubertsy to 15 years in a penal colony on charges of treason and participation in a terrorist organization. The prosecutor had sought 18 years in prison. Read more details on Konforkina’s case.
The Central District Military Court in Yekaterinburg sentenced 18-year-old Dmitry Novikov to eight years in a penal colony on charges of treason and organizing the activities of a terrorist organization. Novikov was accused of photographing what prosecutors said was the Kazan State Gunpowder Plant on instructions from the Freedom of Russia Legion. The hearing was held behind closed doors, and no further details of the case were disclosed.
The same court also handed down guilty verdicts against three 22-year-old natives of the town of Verkhny Ufaley in Russia’s Chelyabinsk region—Mikhail Novikov, Ilya Kuznetsov and Ildar Baymukhametov—in a case involving a terrorist attack carried out by a group. Novikov and Kuznetsov were each sentenced to 17 years in a maximum security penal colony, while Baymukhametov received 15 years. According to prosecutors, in August 2023 Novikov received an assignment on Kuznetsov’s phone to set fire to a relay cabinet at the Keramik station near Yekaterinburg in exchange for 15,000 rubles [$190]. On the evening of Aug. 15, 2023, the students attempted to set the cabinet on fire, but a "sudden ignition" occurred. Novikov and Kuznetsov fled the scene, dropping an axe along the way. Kuznetsov, who was filming the incident, also lost a sneaker and a lighter, while Novikov suffered facial burns. The young men were detained on Aug. 17, 2023, though their arrests only became public in March 2024.
The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Maksym Rupchev, the administrator of the Melitopol city Telegram channel Melitopol tse Ukraina [Melitopol Is Ukraine], to 15 years on charges of committing an act of terror causing significant damage as part of a group, espionage and participation in a terrorist organization. Rupchev was detained on Aug. 20, 2023—a day when mass detentions of local journalists and bloggers took place in occupied Melitopol. Russian law enforcement linked the detainees to local Telegram channels Melitopol tse Ukraina, RIA-Melitopol and Gachi-Ugolok. According to the FSB, the network of pro-Ukrainian media outlets was used "to collect intelligence and exert psychological influence on residents of the region." Rupchev and his colleagues were accused, among other things, of guiding HIMARS MLRS strikes on a Melitopol college building that housed offices of Rosgvardia [the Russian National Guard] and the FSB. On March 27, 2023, the Armed Forces of Ukraine struck the college. According to Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet], no one in the building was injured. Earlier, the court sentenced another administrator of the Melitopol tse Ukraina channel, 27-year-old Vladyslav Hershon, to 15 years, while the administrator of the RIA-Melitopol channel Heorgiy Levchenko received 16 years in a maximum security penal colony. Additionally, Yana Suvorova, the administrator of the Melitopol tse Ukraina Telegram channel, was sentenced to 14 years in a penal colony. Another defendant in the case, Mark Kaliush, was ordered by the Russian court to undergo compulsory psychiatric treatment.
In 2025, a record 4,018 people were added to the "terrorists and extremists" registry of the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Russian Federation (Rosfinmonitoring), marking the highest number in the last seven years. Of these, 2,783 were listed for terrorism-related reasons and 1,235 as "extremists." For comparison, in 2024 these figures were 2,244 and 925, respectively, and in 2023 1,224 and 604. In October 2025, a record 529 people were added to the list. Notably, there has been a sharp increase in the number of minors included in the registry. In 2025, 341 teenagers were added—twice as many as in 2024 and more than the total 304 minors added between 2019 and 2024 combined.
Children and Militarization
Beginning in February 2026, schools and technical colleges in Russia's constituent Republic of North Ossetia-Alania will introduce "advisors for military-patriotic education," to be recruited from among participants in the war against Ukraine. Authorities state that the project aims to provide employment and social integration for war participants while reinforcing the "patriotic education" of schoolchildren.
In the city of Syktyvkar, in Russia’s constituent Republic of Komi, a lesson at a Sunday school at the Church of St. James was conducted by Stanislav Silyavko, a participant in the war in Ukraine who fought as part of the Wagner Group. The church group announced the event as a "lesson of courage." The ex-mercenary told children about military service, faith during war and overcoming fear before combat. According to open-source data, in 2022, Silyavko was sentenced to eight years in a maximum security penal colony for intentionally causing grievous bodily harm resulting in death.
Assistance
Radiy Khabirov, governor of Bashkortostan [Russia's constituent republic], has signed a law establishing employment quotas for war veterans. Under the new rules, companies with more than 100 employees must set aside 1% of their positions for former participants in the war, based on their average headcount. According to an official, this means that "approximately 1,100 employers will have the opportunity to create over 5,000 job openings for veterans."
Longreads
The Sibir.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet reports on how shift workers are being targeted for recruitment into the army through offers of civilian jobs in the occupied territories.
Mediazona, together with the Proshchai Oruzhiye [A Farewell to Arms] organization, describes how Kazakh citizens end up on the frontline fighting on Russia’s side—and how they are later detained and prosecuted at home.