Mobilization in Russia for Jan. 22-25, 2026 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
The State Duma [lower house of Russia’s Federal Assembly] passed a bill in its first reading that prevents the deportation of foreign citizens and stateless persons who sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense, and instead proposes that authorities impose fines of 1,000 to 50,000 rubles [$13-$660] or up to 200 hours of mandatory labor. The proposed legislation would also prohibit the denial or cancellation of residence permits for foreign nationals serving under contract and stipulate that adverse rulings issued after Feb. 24, 2022, will become unenforceable. The government introduced the bill in the State Duma last November.
Lawmakers also introduced two related bills regarding compensation for damages caused by war participants, to ensure that military service no longer exempts individuals from civil liability. While current regulations have effectively halted the collection of alimony, compensation for personal injury or death, property restitution and asset seizures in corruption cases, the first bill would prohibit the suspension of enforcement proceedings in these categories. It would authorize officials to seize previously protected funds, including bonuses for contract signing or injury, to settle debts. The second bill would establish state liability, mandating that the national treasury compensate victims for court-confirmed damages if an individual who enlisted to avoid criminal penalties dies without leaving an inheritance.
Army Recruitment
Responding to an inquiry from human rights advocate Artyom Klyga, the administration of the Higher School of Economics acknowledged that the one-year service in unmanned systems forces promised to students—supposedly with guaranteed discharge, academic leave, reinstatement and payments—actually constitutes standard contract military service with the Ministry of Defense with no special conditions. Klyga contends that commanders could deploy students who sign these agreements to forward positions, including assault units, contrary to the university’s official claims. He also notes that their contracts would remain valid until a presidential decree ends mobilization. Klyga also published a MoD guide that instructs recruiters on how to persuade students to enlist, emphasizing the supposed advantages of service in drone units.
The Idite Lesom! [Flee through the woods/Get lost you all] project, citing a student at Bauman Moscow State Technical University, reported that Russian universities are also promoting contract military service in the MoD’s unmanned systems forces through official student apps.
The Kommersant daily newsletter reports that since mid-January, the MoD has launched a large-scale campaign to recruit contract soldiers for its unmanned systems forces. The newspaper notes that special emphasis is being placed on young candidates. This is linked to a statement made by Putin in December 2025, when he said that those seeking to sign military contracts increasingly include "very young people, students from various universities" who take academic leave to take part in combat, including as drone operators and technical personnel. Against this backdrop, recruitment center staff have stepped up their outreach at universities and colleges, emphasizing that service in drone units implies only a temporary break in studies rather than their termination.
According to the ASTRA Telegram channel, a deputy dean at Bryansk State Technical University recently held a meeting with students where he spoke about service in the unmanned systems forces and promised discharge after one year of service. After the meeting, those present were required to sign a statement confirming that they had been informed of this. An announcement about recruitment into the unmanned systems forces also appeared on the university’s website, stating that there is “guaranteed discharge if there is no desire to sign a new contract.”
The government of Saint Petersburg has announced an increase in the regional sign-up bonus for signing a contract with the MoD, from 2.1 million rubles [$27,700] set a year ago to 2.6 million rubles [$34,300]. As a result, taking into account the national bonus of 400,000 rubles [$5,280], new recruits will receive a total of 3 million rubles [$39,600].
In Saratov, the military investigation department of the Investigative Committee conducted a raid, during which more than 300 people were checked. Law enforcement officers detained 30 men who had previously received Russian citizenship but had not undergone military registration. They were issued summonses to report to draft offices.
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 165,661 Russian fighters killed in Ukraine, including 16,637 mobilized soldiers. Over the past week, the list has grown by 2,055 names, while the number of mobilized soldiers has decreased by 13. Since the beginning of January, at least 3,605 new obituaries of Russian soldiers have been published, which is similar to the data on those killed in January 2024. This suggests that the intensity of combat operations has not declined. Journalists also note that the list includes at least 465 people from endangered ethnic minorities of Russia. In terms of per capita losses, these groups experience significantly higher losses compared to other ethnic groups. Of these 465, 201 are Nenets, constituting nearly half of the total. Other groups represented among the killed include Eskimos, Itelmen, Khanty, Koryaks, Nganasans, Saami and Udege.
Following an appeal from the parents of nine conscripts and Chelyabinsk region lawmaker Anastasia Borisova to the military prosecutor's office, the MoD stated that the command of the Eastern Military District has launched an investigation to identify any instances of pressure on soldiers to force them to sign contracts. Earlier, conscripts and their families reported that more than a hundred conscripts, traveling by train to military units of the 127th Motorized Rifle Division and the 60th Motorized Rifle Brigade between Dec. 8 and Dec. 15, 2025, had signed contracts en route after experiencing several days of systematic humiliation, both moral and physical pressure from an officer and two sergeants accompanying them. According to the parents who spoke to the Vot Tak [Like This] media outlet, an MoD inspection arrived at the 143rd Motorized Rifle Regiment of the 127th Division on Jan. 22. The night before its arrival, soldiers were called to the headquarters and forced to retract their statements. At least two soldiers mentioned in the collective complaint were threatened into recording a retraction of their appeals. According to Astra, on Jan. 24, inspectors from the prosecutor's office arrived at the 143rd Regiment and the 60th Brigade and questioned the conscripts who had previously reported being forced to sign contracts. The conscripts stated that they are currently being prevented from leaving the unit and that they are not permitted to go to headquarters or the chancellery to submit reports on the termination of their contracts. They believe that they will be sent to a training range within about a week and, within three months, deployed "to defend the border in the Bryansk region." Many of the conscripts have still not received copies of their contracts.
