Mobilization in Russia for July 7-9, 2026 CIT Volunteer Summary

Authorities and Legislation

The State Duma [lower house of Russia's Federal Assembly] approved a bill in its second and third readings on voluntary post-penitentiary probation for ex-convicts released from prison after signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense and returning from the war against Ukraine. The initiative offers social reintegration, psychological, medical, and legal assistance, as well as support in finding employment and pursuing education after service. The bill keeps participation voluntary, although the Ministry of Internal Affairs had proposed making probation mandatory for up to three years. To participate in the program, an ex-convict must submit an application to the penal inspectorate at their place of residence or current location within six months of military discharge.

Army Recruitment

In Rostov-on-Don, law enforcement officers conducted a roundup and pressured detainees to enlist. The raid took place in the early hours of July 4 at a venue called Inside. Police checked the ages of those present and searched them for drugs. Authorities cited "ensuring public safety" as the primary goal of the raid. The operation ostensibly aimed to identify minors, wanted individuals, those disturbing the peace, naturalized citizens who had failed to register for military service, and soldiers who were absent without leave. Similar raids occur regularly, but this time military police accompanied local officers. Ultimately, authorities detained 35 men. Their relatives claim that on the buses, officials offered the men a choice to sign contracts to serve in rear units, threatening those who refused with deployment to assault units. Previously, similar roundups aimed at coercing individuals into signing contracts occurred in the Penza region.

A 58-year-old geophysical engineer was detained on the street in the city of Izhevsk and taken to a draft office. According to his relatives, he had been working in construction, struggled with alcohol abuse, and was likely intoxicated on the day he was detained. At the draft office, his phone was confiscated, leaving him unable to contact his family directly. Instead, relatives received a call from an employee at the office informing them that the man was being held there and that any attempt to get him out would be futile because he was scheduled to be sent to the frontline by bus the following day. According to the employee, his phone would not be returned, and staff received a payment of 30,000 rubles [$390] for each person who signed a military contract. The man's relatives tried to call the office and gain entry but were refused access.

Female employees at a pharmacy in the city of Belgorod were issued "invitations" to report to a draft office to update their military registration records and complete paperwork related to military training. About half of the pharmacy's female staff received the documents. Attendees are instructed to bring their passport, military ID, and the "invitation" itself. Although all pharmacists, regardless of gender, are subject to military registration in Russia, the Idite Lesom! [Flee through the woods/Get lost you all] project notes that women are exempt from military training. It also emphasizes that the document is an "invitation," not a draft notice, and therefore does not create a legal obligation to appear.

Advertisements have appeared at bus stops in Saint Petersburg offering people the opportunity to sign a contract with the MoD, accompanied by preliminary employment in the city's public transportation system. The advertisements promise a sign-up bonus of 4.5 million rubles [$58,800]—corresponding to the standard regional and national payments—as well as reimbursement of travel expenses, free accommodation while the necessary paperwork is being processed, and a guarantee that the recruit's job will be retained after signing the military contract.

Russian courts have begun fining companies for failing to recruit enough employees into the mobilization manpower reserve. In early June, a magistrate court in Kirov found the LEPSE Electromechanical Plant guilty of failing to comply with a decision by the regional operational headquarters and fined the company 50,000 rubles [$650]. In late December 2025, the regional operational headquarters added the plant to its list of strategic facilities considered to be "at the highest risk" of UAV attacks. Authorities ruled that the plant should be protected by employees serving in the mobilization manpower reserve and instructed its management to recruit the required number of reservists. However, the plant failed to meet the quota by the April 2026 deadline. The company's lawyers ultimately succeeded in having the case dismissed. At least two other Kirov defense enterprises—the Selmash and Mayak plants—were also fined for failing to meet their reservist recruitment quotas. Following unsuccessful appeals, both companies were ordered to pay fines of 50,000 rubles [$650].

Mobilized Soldiers, Contract Soldiers and Conscripts

Ivan Krasnokutsky, a 43-year-old serviceman with the 5th Motorized Rifle Brigade, was declared fit for service for a second time despite the lasting effects of severe combat injuries and was sent on a mission in the Luhansk region, after which he went missing. In June 2025, Krasnokutsky suffered multiple shrapnel wounds to both legs, including a fractured tibia. Military medical boards twice declared him temporarily unfit for service because of his fractures, retained shrapnel, hepatitis, and other medical conditions. Despite this, in June 2026, a preliminary military medical board reportedly declared him fit for service without reviewing his medical records and sent him to forward positions, after which contact with him was lost.

