Mobilization in Russia for July 21-23, 2026 CIT Volunteer Summary

Authorities and Legislation

More convicts will be able to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense during mobilization, martial law, or wartime under a bill that the State Duma [lower house of Russia's Federal Assembly] approved in the first reading and then immediately in the second and third. The measure will lift restrictions for those convicted under a number of articles of Russia's Criminal Code, including those covering serious crimes. Deputy Defense Minister Viktor Goremykin said that those convicted under these articles will serve only in special units, separately from regular contract soldiers and under the strict control of commanders. According to a tally by the Pervy Otdel [Department One] human rights project, in the first half of 2025 courts convicted just over 850 people under these articles. Meanwhile, as Vazhnyye Istorii [IStories, independent Russian investigative media outlet] notes, those convicted of banditry and of participation in a criminal organization have been serving on the frontline almost from the start of the full-scale invasion. The ban on signing a contract will remain for those convicted under articles on terrorism, sabotage, treason, espionage, and sexual offenses against minors.

Army Recruitment

The Irkutsk mayor's office published an advertisement for contract military service in the army, inviting people to join the "legendary Wagner Legion." Although the posts do not state that the contract is to be signed with the MoD, the terms, including the payment amounts, make it clear that it is.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

The Lipetsk Regional Court has sentenced Aleksey Zaitsev, a 63-year-old resident of the village of Shcherbinino who fatally shot a military police officer with a hunting shotgun, to 20 years' imprisonment. He was convicted of attempting on the life of a law enforcement officer, threatening violence against a public official, and the illegal possession of explosives and munitions. According to investigators, on March 19, 2026, Zaitsev fatally wounded a military police officer who had arrived with personnel from the commandant's office to detain his 35-year-old son, who had gone AWOL from his military unit. The officer died at the scene. A second military police officer detained Zaitsev while he was reloading his shotgun, after which the court placed him in a pre-trial detention center. A search of his home also uncovered munitions and gunpowder, which investigators say he had kept there for 28 years. The defendant pleaded guilty but declined to testify. According to media reports, on June 23 his son was sentenced by the Tambov Garrison Military Court to eight years in a maximum security penal colony after being convicted of resisting a superior during mobilization and desertion.

In the city of Seversk of the Tomsk region, former serviceman and CPRF [the Communist Party of the Russian Federation] candidate for the regional parliament Aleksandr Gubin was detained on charges of going AWOL, despite having been discharged from the military on medical grounds after serving in the war. According to the CPRF, the criminal case was opened following a report from the Seversk draft office, even though the unit in which Gubin had served was based in the Altai region. After members of the State Duma from the CPRF intervened, Gubin was released, although there has been no indication that the criminal case has been dropped.

The Pyatigorsk Garrison Military Court sentenced a serviceman to five years and three months in a maximum security penal colony after convicting him of going AWOL for being absent from his unit for 45 days.

A court in Yekaterinburg sentenced conscript Vladimir Sokolov to seven years in a maximum security penal colony in a case involving the payment of a large bribe. In the winter of 2025, Sokolov paid 675,000 rubles [$8,600] to an acquaintance to help him obtain forged documents that would qualify him for a draft deferment. The intermediary kept 505,000 rubles [$6,430] for himself and passed another 130,000 rubles [$1,660] to a man who arranged a deal with orthopedic surgeon Fyodor Zverev. In late December 2025, Zverev allegedly performed a sham operation, stitched Sokolov up, and issued fraudulent medical documents stating that he was unfit for military service. The doctor received 40,000 rubles [$510] for his role. Zverev was sentenced to three years in a penal colony on bribery charges, while the two intermediaries, Yevgeny Korolev and Mikhail Taktaulov, were each sentenced to five years in a penal colony.

A 24-year-old woman from the Kemerovo region has been detained in connection with an arson case. According to investigators, the woman, from the Yashkinsky district, was instructed by scammers—who had previously defrauded her of 4 million rubles [$51,000] and then promised she could recover the money by committing arson—to travel to a neighboring town and "throw several bottles filled with flammable liquid at an ice cream kiosk." At the time, she was speaking with the scammers by video call. No one was injured. The Ostorozhno, Novosti [Beware the News] Telegram channel suggested that the woman may have mistaken the target, as a police booth painted the same color stands next to the kiosk.

A 16-year-old teenager has been detained on suspicion of setting fire to railway infrastructure in Saint Petersburg's Kirovsky District. He has been charged with committing a terrorist attack. According to investigators, on the evening of July 21, he purchased flammable liquid and a crowbar, went to the railway section between the Ulyanka and Dachnoye stations, and set fire to two relay cabinets. After his arrest, investigators reportedly found messages on his phone containing instructions for carrying out the arson.

A court in the Moscow region ordered the pre-trial detention of an 18-year-old man from the Vladimir region, who is accused of attempted terrorist attack. According to law enforcement officials, the young man was contacted via a messaging app by an unidentified individual posing as an officer of the Federal Security Service (FSB), who then began threatening him. Acting on the caller’s instructions, the young man set fire to four railway relay cabinets along the section between Sergiyev Posad and Toporkovo stations of the Moscow Railway while recording the incident on video "to report back to his handlers." He was subsequently detained.

