Mobilization in Russia for July 8-10, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary

Authorities and Legislation

Service members taking part in the "special military operation" can now confirm their participation in seconds, streamlining access to benefits. Defense Minister Andrey Belousov announced the technical capability, adding it was in collaboration with the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media. According to the Ministry of Defense, individuals have already generated more than 110,000 such certificates using the Gosuslugi public services portal. The new system automates the verification process, so participants in the war and their families no longer need to submit paper certificates and documents. The ministry also reported that more than 8,000 people have used the online benefit for war participants and their family members in the current university and technical school admissions campaigns.

Army Recruitment

The Idite Lesom! [Flee through the woods/Get lost you all] project reports new evidence that Russia has begun activating its Unified Military Register [digital system to identify citizens subject to military service and serve draft notices]. Citizens in several regions started receiving notifications through the Gosuslugi government portal offering the option to request an extract from the register or to submit an application to clarify personal information. The registry's official website remains inaccessible and displays an error message. Idite Lesom! posits that the national register may now be operational and authorities could be entering digital draft notices in the system, which in turn trigger the notifications. Lawyer Artyom Klyga and the Movement of Conscientious Objectors, a human rights organization supporting those who refuse to perform military service, also reported indirect signs of a partial launch of the electronic database in Russia’s constituent republics of Tatarstan and Mordovia, as well as in the Magadan, Sakhalin, and Yamalo-Nenets autonomous regions.

Since August 2024, police officers have been receiving bonuses for recruiting detainees to go to war, the Vyorstka media outlet has found. According to the outlet’s sources, the reward ranges from 10,000 [$128] to 100,000 rubles [$1,280]. To receive the bonus, officers must present their superiors with a certificate from the draft office stating that the suspect has signed a contract. Journalists spoke with Ministry of Internal Affairs personnel in the cities of Kaluga, Krasnodar, Saint Petersburg, and the Rostov, Bryansk, and Tomsk regions. According to directives from leadership, officers are required—before even the first interrogation—to inform detainees of the option to go to war instead of facing investigation and trial.

Police estimate that roughly one in ten detainees agrees to sign a contract with the MoD. One source shared internal data indicating that in June 2025, 3,333 detainees across the country were offered contracts. Of those, 2,200 refused, 392 agreed (nearly 12%), and the outcomes for 741 remain unknown. Those most likely to sign are suspects in cases involving theft, drug distribution, death threats, and fraud. According to the officers themselves, this approach allows them to "get rid of unpleasant elements who ruin the stats."

In the first half of 2025, Russian government spending on participants in the invasion of Ukraine and their families reached approximately 2 trillion rubles [$26 billion]. The replenishment of manpower has been made possible by increased sign-up bonuses for contract soldiers, with recruitment accelerating notably in the second half of 2024 and peaking by February 2025. According to estimates by the Re: Russia outlet, total expenditures by all levels of government on bonuses alone amounted to around 400 billion rubles [$5 billion] in the first half of 2025. Spending on salaries for servicemen totaled about 860 billion rubles [$11 billion], while payments to the families of fallen soldiers and to the wounded came to approximately 750–760 billion [$9 billion].

If the current pace of spending continues, total military personnel-related expenditures could exceed 4 trillion rubles [$51 billion] by the end of the year—equivalent to 2% of GDP or 9.5% of the 2025 federal budget. The primary driver of this increase is the high casualty rate, which in turn has forced the government to make military contracts more appealing by raising bonuses. These bonuses now account for roughly 20% of all spending on military personnel.

A court has confirmed that the sons of deceased mobilized soldiers are not subject to conscription. In April 2024, the military commissariat in Horlivka, located in the "DPR," tried to draft a young man into statutory military service despite his father's death in action in January. The young man challenged the decision in court, arguing that he was entitled to an exemption under Subparagraph B, Paragraph 2, Article 23 of the Military Conscription and Military Service Act. He claimed that his father had been mobilized and killed while performing a combat mission, and that conscripting him would violate his legal rights. The draft office argued that mobilized soldiers from the "DPR" are classified as "contract servicemen," and therefore their sons are not eligible for exemption. However, the Administrative Panel of the Second Court of Cassation ruled that the young man’s father had never signed a contract with the MoD—he had been mobilized before the "DPR" was formally incorporated into the Russian Federation and had continued serving under the same mobilized status.