Nikolay Selivanov, a 27-year-old lance corporal with the 1st Motorized Rifle Regiment who lost a leg in the war against Ukraine, was discharged from the Russian military after his video addresses received media attention. According to Selivanov, despite having Group II disability status and being classified as fitness category "D" (unfit for military service), he had not been discharged because the findings of the military medical board had allegedly been lost. However, after media reports about his case, the documents were reportedly found. He has since been returned to Russia and formally discharged from military service.

Andrey Litvinov, a 54-year-old miner from Donetsk, is being held at the frontline despite having been officially discharged from service. In February 2022, he was conscripted into the "DPR People's Militia" without a military medical board and despite having a Ukrainian passport. On Dec. 31 of that year, he was discharged due to the transfer of the “DPR Armed Forces” to the jurisdiction of the Russian Ministry of Defense. Although he did not sign a new contract, he was not permitted to return home. His salary was also stopped. While at the frontline, Litvinov contracted hepatitis B. In January 2023, he took leave from the service and never returned. On April 10, he was declared AWOL, and a criminal case was opened against him. In May of this year, the Investigative Committee decided to drop the case since Litvinov had been mistakenly included on the list for inclusion in the Russian Armed Forces. Nevertheless, on May 10, Litvinov was detained by officers from the commandant's office. He is currently serving 15 km from the frontline in the village of Novohrodivka and has only received his salary once.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

Ibrahim Kudzhanov, a 52-year-old driver from the Luhansk region, died in Russian custody. In 2024, he was sentenced to five and a half years in a penal colony for his alleged ties to a terrorist organization, stemming from his service in the Aidar Battalion from 2018 to 2019. The cause of death was listed as a heart attack. Kudzhanov was detained in February 2024 and sent to a pre-trial detention center, where he spent nearly two and a half years. Despite his serious health issues, he was tortured with electric shocks and denied adequate medical care.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) reported that it had thwarted an "unprecedented series of terrorist attacks" against Russian soldiers and leading enterprises of the military-industrial complex. As part of that operation, intelligence services officers in Moscow detained a 25-year-old woman who was preparing an assassination attempt on a high-ranking officer of the Ministry of Defense. Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet] has established that a court sent her to a pre-trial detention center in a terrorist attack case about a month ago. The Ostorozhno, Novosti [Beware the News] Telegram channel says that a treason case has also been opened. According to investigators, the woman, a native of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Russia, contacted an acquaintance in Ukraine in 2024 and offered him her help. A coordinator later reached her through WhatsApp and proposed that she track the serviceman's car. In March 2026, he asked her to rent an apartment in Moscow and install surveillance cameras there. Law enforcement officers say she monitored the serviceman's address and car, streaming the signal to Ukraine. The FSB says the assassination attempt was being prepared "with the use of a UAV" and "with the direct involvement of Western handlers."

As part of the same case, a 48-year-old man was detained in the Krasnodar region and sent to a pre-trial detention center on charges of preparing an act of terror. He was also charged with preparing the murder of a high-ranking official of the MoD. According to investigators, Ukrainian intelligence services recruited the man in February, while he was living in Ukraine, by threatening his wife with criminal prosecution. On their orders he traveled to Mineralnye Vody and then began preparing the murder: he rented an apartment in Moscow, from which he filmed the place where the officer lived. The man was supposed to attack the officer at the entrance to his building with a "strike" drone carrying explosives.

In Crimea, two men born in 1991 and 1996 were detained in a treason case. According to the FSB, the two—residents of Sevastopol and the Krasnoperekopsk district—independently contacted Ukrainian intelligence services and passed along information about the deployment of MoD units and the locations of air defense systems, and also filmed the aftermath of strikes on the peninsula. A court sent both defendants to a pre-trial detention center.

The Moscow regional court has begun hearing the case against Vitaly Boiko, a 45-year-old citizen of Kazakhstan charged with "aiding the enemy," participation in a sabotage association and three counts of sabotage. According to the prosecution, in January 2025, Boiko, acting on orders from a handler in Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence, set fire to three cell towers in the Moscow region, receiving about 30,000 rubles [$390] for each. After the third arson, he went to the police himself and confessed. In his home country he has been tried several times, including for murder.

