Mobilization in Russia for July 23-26, 2026 CIT Volunteer Summary
Army Recruitment
Aleksey Ionov, the former deputy head of the Dmitrov Urban District in the Moscow region, who is accused of accepting a large-scale bribe, has signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense and deployed to the frontline. Proceedings in his criminal case have been suspended. Ionov was arrested in February of last year. According to investigators, he and another official accepted 4.35 million rubles [$55,600] in exchange for facilitating the award of a contract to install advertising structures.
Mobilized Soldiers, Contract Soldiers and Conscripts
BBC News Russian, in collaboration with Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet] and a team of volunteers, has identified 234,795 Russian soldiers killed since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine using publicly available data. The figure includes 19,552 mobilized men. Since the previous update, the list has grown by 1,596 names. According to the journalists, 56 percent of the confirmed fatalities were civilians before the war who signed contracts with the MoD only after Feb. 24, 2022. They also report that, since July 2024, the number of military deaths has not fallen below 200 per day—and that figure reflects only deaths that the researchers have been able to verify.
The mothers of four conscripts serving in the 69th Motorized Rifle Division in the village of Kamenka, Leningrad region, have alleged that their sons were forced to sign military contracts within days of arriving at their unit. The young men, aged 18 to 20, were called up for regular conscription in late May and early June. By June 18, all four had informed their parents that they had signed contracts, despite having had no prior intention of remaining in the military. The women described similar accounts of coercion by commanders and psychological pressure. The young men were not allowed to read the documents before signing them, and the entire process reportedly took only about an hour. When they later attempted to submit requests to terminate their contracts, their commanders refused to accept them.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
A court has remanded a resident of Nazarovo, in Russia's Krasnoyarsk region, to a pre-trial detention center on charges of theft, fraud, loan fraud and laundering money obtained through criminal activity. According to investigators, in 2025 and 2026, he persuaded five residents of the Sharypovsky District, aged between 45 and 60, to sign contracts with the Russian MoD. Before leaving for the frontline, the men handed their bank cards to the suspect, who stole more than 16.3 million rubles [$208,300] in payments they had received for signing the contracts. According to the Interior Ministry, the man also persuaded one contract soldier to enter into a sham marriage with his 47-year-old sister. After the serviceman was killed, she received the relevant death gratuity payments and is now being treated as an accomplice in the case. She has been released on her own recognizance.
Visitors to Yekaterinburg's Shirokorechenskoye Cemetery have been banned from photographing the graves of soldiers killed in the "special military operation." According to a notice posted on the cemetery grounds, taking photographs or recording video could lead to prosecution under laws concerning high treason and confidential cooperation with a foreign state. The cemetery administration also urged visitors to report anyone photographing graves to security personnel. Earlier, two women were reportedly detained (1, 2) in Yekaterinburg after photographing the graves of Russian soldiers. No further information about their fate has been reported.
The Mytishchi City Court has placed a 14-year-old boy under house arrest on charges of attempting intentional destruction of property. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the teenager, acting on instructions from unknown individuals whom he claims pressured and threatened him, poured flammable liquid on a fuel terminal at a gas station in Mytishchi. He was stopped by station employees before a fire could start.
A court in the Yamalo-Nenets autonomous region [Russia's federal subject] has ordered a resident of the city of Novy Urengoy to be held in pre-trial detention on charges of an attempted act of terror. According to investigators, he had planned to set fire to a railway crane but was detained at the scene. The suspect's name and exact age have not been disclosed.
On July 29, 2025, FSB officers in the Sverdlovsk region detained Aleksandr Yelkin, a 19-year-old resident of the town of Artyomovsky, on charges of committing an act of terror and attempting to commit an act of terror. According to investigators, on July 23, Yelkin, acting on orders from Ukrainian intelligence services, set fire to a relay cabinet on the railway section between Yegorshino and Taly Klyuch stations. On July 28, he and a friend arrived at the railway section between Yegorshino and Krasnye Orly stations intending to set fire to a second relay cabinet. Their attempt failed after they noticed FSB officers and fled the scene. They were detained the following night. No criminal case was opened against Yelkin’s friend, as investigators determined he was unaware of whose interests the arson was meant to serve. Yelkin has denied any connection to Ukrainian intelligence, claiming he found a job listing in a Telegram channel and decided to earn easy money.
The FSB said it had detained a woman born in 1996 who was later placed in pre-trial detention by court order. She has been charged with attempted terrorism and illegal possession of explosives. Intelligence services also plan to charge her with treason. According to law enforcement officers, she began communicating with Ukrainian intelligence services and agreed to cooperate after a handler allegedly promised to help her and her children relocate from Russia to a European Union country. The FSB claims that, acting on instructions from her handler, she traveled to Ukraine via Turkey and Moldova, where she received training in sabotage and terrorist activities. She then allegedly returned to Russia, retrieved an improvised explosive device from a dead drop in Samara, and attempted to place it beneath the vehicle of a Russian security officer in Moscow before being arrested at the scene.
The Meshchansky District Court in Moscow ordered the pre-trial detention of 45-year-old Moscow resident Marat Droganov, who has been charged with treason. The nature of the allegations has not been disclosed. Droganov previously worked as a security guard. Mediazona reported that before the criminal case was opened, he had repeatedly faced administrative charges. On May 6, he was sentenced to 15 days in jail for displaying prohibited symbols because of a tattoo depicting Ukraine's trident emblem. He was subsequently given two additional administrative jail terms on charges of petty hooliganism, as well as fined under the same statute.
The Magas District Court ordered the pre-trial detention for two months of a 26-year-old resident of Ingushetia [Russia’s constituent republic], who has been charged with treason. According to the FSB, he established contact via Telegram in 2026 with representatives of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine's MoD and, in exchange for payment, operated SIM boxes in the town of Magas. Law enforcement officers allege that the devices were used by Ukrainian call centers for fraud, intelligence-gathering, sabotage and other subversive activities.
A court established by Russia in the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region sentenced Viktor Nikitenko, 48, a resident of the village of Pryazovske and a Ukrainian national, to 12 years in prison on charges of aiding a foreign state in activities targeting Russian security interests. According to the prosecution, from December 2024 through March 2025 he donated 3,200 rubles [$41] to the Ukrainian military and purchased Ukrainian war bonds worth nearly 1 million rubles [$12,800]. The money was allegedly used for "the acquisition of weapons, protective gear, communications equipment, drones and other purposes."
The Second Western District Military Court sentenced Artyom Zhalyuk, 24, a student at Ryazan State Agrotechnological University, to 15 years in prison on charges of high treason and publicly justifying terrorism. The FSB reported detaining the student in July 2025. According to investigators, in September 2022, he posted a comment on Telegram expressing disagreement with the invasion of Ukraine and the mobilization order, which investigators characterized as justifying terrorism. In December 2024, he contacted someone on Telegram claiming to be a representative of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate and offered his services. The person allegedly promised to pay him for passing along information and providing other assistance. Investigators did not confirm whether the person was actually a Ukrainian intelligence officer. Through February 2025, Zhalyuk passed his handler information about a military unit in which he had previously served, including security procedures, the number of weapons and personnel, and the locations of launchers. He also sent images with the coordinates of a military-industrial enterprise in the Ryazan region, as well as video footage of service vehicles in the facility’s parking lot and "external security measures."