Mobilization in Russia for July 28-30, 2026 CIT Volunteer Summary
Army Recruitment
In the first half of 2026, "nearly 200,000 people" signed contracts with the Russian Armed Forces, and more than 16,000 joined volunteer units, Dmitry Medvedev [Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council] said, adding that about 40,000 service members joined the Unmanned Systems Forces. As of the end of April 2026, Medvedev’s figures showed that 127,000 people had signed contracts with the Ministry of Defense, and another 10,000 had signed contracts for service in "volunteer units." According to a recent statement from the MoD, more than 8,000 specialists were trained for the Unmanned Systems Forces in the first six months of 2026. Agentstvo [Agency, an independent media outlet] notes that, compared with the same period in 2025, the number of people who signed contracts fell by 5 percent and the number of volunteer fighters fell by 10 percent. That year, according to Medvedev’s remarks, more than 210,000 contract soldiers and more than 18,000 volunteer fighters joined the army.
Authorities in several regions have raised sign-up bonuses for deployment to the war:
- Karachay-Cherkessia [Russia’s constituent republic] increased the bonus from 2.4 million rubles [$30,200] to 3.1 million rubles [$38,900];
- the Smolensk region raised the bonus from 1.6 million rubles [$20,100] to 2.1 million rubles [$26,400];
- Dagestan [Russia’s constituent republic] set the bonus at 2.7 million rubles [$33,900].
Authorities in the Krasnodar region have announced the creation of mobile fire teams to protect critical infrastructure and strategically important enterprises from UAV attacks. According to governor Veniamin Kondratyev, these units will primarily be staffed by employees of the enterprises themselves, who will sign contracts with the MoD to serve in the reserve. Regional authorities claim that these employees will not be deployed to combat zones and will serve at their regular workplaces. Participants in the mobile fire teams will receive a monthly payment of 50,000 rubles [$630].
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
A court has placed a 27-year-old resident of Omsk under house arrest on charges of committing a terrorist attack. According to investigators, in October and November 2025, the defendant acted on instructions from handlers who contacted him through a messaging app and claimed to be intelligence officers. They allegedly instructed him to set fire to an Interior Ministry vehicle while recording his actions on video. He then sent the footage to an unidentified recipient.
In the Smolensk region, a court has ordered the detention of three teenagers on charges of attempted terrorist attack committed by a group acting in prior conspiracy. Investigators allege that in November 2025, the youths planned to set fire to a traction power substation near a railway line in the region. The attack was allegedly ordered by handlers, who promised them a reward of approximately $4,000 in cryptocurrency. The teenagers were unable to carry out the arson because they were detained by military personnel guarding the railway. One of the suspects also faces charges of facilitating terrorism. Investigators allege that between December 2025 and January 2026, he attempted to recruit a 15-year-old boy from the Samara region to set fire to a cell tower, but the boy refused.
The Moscow City Court has remanded 22-year-old Aleksandr Karpovets in pretrial detention on treason charges. The criminal case against Karpovets was opened on Sept. 1, 2025, and he was placed in pretrial detention two days later. At a hearing on extending his detention, Karpovets said the charges relate to events that occurred more than three years ago and that the only evidence cited by investigators is his mobile phone, which was seized on July 7, 2025, nearly two months before the criminal case was opened. According to the defense, during that period, Karpovets graduated from high school, enrolled at a Ukrainian university, and later withdrew "due to the university’s policies." Before the criminal case was opened, Karpovets spent two months under a series of successive administrative arrests: four on charges of petty hooliganism and once for disobeying a lawful order from a police officer.
The FSB has reported the detention of a Moscow resident on charges of high treason. According to law enforcement, the man contacted representatives of a "Ukrainian terrorist organization" on his own initiative and transferred funds to a cryptocurrency wallet intended to support the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). No further details about the case or the suspect's identity have been disclosed. The court has remanded him to a pre-trial detention center.
During an appeal hearing against his detention, it emerged that 35-year-old scientist Maksim Kravchuk from Shchyolkovo, near Moscow, who was remanded to a pre-trial detention center a month ago on a high treason charges, is accused of sending a photograph to a relative in a neighboring country, namely his uncle, Sergey Kazimir. Kravchuk's defense lawyer noted that communicating with family members is not prohibited by law.
The Pacific Fleet Military Court has sentenced two teenagers from the Primorsky region [Russia's federal subject] to seven and six-and-a-half years in prison on charges of a terrorist attack committed in a group in conspiracy. According to the prosecution, in May 2025, the teenagers, aged 15 and 16, set fire to relay and battery cabinets along the Ruzhino-Lesozavodsk railway section on instructions from a handler who promised them 80,000 rubles [$1,010]. They filmed the arson and sent the video to the handler but ultimately received only 8,000 rubles [$100] of the promised reward.
The Moscow City Court has sentenced Darya Shipachyova, a 35-year-old journalist, to 12 years of imprisonment on charges of treason. The trial was held behind closed doors, and the details of the case remain undisclosed. However, according to Shipachyova’s friend, the prosecution may be tied to a money transfer, as Shipachyova, who was born in Ukraine, may have sent funds to her relatives there. According to Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet], after her arrest in April 2025, Shipachyova pleaded guilty and reached a pretrial agreement with investigators. Prior to the criminal prosecution, she had collaborated with RBC [Russian media group], Forbes, Wonderzine and other media outlets. Shortly before the prosecution, Shipachyova received threats from supporters of the "Male State" movement, which promotes misogyny and Russian nationalism.