The Southern District Military Court has sentenced Yevgeny Zhadan, a 17-year-old resident of Russian-occupied Donetsk, to nine years in a juvenile penal colony on charges of treason, preparing an act of terror, participating in a terrorist organization and illegal trafficking of explosives. The court has not disclosed further details of the case, and Zhadan’s detention date remains unknown. However, in February 2026, he was added to the register of terrorists and extremists maintained by the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Russian Federation (Rosfinmonitoring).

The "Supreme Court of the DPR," established by Russian authorities, has sentenced Viktoria Maksimenko, a 20-year-old resident of Russian-occupied Mariupol, to 13 years in a penal colony for treason. According to investigators, she collected, stored, and transmitted intelligence to Ukrainian agencies that could be used against Russia’s security. Case details have not been disclosed.

The same court has sentenced Yurii Kudrevatykh, a 42-year-old resident of the town of Alushta on the Russian-annexed Crimea, to 13.5 years in a maximum security penal colony for treason. According to investigators, after obtaining Russian citizenship in 2019, Kudrevatykh moved to Ukraine and was mobilized into the Armed Forces of Ukraine in April 2024. He was captured by Russian forces in April 2025, after which a treason case was opened against him.

The Moscow Regional Court has sentenced Yevgeny Fedorov, a resident of Khimki, to 14 years in a maximum security penal colony after convicting him of high treason. According to investigators, Fedorov independently established contact with a representative of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and provided information about the locations of fuel storage facilities, security buildings at Sheremetyevo International Airport, and restricted service areas belonging to Aeroflot. Prosecutors alleged that the information could have been used to prepare a sabotage or terrorist attack.

The Baltic Fleet Military Court has sentenced two Kaliningrad region residents, born in 2001 and 2002, to 18 and 24 years in prison on charges of high treason. According to investigators, one of the convicted men organized sabotage operations against transportation infrastructure at the direction of Ukrainian intelligence services, while the other passed coordinates of targets to the Ukrainian side.

The same court has sentenced a Russian draftee to 19 years in prison on charges of high treason. According to investigators, after being mobilized the man joined the Ukrainian side and took part in combat operations against Russian forces.

The Mozhem Ob’yasnit [We Can Explain] Telegram channel calculated that since the start of the full-scale war, the number of working-age men with disabilities in Russia has grown by 540,000—from 1.95 million in 2022 to 2.485 million in 2025, an increase of 27%. According to demographer Aleksey Raksha, the sharp rise may be linked, in addition to the war, to a revision of disability recognition rules in the summer of 2022. While authorities do not disclose the number of servicemembers who have been disabled in the war, the Defenders of the Fatherland Fund, which assists veterans, received 28 billion rubles [$366 million] for disability payments in 2025, corresponding to approximately 28,000 recipients.

In the Zabaykalsky and Krasnodar regions, war participants have been deployed to patrol gas stations, where they are tasked with helping people in lines, "monitoring safety" and maintaining order. Authorities in the Kemerovo region have also enlisted war participants to inspect trucks at entry points into Kemerovo.

Longreads

The Sever.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet has reported on how recruiters enlist Russians for the war under the guise of employment at construction sites or shift work.

The Crimea.Realii online media outlet has published testimonies from former political prisoner and journalist Vladyslav Yesypenko regarding systematic torture, beatings, and psychological violence at penal colony No. 2 in Kerch, as well as the recruitment of convicts for the war against Ukraine.

Mediazona has calculated that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, at least 240 people under the age of 18 have been detained in cases involving terrorist attacks and sabotage. Journalists explain how teenagers become victims of recruiters from Ukrainian or Russian intelligence services, and later of the Russian judicial system, and what parents can do to protect themselves and their children.

Mediazona has also published a report about two Ukrainians—astrologer Ihor Kolomiyets and his friend, artist Viktor Kirman—who spent three months under "carousel arrests" and ultimately became defendants in a high treason case.

The T-invariant online media outlet has examined how the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, which produces Shahed-136 (Geran-2) loitering munitions, launched a new advertising campaign to recruit teenagers for the war.