Mobilized Soldiers, Contract Soldiers and Conscripts

Andrey Bykov, a member of the notorious "Tsapok gang" who was sentenced in 2011 to 20 years in a penal colony for his role in murders and armed assaults, has died in the war. According to investigators, he personally killed four people and was involved in several other murders, including the 2010 mass killing in the village of Kushchyovskaya. Before serving his full sentence, Bykov signed a contract with the MoD in September 2023. He sustained a serious leg injury in November, but after six months of treatment, he signed another contract with the MoD and returned to the front. He was killed in April 2025, though his family was only recently notified.

In 2025, more than 70 servicemen were demobilized from the war following requests from the office of Russia's Commissioner for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova. According to her, servicemen can request demobilization due to "special family circumstances," which include having two or more children, caring for a child with a disability under the age of three, or caring for a close relative. Servicemen who are the sole guardians of minor children may also request demobilization.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

In the Perm region [Russia’s federal subject], a criminal case has been initiated against Anatoly Tyulenev, a 49-year-old war participant, for committing lewd acts against a minor. According to the Astra Telegram channel, Tyulenev gave his neighbor's granddaughter alcohol and, during the night, entered the neighbor's home and touched the girl while she was sleeping. The girl managed to escape and called the police. Initially, Tyulenev was charged with a misdemeanor for involving a minor in the consumption of alcoholic beverages, but later a criminal case was initiated. In 2016, Tyulenev was sentenced to 16 years in a penal colony for causing grievous bodily harm that resulted in the victim's death. In May 2023, he was recruited by the Wagner Group and left the penal colony to join the war. On the frontline, Tyulenev sustained injuries and was demobilized, and then granted a pardon.

On July 6, a 17-year-old female resident of Saint Petersburg was raped by a serviceman. The victim was taken to a hospital with acute ethanol poisoning. The serviceman, 21-year-old Daniil Yegorov, was detained in a nearby house and handed over to the military investigative department. He had previously been convicted of robbery and was in the city for treatment.

In Abakan, a former Wagner Group mercenary murdered the chief physician of the interdistrict children’s hospital, Natalya Topakova. According to investigators, on the evening of May 29, as the woman was returning home, a man she knew was waiting near the entrance to her building. Topakova let him into her apartment, after which he attacked her and drowned her in the bathtub, attempting to stage the murder as an accident. Money and jewelry were stolen from the apartment, and the killer also transferred 94,000 rubles [$1,200] to his own account by unlocking the victim’s phone. The suspect is Mikhail K. According to the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, he had previously been convicted of drug trafficking but did not serve his full sentence and left the penal colony to fight in the war as part of the Wagner Group.

In the Irkutsk region, a deserter murdered his 20-year-old girlfriend. Her body was discovered in the backyard of her house. After the murder, 22-year-old Artyom, presumably the girl's boyfriend, fled but was detained on July 9 in the Kursk region. The man had been wanted since 2023 for going AWOL.

The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don handed down a verdict to 30-year-old serviceman Shamil Sharipov from Russia's constituent Republic of Dagestan. He is accused of treason and causing significant bodily harm with the use of a weapon. The court refused to disclose the imposed sentence. According to criminal summaries leaked online indicate that, between March 5 and 29, 2023, while in the "DPR," Sharipov collected and passed information about the Russian Armed Forces to the enemy. According to leaked databases, the man had both Russian and Ukrainian passports.

In the Khabarovsk region, transport police officers detained a 19-year-old woman for setting fire to relay cabinets. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, she acted under the instructions of a handler from a messaging app in exchange for payment. She has been recording her actions on video and sending them to the handler. A criminal case for an act of terror has been opened against the woman.

The Investigative Committee reported the detention of four teenagers in cases involving the arson of railway equipment in Udmurtia [Russia's constituent republic] and the Orenburg region. Three minors from Orenburg, born in 2008, 2010, and 2011, were charged with committing an act of terror in conspiracy and placed under house arrest. Another detainee is a 17-year-old resident of Izhevsk. He is charged under the same article but has been placed in a pre-trial detention center. According to the Investigative Committee and the Federal Security Service (FSB), the teenagers acted under the instructions of Ukrainian intelligence services, receiving tasks through a messaging app and were supposed to be paid for the arsons.