Parents of conscripts from the city of Tyumen say that contracts were signed on behalf of their sons without their consent. Three draftees were assigned to a military unit in the settlement of Kashtak in the Zabaykalsky region [Russia's federal subject]. They were sent to a military culinary school, but a few days later a lieutenant called their parents and asked them to provide the conscripts’ personal details—such as tax and social insurance numbers—supposedly to facilitate a transfer to another unit. The officer did not mention any contract. Several days later, large sums—just over 2 million rubles [$26,400]—appeared in the conscripts’ bank accounts. According to the bank, the money came from the MoD. The conscripts themselves say that the lieutenant who called had earlier offered them a transfer to his unit, promising easier service conditions. To that end, they wrote transfer requests with the intention of subsequently signing contracts, but they say they never actually signed any contracts and were not given copies. When the parents contacted the Military Social Center, they were told that one of the conscripts had signed a contract on Dec. 10 and another on Dec. 16. The parents have filed complaints with the presidential administration, the MoD, the Investigative Committee and the prosecutor’s office.
In the Primorsky region [Russia's federal subject], a serviceman was beaten after signing a contract and then sent to the war. Sergey Bodalev signed a contract on Nov. 23 in Vladivostok. The next day, he was handcuffed and brutally beaten by military police officers, leaving him hospitalized with broken ribs. He was discharged on Dec. 12 and sent to the frontline the next morning—without documents or a salary card. Relatives say his SIM card, which was linked to his bank account, was also confiscated, preventing him from accessing the money that had been transferred to his account.
In Germany, authorities denied asylum to a Russian mobilized soldier wanted at home on desertion charges. Georgy was mobilized in October 2022 and fled the frontline three times. He was caught twice and held for 11 days in a torture basement in the occupied village of Zaitseve, after which he was sent to an assault unit. He ultimately managed to leave Russia and reached Germany with his family in 2025. However, Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees concluded that if he were returned to Russia, he would face only an administrative fine, since mobilization officially ended in October 2022. The official handling the case cited a statement by former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to that effect. The agency also expressed doubt about the existence of torture basements for refuseniks—one of which Georgy says he was held in—and additionally lost his military ID, a key piece of evidence confirming his status.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
An active-duty serviceman raped his 21-year-old stepdaughter. A resident of the settlement of Nickel in the Murmansk region reported that during the January holidays she was attacked by her 31-year-old stepfather, Sergey Dankov. While intoxicated, he raped her in their apartment while his wife was in the maternity hospital. The serviceman was detained and questioned; it is unknown whether a criminal case has been opened.
The Nalchik Garrison Military Court has sentenced a serviceman named Wilhelm from Nalchik to 21 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of rape, other sexual violence, causing grievous bodily harm resulting in death and going AWOL. According to the court, in November 2024 Wilhelm left his temporary deployment location without authorization. In February 2025, he raped a woman, making death threats, and in March, he assaulted another woman, who later died from her injuries. Wilhelm was detained later that month. He had previously been repeatedly convicted, and he went to war from a penal colony.
In Russia’s Volgograd region, a court sentenced contract soldier Vyacheslav Ushakov to five years in a penal colony for going AWOL. Ushakov had suffered a broken ankle and was declared temporarily unfit for service. He was expected to return to his unit on Oct. 19, 2024, but failed to do so. On Dec. 31, he was detained in the village of Novinka. The court rejected a request to reconsider the sentence based on a new medical evaluation conducted after his detention. In January 2025, the board declared him "fit for military service with minor restrictions."
The Southern District Military Court has sentenced two Ukrainian servicemen from the Azov Brigade on charges of participating in a terrorist organization and undergoing terrorist training. Vladyslav Zarzhitsky was sentenced to 18 years in a maximum security penal colony. Serhiy Samokhval received a 28‑year sentence, calculated through the partial addition of terms from earlier verdicts.
The same court has sentenced Ukrainian prisoner of war Mykhailo Igumentsev, a junior sergeant in the Azov Brigade, to 20 years in a maximum security penal colony. He was convicted on charges of participating in a terrorist community and undergoing training for terrorism. Igumentsev commanded an anti‑aircraft artillery section before his capture in Mariupol in May 2022. He has remained in Russian captivity since then.
