Mobilization in Russia for Feb. 15-17, 2026 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
Aleksandr Kurenkov, the head of Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations, announced that his agency and the Ministry of Defense had agreed to deploy conscripts to serve in units of the Federal Fire Service. The agencies plan to assign draftees to fight fires, manage emergencies, and conduct rescue operations amid a personnel shortage, which Kurenkov attributed to low wages. Under the Law on the Status of Servicemen, conscripts may fulfill their statutory military service in the agency’s rescue and military formations by applying to the relevant draft offices. However, a professional degree is required to hold military positions within the ministry.
Lawmakers introduced a bill in the State Duma [lower house of Russia’s Federal Assembly] that would authorize the parents of a deceased soldier to file a lawsuit to invalidate his marriage within six months of his death. This would overturn current norms, which restrict parents to petitioning prosecutors to intervene. The legislation’s explanatory note cites a proliferation of sham marriages among military personnel aimed at securing financial benefits. If the measure passes, parents could challenge a union as fictitious when a surviving spouse claims inheritance or government payments.
Mobilized Soldiers, Contract Soldiers and Conscripts
Igor Ustyuzhanin, the former mayor of the Manturovo town in the Kostroma region has been killed in the war. In November 2024, Ustyuzhanin was sentenced to eight and a half years in a penal colony for receiving bribes totaling 760,000 rubles [$9,890]. He signed a contract to participate in the war in July 2025. The exact circumstances of his death are not specified.
In Russia's constituent Republic of Bashkortostan, editors of local newspapers have been advised to omit the dates of death of war participants from articles if less than a year had passed between the signing of the contract and the death. These recommendations were issued by the Republican Agency for Printing and Media. According to reports, a similar requirement also applies to obituaries, including texts from relatives. According to the staff of the editorial offices, materials in district media are already being published without specific dates. While some journalists have confirmed the existence of such instructions, they have also stated that these instructions were conveyed orally, not in written form. According to journalists, the coverage of the funerals of deceased soldiers in district newspapers is also advised to be avoided.
Sergey Zuykov, a 59-year-old resident of Salavat, Russia's constituent Republic of Bashkortostan, has been deployed to an assault without undergoing a military medical evaluation, despite previously being recognized as partially fit for military service due to an injury, after which he went missing. According to Zuykov's daughter, he signed a contract with the MoD in March 2025 despite having a spinal injury. In May, he sustained a mine-explosive injury and multiple shrapnel wounds. During treatment, the man's documents and medical records were confiscated, after which Zuykov was returned to his military unit without the injury payment and sent to the frontline on Sept. 6 without a medical evaluation. Two months later, communication with the man ceased.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
The Second Eastern District Military Court has sentenced serviceman Artyom Zakharenko from Russia’s Irkutsk region to 23 years in a maximum security penal colony for murder and desertion during mobilization. According to investigators, the 22‑year‑old soldier signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense in April 2023 but failed to return from leave, remaining absent from his unit between March 15 and July 11, 2025. On July 7, while intoxicated, he strangled 20‑year‑old Kristina Ogibenina, who was pregnant with his child. Her body was wrapped in linoleum and hidden in the yard of his house in the village of Bolshoy Lug. After the killing, Zakharenko fled to the Kursk region, where he was later detained.
In Yakutsk on Feb. 15, police detained previously convicted war veteran Viktor Savvinov on suspicion of a new murder committed the day before. Authorities have not disclosed details of the crime, but it is believed to be his fourth victim. Savvinov has a long criminal history dating back to 2010. In 2020, he was sentenced to 11 years in a penal colony for murdering a woman, after which he left prison to fight in the war. He returned to Yakutia [Russia's constituent republic of Sakha] in 2023. In February 2024, Savvinov killed two people and was sentenced to 20 years in prison that fall. However, in July 2025, he signed a second contract with the Ministry of Defense and returned to the frontline. He was hospitalized for a wound in September, then deserted and went into hiding in Yakutia. The daughter of one of the 2024 victims said she had contacted police and the Military Prosecutor’s Office in fall 2025 with information about his whereabouts, but Savvinov was only detained after the latest killing.
The Southern District Military Court sentenced three Ukrainian prisoners of war who served in the Azov Brigade—Mykhailo Nasonov, Vladislav Kormilin and Serhii Kopylov—to 20 years in prison each on charges of participating in a terrorist organization and terrorism training. As established by Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet], Kormilin had served as a rifleman since 2018 and took part in the defense of the Azovstal Steel Factory. Nasonov had held the position of instructor and deputy commander of a motor vehicle platoon since 2015, while Kopylov served in a patrol company and handled logistics. All three were captured in May 2022.
The same court sentenced a Ukrainian citizen, believed to be 44-year-old Oleksiy Brunko from the Kirovohrad region, to 18 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of participating in a terrorist organization and terrorism training. According to prosecutors, he joined the Donbas volunteer battalion in April 2022 and underwent military training. He was captured in the spring of that year.
In the Volgograd region, a 54-year-old reservist was issued an official warning against surrendering to the enemy or defecting. According to the Federal Security Service (FSB), the man had been researching ways to evade military service in the event of a possible mobilization, including options for surrendering. He had familiarized himself with the activities of a Ukrainian organization that assists soldiers in surrendering and saved its contact number. Since he had not committed any illegal acts, he was issued a formal warning against conduct that could create conditions for a potential treason charge.
The FSB has detained a resident of Krasnodar, born in 1985, accused of high treason, public calls for terrorism, extremism and actions against state security, as well as "fake news" about the army. According to the intelligence services, the detainee managed a Telegram chat where he allegedly organized fundraising for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, "justified nationalist battalions," published personal data of Russian soldiers, and called for violence against them.
The First Western District Military Court has fined22-year-old UAV assembler Mikhail Prokofiev from Veliky Novgorod 80,000 rubles [$1,040] in a case of failure to report a crime. The prosecution had requested seven months in a penal settlement for Prokofiev. The man pleaded guilty, and at his request the court considered the case in a special procedure. According to investigators, Prokofiev failed to report that his acquaintance Mikhail Golik had set fire to a relay cabinet, although Golik had sent him a video of the arson and said he had carried it out on instructions from the Russian Volunteer Corps. Prokofiev deleted the video. In addition, he bought his friend a crowbar, which was used to break open the relay cabinet. Golik himself had been sentenced to 12 years.
The Second Eastern District Military Court has sentenced 23-year-old Muscovite Danila Zolotenky to 14 years in prison on charges of treason and making a donation to the Russian Volunteer Corps. According to the prosecution, in 2023 he made a bank transfer to an acquaintance, 22-year-old Novosibirsk resident Danila Likhanov, who was also accused of making cryptocurrency donations to the Russian Volunteer Corps. In December, Likhanov was sentenced to the same term—14 years in prison.
Assistance
The government of the Khanty-Mansi autonomous region –Yugra [Russia’s federal subject] has granted priority housing rights to orphans who lost their parents during the war. At the same time, the region has eliminated the waiting list for housing for orphans and introduced a mechanism for directly purchasing apartments instead of issuing housing certificates.
Children and Militarization
Teenagers carrying assault rifles from the Dynamite patriotic education center performed at a church in the Moscow region town of Obukhovo during an event marking Orthodox Youth Day. In footage from the event, the teenagers, armed and dressed in camouflage uniforms, stand opposite the altar and demonstrate elements of assault rifle handling and military close-combat techniques. Following public backlash, the video was removed from the church’s social media page, and the parish priest was temporarily suspended.