Mobilization in Russia for Feb. 12-15, 2026 CIT Volunteer Summary

Authorities and Legislation

Russia’s Ministry of Defense has drafted a bill counting each day of military service by "participants in the special military operation" as three days of civil service, professional experience, and general labor seniority when calculating service-based pensions. The bill also triples the credited service time for insurance pensions, replacing the existing double-credit standard.

Army Recruitment

The Re: Russia project estimates that recruiting and maintaining a force of 600,000 troops for further offensive operations in the Donbas is costing Russia approximately 5.1 trillion rubles [$66 billion] annually, a figure equivalent to 90 percent of the 2025 federal budget deficit. Death benefits cover 38 percent of this sum, while salaries account for about 33 percent and regional sign-up bonuses for contract soldiers make up 20 percent—an amount equal to roughly two-thirds of the total regional budget deficit. Based on a force of 700,000 personnel, a figure aligning with estimates from Ukraine and various analysts, the expense virtually equals the projected budget deficit of 5.4 trillion rubles [$70 billion]. The project notes that since June 2025, the effective sign-up bonus has reached 2,430,000 rubles [$31,500]. By comparison, Russian authorities spent about 3 trillion rubles [$39 billion] on manpower from mid-2023 to mid-2024, with spending in 2025 estimated at up to 4 trillion rubles [$52 billion]. Consequently, analysts argue that halting combat operations this year would free up approximately 4 trillion rubles [$52 billion] in the Russian consolidated budget and significantly mitigate a potential budget crisis.

In Saratov, military investigators have conducted a raid to identify migrants who had obtained Russian citizenship but had not undergone military registration. Law enforcement officers checked more than 250 people, more than 20 of whom were summoned to a draft office. The law enforcement has stated that citizens born in Russia were not checked.

Anton Borovik, a former police officer accused of exceeding his authority with the use of violence and murdering two people with particular cruelty in a group, has signed a contract with the MoD and gone to war. The proceedings in his criminal case have been suspended. According to investigators, in 1999, Borovik and his colleagues strangled two detainees in a case related to drugs after they refused to confess. Borovik claimed that he was framed and refused to plead guilty in this case. Previously, a jury found Borovik not guilty, but his case was eventually sent for a new trial.

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 177,433 Russian fighters killed in Ukraine, including 17,029 mobilized soldiers. Over the past week, the list has grown by 3,956 soldiers, 98 of whom were mobilized.

According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, around 7,000 Ukrainian servicemen are being held in Russian captivity, while more than 4,000 Russian soldiers are being held in Ukraine.

Relatives of two conscripts told Vazhnyye Istorii [IStories, independent Russian investigative media outlet] that some of the conscript soldiers who were forced to sign contracts in January while on a train to their duty station in Russia’s Far East have managed to terminate their agreements with the MoD. One of them was issued a certificate stating that he is now simply liable for military service. Another parent confirmed that their son’s contract had also been annulled. According to relatives, the contracts of those conscripts whose parents signed a complaint were later "lost." However, the mother of another conscript said that, following an inspection, the MoD upheld her son’s contract.

This is not the first time conscripts have been coerced into signing contracts en route to their duty stations. In July last year, a similar incident occurred with conscripts from Kemerovo, Ufa, and other Russian cities who had been assigned to units near the city of Ussuriysk. More than 20 conscripts signed contracts after being subjected to physical pressure. Their families spent six months trying to have the contracts terminated but received only dismissive replies. During that time, the conscripts were secretly sworn in, then sent near the city of Donetsk and from there to the frontline. It was recently reported that conscripts from the city of Tyumen—whose signatures on the contracts had been forged—were ultimately able to have them terminated.

Twenty-nine-year-old contract soldier Danil S., who suspected his superior of embezzling aid intended for servicemen and forging documents, refused to carry out his orders. In August of last year, he was locked in a basement, where he was beaten for several days with a hammer, a stun gun, and a knife. He managed to contact his mother, and after she filed a complaint with the military police, he was released and granted medical leave. He then appealed to the prosecutor’s office in Ingushetia [Russia’s constituent republic], where paperwork was prepared for his transfer to another unit. However, the command of his current unit has refused to sign the documents and has declared him AWOL.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

In 2025, the Vladimir Garrison Military Court received 167 criminal cases against refuseniks and draft dodgers. Most of the cases were brought on charges of going AWOL, with two on charges of desertion. For comparison, the court received 132 such cases in 2024, 78 in 2023, and eight in 2022, according to the media outlet Takiye Dela [So It Goes]. Before the start of the full-scale war, such cases were rare.

Prosecutors filed terrorism charges against Daniil Pavlov with the First Western District Military Court. Investigators say the 26-year-old received instructions via a messaging app to set fire to a draft office in exchange for about 2 million rubles [$25,900]. He purchased components for an incendiary mixture, assembled Molotov cocktails and on the evening of Dec. 17 threw two bottles at the building’s entrance. A security guard and an officer put out the fire.

The Second Western District Military Court sentenced three men on charges of illegally manufacturing and trafficking weapons and explosives, treason and preparing a terrorist attack. Judges sentenced 56-year-old Roman Korneev to 22 years in prison, 36-year-old Oleg Mirzoyan to 18 years and 32-year-old Taras Plitchuk to 17 years. The court identified all three as Russian citizens. It said Korneev and Mirzoyan are from Moscow, while Plitchuk was born in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine. Investigators say the men connected through a messaging app with an individual "acting in the interests of Ukraine." At his direction, they photographed unspecified sites and acquired firearms and explosives. Law enforcement officers say the men planned to deliver the weapons for an attack in Tula in February 2025, but authorities detained them before the transfer. In March that year, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) reported detaining two men in the Oryol region while they were transporting weapons and explosives.

The Southern District Military Court sentenced 44-year-old Ukrainian-born Vitaliy Gaivoronsky to 20 years in prison on charges of treason, preparing an act of terror, and the illegal acquisition and manufacture of explosives and explosive devices. According to investigators, in December 2023 Gaivoronsky retrieved an explosive device from a hidden cache and assembled explosives intended to blow up a railway station in Nalchik on instructions from the Security Service of Ukraine. He was detained on Dec. 13.

A court in Sochi ordered the arrest of Chelyabinsk lawyer Oleg Stepanov on charges of participating in the activities of a terrorist organization. The details of the case have not been disclosed. Stepanov, who had been permanently residing in Serbia, was detained at Sochi airport on Jan. 30 after arriving in Russia for family reasons. He was initially placed under administrative arrest for disobeying a police officer. After serving that term, Stepanov was detained again under a criminal investigation. In Russia, he had represented clients prosecuted on politically motivated charges; in Serbia, he had been awaiting a humanitarian visa.

Mediazona reported that a resident of the Simferopol district previously sentenced to 20 years in a maximum security penal colony by the Russian‑established "Supreme Court of Crimea" on charges of treason and attempted possession of explosives is Lieutenant Colonel Sergey Solomko, a special forces officer of Ukraine’s former Internal Troops. Before the annexation, he commanded a battalion of the 47th Special Purpose Regiment "Tigr," which used weapons against protesters. In December 2013, he was deployed to Kyiv to help suppress protests on the Maidan, where he was wounded. In late February 2014, the troops returned to their base in Crimea. During the annexation of the peninsula, part of the personnel, including Solomko, switched sides to Russia. Solomko later became commander of a battalion of Russia’s Interior Ministry Internal Troops responsible for maintaining order in Simferopol.