In the Krasnodar region, FSB officers have detained a 51-year-old local resident on suspicion of setting fire to a cell tower, allegedly on orders from Ukrainian intelligence services. According to law enforcement, the suspect reportedly found the job through an online advertisement, for which he was promised 25,000 rubles [$320]. The suspect’s name and the specific charges have not been disclosed; however, a video of his confession has been released, in which he appears to be reading from a piece of paper.

The FSB reported that in the Saratov region, a Russian citizen was shot dead during an attempted arrest. He was allegedly preparing to blow up a railway bridge using an improvised explosive device per instructions from Ukrainian intelligence services. According to the agency, he planned to travel to Ukraine after the sabotage to take part in combat operations. During the arrest, he reportedly "offered armed resistance and was neutralized by return fire." A criminal case has been opened concerning the illegal circulation of explosives, their manufacture, and the attempted act of terror.

The Southern District Military Court has ordered compulsory medical measures for Mark Kaliush, a resident of occupied Melitopol charged with preparing a terrorist attack, transferring explosives online, and making death threats. Law enforcement officers claim that Kaliush administered pro-Ukrainian Telegram channels, photographed Russian facilities, and was supposed to plant a bomb. Russia's Channel One reported in October 2023 that Kaliush had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Several others face similar charges, including administrators of the Melitopol Is Ukraine channel: 19-year-old Yana Suvorova, currently in a pre-trial detention center; journalist Vladislav Hershon, whose trial is underway; and several detained Melitopol journalists—Georgiy Levchenko and Anastasia Glukhovskaya, who worked for RIA-Melitopol, and former journalist Irina Levchenko.

A Belgorod resident, Pyotr Gorbunov, was sentenced to 17 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of treason, participation in a terrorist organization and illegal possession of explosive devices as part of an organized group. According to investigators, the Kazakhstan native contacted the Freedom of Russia Legion and, on instructions from handlers, "retrieved explosives from a cache in the village of Lisne forest" and stored them at his home to later transfer to "a representative of the terrorist structure for carrying out terrorist acts in the Belgorod region." He also reportedly stated he was willing to "assist in activities against Russia's security" for money.

Authorities have opened a treason case against Sergey Grebennikov, head of the Russian Association for Electronic Communications, who was previously sentenced to seven years in a penal colony for drug distribution. A request for his arrest has been submitted to the court, according to investigators. The BBC reports that the treason case may have been initiated following a search conducted as part of the earlier drug-related investigation.

Dmitry Dementyev, a resident of Orenburg detained on charges of setting fire to a cell tower and attempting to set fire to an Ilyushin Il-76 strategic airlifter at a military airfield, claims that he was beaten during his detention and interrogation. He says that FSB officers choked him to the point of unconsciousness in a vehicle and demanded he confess to "writing to Ukrainians for the purpose of sabotage."

Children and Militarization

At the Beryozka children's health camp in Russia’s Irkutsk region, a meeting was held with war participant Vasily Frolov. Sergeant Frolov was deployed to the war in June 2023 as part of the 25th Motorized Rifle Brigade and lost an arm on the frontline. Despite the injury, he said he would not have changed his decision.

Assistance

In Russia, separate rehabilitation centers have begun to be established for participants of the "special military operation" with dependencies: according to specialists, up to 20% of them require assistance due to PTSD, often accompanied by alcoholism or drug addiction. Veterans use psychoactive substances both on the frontline and after returning to "escape the changed reality." The new center of the Diaconia Foundation will only admit former military personnel, with counseling provided not only by medical professionals but also by the participants of the "special military operation."

Longreads

Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet] has found out that Ukrainians released from penal colonies in Russia are not deported back home for months. According to their accounts, after serving their sentences, they are left without documents, hygiene items, or clothing. They are often forced to live in basements and isolation wards. Some are being recruited for the war.

The Idel.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet has compiled all available information about Tatarstan's national battalion Alga.

The Bumaga [Paper] independent media outlet tells the story of poet Sergey Semyonov. In February 2022, he spoke out against the war, but a year later, he secretly left for the frontline to gain literary experience, leaving behind his wife and two children, and went missing.