The Russian-installed "Sevastopol City Court" has sentenced 66-year-old Oleksandr Glukhoyedov, a resident of the annexed city of Sevastopol, to 18 years in prison on charges of treason and illegal acquisition and possession of explosive devices. According to the prosecution, Ukrainian intelligence services recruited Glukhoyedov in December 2022 while he was in Ukraine's Volyn region. He then returned to Sevastopol, where he gathered intelligence on the deployment of Black Sea Fleet vessels and the movements of Russian servicemen, and also illegally acquired and stored an improvised explosive device. Prosecutors stated that Glukhoyedov was detained in January 2025.
The Southern District Military Court has sentenced 23-year-old Orenburg region resident Aman Kulsiitov to 20 years in prison after convicting him of high treason, preparing an act of terror, and the illegal acquisition, possession, transportation and carrying of explosive materials. According to the prosecution, in 2023 Kulsiitov conspired with representatives of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) to prepare the killing of a commander of a Russian military unit in Rostov-on-Don. Prosecutors allege that, acting on their instructions, he rented an apartment on Sept. 10 to gather intelligence on the intended target. He then allegedly went to retrieve explosives from a cache that had been prepared by "representatives of Ukraine" as early as July 1. He was arrested upon arriving at the cache after law enforcement officers had replaced the explosives with dummy devices.
The Supreme Court of Russia’s constituent Republic of Tatarstan has sentenced Naberezhnye Chelny resident Sergey Vishnyakov to 21 years in a maximum security penal colony after convicting him of high treason and preparing a hate-motivated murder. According to investigators, after the start of the full-scale war, Vishnyakov established contact with Ukrainian intelligence services and passed them information about the Alabuga Special Economic Zone and the KAMAZ manufacturing plant. He also photographed railway relay cabinets. Investigators further allege that in 2024 he began preparing an assassination attempt on his neighbor, who had previously served as a deputy to Arsen Pavlov, commander of the Sparta Battalion in the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People’s Republic." The identity of the alleged intended victim has not been disclosed.
An appellate military court has reduced the sentence of 36-year-old Chita resident Nikita Afanasyev by six months, from 25 years to 24 years and six months in prison. Afanasyev was convicted in early February of this year of aiding terrorist activities and mercenary activity. In 2017, Afanasyev was sentenced to 12 and a half years in a maximum security penal colony for membership in the Right Sector and other crimes. He was due to be released in December 2024, but shortly before that a new criminal case was opened against him. According to prosecutors, while serving his term at Penal Colony No. 8 in Chita, Afanasyev allegedly recruited other inmates to fight on Ukraine's side, voiced "anti-government views" and instructed them on how to communicate with Ukrainian handlers.
Drawing on the databases of the Pervy Otdel [Department One] human rights project, Parubets Analytics and If There Had Been No War, as well as open-source information, the Vyorstka media outlet has determined that from the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine through the end of June 2026, at least 1,904 people were charged with high treason, cooperation with a foreign state, espionage or assisting the enemy, and that the identities of 1,497 of them have been established. According to their tally, 312 people were convicted in such cases in the first half of 2026—43 more than in the same period a year earlier. For the full year, the number of convictions could exceed 600, compared with 514 people convicted in 2025. Vyorstka notes that 85 of those charged may have had access to state secrets, at least 592 defendants were ordinary Russian citizens, 548 were Ukrainian citizens and 15 were Russian scientists. The study found that the average sentence for high treason has risen from 12 years in 2022 to 16 years in the first half of 2026. At least 10 people have been sentenced to life imprisonment, at least 19 have been ordered to undergo compulsory psychiatric treatment and at least 13 defendants have died in custody. Since 2022, a significant share of such criminal cases has been built on entrapment by the Federal Security Service (FSB). Over the same period, Russian courts have stopped issuing acquittals in this category of cases while imposing increasingly severe sentences.
Children and Militarization
The All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) has announced admissions to a "special group" in filmmaker Mikhail Agranovich’s workshop at its cinematography department for servicemen who have served under military contracts as UAV operators in the Unmanned Systems Forces. Applicants are being offered free tuition beginning in the 2027 academic year. They will be admitted without entrance examinations, based instead on an interview, an agreement with the university and the signing of a one-year contract to serve in the Unmanned Systems Forces. They are also promised free accommodation in a student dormitory, combat veteran status and the associated benefits. According to the announcement, contract military service under the program will be treated as equivalent to statutory military service. Earlier, the Higher School of Economics announced free tuition for applicants who fell short of the admission score but signed a contract with the BARS-Moscow unit or with the Unmanned Systems Forces.
Longreads
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports on what happened to the Alga volunteer battalion from Tatarstan.
Sibir.Realii has published a report on how Russian conscripts are pressured into signing contracts with the MoD.
Vyorstka reports on how participants in the war against Ukraine are being expelled from military hospitals for disorderly conduct, fighting and alcohol abuse.