In Saint Petersburg, a 21-year-old local resident has been detained on suspicion of preparing to bomb an employee of a defense industry enterprise. The arrest took place in the lobby of a metro station after police conducted a random inspection of his backpack, where they allegedly found an explosive device disguised as a GPS tracker. According to law enforcement, the man was recruited by Ukraine in December 2025 and, in exchange for payment, "conducted intelligence-gathering activities targeting employees of the defense industry." A criminal case has been opened on charges of facilitating terrorism. It appears that the FSB was announcing the detention of programmer Aleksandr Bigulov, who was placed in pre-trial detention in early July, even though he had already been placed under administrative arrest on June 25.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) has detained three residents of the Russian-occupied part of the Luhansk region, accusing them of treason. Law enforcement officers allege that the three suspects, acting independently of one another, cooperated with Ukrainian intelligence services. According to investigators, they gathered and passed along military information, details about the region's socio-political situation, and information concerning employees of local executive authorities at the direction of Ukrainian handlers. Authorities have released no additional details about the case, and the identities of those detained remain unknown.

In Russia's Vladimir region, authorities detained a 1977-born man accused of attempted treason and financing extremism. Investigators allege that he intended to join illegal armed groups fighting on the side of Ukraine and had prepared the necessary equipment and planned a route to cross the border before he was arrested by law enforcement officers. He is also accused of making donations to an organization that Russian authorities have designated as "extremist."

A Russian-established "court" in annexed Crimea has ordered two women, who were previously detained on charges of treason, to be held in a pre-trial detention center pending further proceedings.

The "Supreme Court of Crimea," established by Russian authorities, sentenced Marina Kovalenko, the 58-year-old headmistress of an art school in Luhansk, to 13 years in a penal colony for treason. According to the FSB, Ukraine's Security Service recruited her while she was crossing the border with Poland. The basis for recruitment was her son's service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Kovalenko then allegedly collected and transmitted information on the activities of scientific, educational, and other institutions in the "Luhansk People's Republic" and Crimea, to which she had access in the course of her work, on instructions from her handlers. She was also "required to monitor the movement of Russian military vehicles." The woman's detention only became public knowledge in June of this year. However, according to the Memorial Human Rights Defense Center, she was abducted on June 10, 2025, in Alushta. Kovalenko was then held in isolation in a pre-trial detention center for more than eight months without charge.

In the Yamalo-Nenets autonomous region [Russia's federal subject], a 16-year-old schoolboy was sentenced to eight years in a penal colony for carrying out a terrorist attack. A second student, who was under the age of criminal responsibility, was sent to a closed educational institution. According to investigators, on the night of 11 Sept. 2024, the two teenagers entered the airport grounds in Noyabrsk through a hole in the fence and set fire to a Mil Mi-8 helicopter. An explosion then occurred, burning both teenagers' faces. They were detained after calling an ambulance. The schoolchildren claimed that they had been promised 5 million rubles [$63,700] for the arson via Telegram. They also admitted to setting fire to a cell phone tower a few days earlier, for which they received 30,000 rubles [$380]. In February 2025, the court imposed a 60,000 ruble [$760] fine on 30-year-old Dmitry Tsemashko, who was accused of failing to report the teenagers despite knowing about the arson plot.

An appeals panel's ruling has revealed that back on Feb. 16 the Moscow City Court sentenced Yevgeny Chizhen, a 26-year-old Moldovan citizen, to 13 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of espionage. Chizhen has been in custody since Nov. 28, 2024. The nature of the charges against him is unknown — the trial was held behind closed doors. The appeals court upheld the ruling.

A court in the Krasnodar region has sentenced a 62-year-old resident of Krasnodar to 16 years in a maximum security penal colony in a treason case. The man worked as an engineer "at one of the enterprises in the fuel and energy sector," prosecutors said. According to investigators, out of opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he passed a "representative of Ukrainian intelligence services" data on the location of "a number of oil-industry facilities" in the Krasnodar region, the number of people working there, production capacities, and other confidential information. Law enforcement officers also claim that, on the instructions of his handlers, the engineer monitored oil storage facilities and carried out "technical reconnaissance of cellular and satellite communications in the area." The man was detained in July 2025, but this only came to light in April of this year.

Children and Militarization

Universities are expanding "assistance" programs for students who sign contracts to serve in drone forces. A number of Russian universities are offering a 100 percent tuition discount or a transfer to state-funded enrollment, free tuition, free housing or keeping their place in a dormitory, academic leave or an individualized study schedule for the duration of their service, a named scholarship, material assistance, a sign-up bonus of 1 million rubles [$12,700], credit for their service as an internship or as academic courses, as well as preferential or guaranteed state-funded admission to master's and doctoral programs after completing their service.