In the Ulyanovsk region, two students from local universities were sent to a pre-trial detention center in a case involving the preparation of a terrorist attack committed in a group. According to the Federal Security Service (FSB), the young men, whose names were not disclosed, were acting on instructions from an "unknown handler." They manufactured improvised incendiary devices and were planning to set fire to a cell tower in Ulyanovsk.
In Crimea, two Russians born in 1995 were detained on charges of committing an act of terror and undergoing training for the purposes of terrorist activity. According to the FSB, in 2024 they established contact via Telegram with a representative of Ukrainian intelligence services, on whose instructions they collected and transmitted information about the locations of MoD facilities, critically important infrastructure, the movements of military vehicles and the consequences of missile strikes. Law enforcement officers also claim that the detainees set fire to relay cabinets on the railway and to equipment at cellular base stations in Crimea.
In the Altai region [Russia’s federal subject], two teenagers, ages 15 and 16, have been detained on charges of sabotage. According to investigators, in December 2025 one of the boys received a paid assignment via a messaging app to set fire to cellular communications equipment and then enlisted an acquaintance to help him. From Jan. 13 to 16, investigators say, the two set fire to three cell towers in Barnaul, recording their actions on video. A court has placed both teenagers under house arrest.
The 1st Western District Military Court has sentenced Anna Osipova, a 38-year-old employee of Petrovsky College, to 10 years in a penal colony on charges related to an act of terror. According to investigators, on May 23, 2025, acting on instructions from "unidentified individuals" via WhatsApp, Osipova threw three bottles containing an incendiary mixture through the window of a police station. In court, she said she had been a victim of fraud: in mid-May, scammers hacked her account on the Gosuslugi public services portal, told her that loans had been taken out in her name and that the money had been transferred "to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine." Threatening her with prosecution for "financing the AFU," she said, they forced her to carry out the arson "to avoid criminal liability."
The 2nd Western District Military Court has sentenced two residents of Kirov in the Kaluga region believed to be 18-year-old Daniil Abramov and 17-year-old Danila Vorobyov to 13 years in a maximum security penal colony and seven years in a standard penal colony, respectively, on charges related to an act of terror. One of them was also found guilty of laundering criminal proceeds. According to prosecutors, in January 2025 one of the convicted young men received an offer to set fire to cellular base station equipment in exchange for $400 paid to a cryptocurrency wallet. The arson was recorded on video, which was then sent to Ukraine.
The Southern District Military Court has sentenced Oleksiy Kozachok, a 65-year-old former deputy of the Starobilsk city council and a native of Ukraine, to eight years in a penal colony on charges of participation in a terrorist organization and illegal possession of explosives. According to the prosecution, in May 2024 Kozachok allegedly joined the Azov Brigade in occupied Starobilsk and "took part in combat operations against the Russian Armed Forces" in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Explosive devices were allegedly found during a search of his home. No other details of the case have been disclosed.
A Russian-installed regional court in the Zaporizhzhia region has sentenced Anatoliy Minaka, a 64-year-old security guard at a medical facility in Melitopol, to 14 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of treason. According to prosecutors, in October 2023 Minaka contacted his son via messaging apps while the latter was in territory controlled by Ukraine. In the summer of 2024, investigators allege, Minaka photographed a medical log containing personal data of patients and staff members. The authorities claim that this information was transmitted to the AFU through his son. The court ruled that the data "could have been used by the enemy to carry out acts of sabotage on the territory of the Russian Federation by forming shipments containing dangerous infectious agents or poisonous substances."
Assistance
The Vyorstka media outlet reported that in 2025, Russian authorities allocated record sums through government procurement contracts for the funerals of soldiers killed in Ukraine and for memorials in their honor. More than 111 million rubles [$1.46 million] was spent on memorials, with at least 17.8 million rubles [$234,800] allocated for military funerals. By comparison, spending on memorials totaled 880,000 rubles [$11,600] in 2023, with an additional 5.2 million rubles [$68,600] spent on funerals. In 2024, these figures rose to 24.5 million rubles [$323,200] and 11.8 million rubles [$155,700], respectively. Procurement contracts show that the cost of burying a single soldier ranged from 60,000 rubles [$795] to 77,000 rubles [$1,020]. Funeral contracts were most frequently issued in the Novosibirsk region, Komi [Russia's constituent republic] and the Chukotka Autonomous Region. Significant funds were also directed toward the creation of memorial alleys, public squares and commemorative sites across Russia’s regions. However, the government procurement portal reflects only part of the overall spending, as additional funds for funerals and memorials are allocated by the state and by other organizations, including veterans’ associations.
Miscellaneous
Igor Kobzev, governor of the Irkutsk region, has appointed former military officer Aleksandr Shuvaev as his deputy. Shuvaev commanded the 1st Motorized Rifle Brigade from August 2023 to March 2025 and later completed training under the Time of Heroes personnel program. In his new role, he will oversee support for participants in the "special military operation" and their families.
Longreads
The Sibir.Realii online media outlet, part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, published an interview with the founder of the Through the Walls volunteer project, which helps Ukrainian prisoners of war establish contact with their families.