Mobilization in Russia for June 16-18, 2026 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
An order from the Russian Defense Ministry took effect, tightening medical requirements for those signing military contracts. The ministry added several conditions to the updated list of diseases that disqualify individuals from enlisting during times of war, mobilization or martial law. The conditions include organic, acute psychotic, delusional and schizotypal disorders, as well as schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, developmental and behavioral disorders, intellectual disabilities and mental and behavioral disorders caused by psychoactive substance use. Active-duty service members with conditions on the list will not be discharged from service.
Army Recruitment
Authorities in the Vladimir region are urging residents to join "mobile groups to repel drone attacks." Officials are distributing the advertisements through Gosuslugi [the state public services portal]. They promise potential candidates that training camps will remain within the region, avoiding deployment to the "special military operation" zone. The military will hold these camps up to three times a year for a maximum of two months. Recruits will receive more than 100,000 rubles [$1,370] during training, while keeping their civilian jobs and regular salaries. The initiative requires signing a three-year contract.
Residents of the Penza region report large-scale roundups of men in the cities of Penza, Kuznetsk and Kamensk for dispatch to the frontline. A woman from Penza published a video showing women attempting to prevent a group of men from being taken away after one such roundup. The men were being held in a minibus outside the draft office serving the Oktyabrsky and Zheleznodorozhny districts. Midway through the video, the minibus attempts to leave but is surrounded by women. One woman clings to the hood, and another later joins her. According to the women, the men inside the vehicle had been forced to sign military contracts, including through beatings. In comments posted beneath the video, residents reported similar roundups in various parts of Penza and identified the neighborhoods where they were taking place. The Govorit NeMoskva [NonMoscow Is Speaking] Telegram channel, citing its subscribers, reported that draft office personnel were being assisted by "men in balaclavas." According to local residents, the roundups have occurred throughout the city, with law enforcement officers stopping private vehicles and public transportation, detaining men and taking them to draft offices, where they are allegedly pressured into signing military contracts. In the Sputnik residential district, police reportedly conducted door-to-door checks of apartment buildings. Residents have been warning one another about the locations of the roundups and complaining that "local media remain silent." According to Penza residents, authorities began detaining men for this purpose in January, but the campaign has intensified in recent weeks, and "the situation is getting worse every day." Some residents also claim that local authorities have recruited law enforcement personnel from other regions to carry out the operation.
In the city of Yekaterinburg, 48-year-old Sergey Galiyev, a resident of a shelter, was coerced into signing a military contract and sent to war. According to the shelter's director, Olga Bakhtina, Galiyev has a mental disorder, is unable to read or write, struggles to live independently and suffers from alcohol dependence. Bakhtina says he disappeared on June 11 after going to a police station for a routine check-in, where he was pressured into signing the contract. She and staff from the office of the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Sverdlovsk region are now trying to help him terminate the agreement. Galiyev is currently being held at a training unit in the Zabaykalsky region.
A Saint Petersburg resident suffering from epilepsy, Vitaly Smidovich, ended up on the frontline after believing he was taking a rotational job assignment in the Moscow region. According to his daughter, acquaintances had offered him work there, but the next day he called to say that military personnel would soon pick him up and take him to repair houses. His phone was unreachable for several days. He later contacted his daughter from an unfamiliar number, telling her that he had signed a military contract and was in the city of Luhansk, where he would undergo two weeks of training before being sent to the frontline. An unidentified man who spoke to the daughter alongside Smidovich demanded documents from her and sent her a copy of a contract her father had signed in the city of Balashikha on May 7. She has had no contact with her father since May 27. Military officials later told her that he had gone AWOL.
The Voyennye Advokaty [Military Lawyers] Telegram channel has reported on two cases in which draft evasion resulted only in administrative liability. In the first case, a court reviewed a complaint from a conscript who failed to appear at a military collection point for deployment to his place of military service. The young man cited temporary incapacity for work, but the court determined that there were no valid reasons for his failure to appear and upheld the fine imposed by the draft office. In the second case, the same court ruled that it was lawful to hold the conscript administratively liable for failing to appear in response to a draft notice at a meeting of the draft board. The young man cited his right to a draft deferral, however, the courts involved noted that the mere fact of a possible draft deferral does not relieve the obligation to appear on a draft notice. In both cases, the issue concerned failure to appear during conscription proceedings; however, the matters were resolved under administrative law. This indicates that not every failure to appear automatically results in a criminal case.
In Moscow, a military commissar held a conscript liable under a non-existent provision of law for a violation related to military registration and imposed a fine on him. The court, where the conscript appealed the fine, noted that no such provision exists in the Code of Administrative Offenses and that the draft office failed to provide original documents for the hearing. As a result, the judge annulled the fine order and sent the case back to the draft office for reconsideration.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
The First Western District Military Court has sentenced 28-year-old serviceman Andrey Usachev to 20 years in a penal colony under articles on murder, rape, theft, as well as desertion and going AWOL. According to investigators, in February 2025, he raped and murdered a 43-year-old neighbor woman with Down syndrome. Usachev was detained on Feb. 27, and jewelry belonging to the victim was found in his possession. The man had previously been convicted multiple times. He was recruited for the war from a penal colony as part of the Wagner Group, and later joined the "Redut PMC." In April 2024, he went AWOL from a unit in Luga and had been wanted since then.
In Arkhangelsk, 38-year-old war participant Aleksey Melnik has been sentenced to seven years in a penal colony under articles on violating traffic rules resulting in the negligent infliction of grievous bodily harm and going AWOL. In November 2025, while on leave and driving without a license, he hit two female students in the center of Arkhangelsk and fled the scene. At the time of his detention, it was revealed that Melnik had fled the military unit where he was serving under contract military service. Melnik had also been convicted multiple times.
In Saint Petersburg, a court ordered the detention of Agil Aliyev on suspicion of carrying out a terrorist attack. Investigators allege that on June 16, he set fire to a relay cabinet near Shuvalovo station "with the aim of destabilizing the activities of government authorities." He was detained at the scene.
In the Yaroslavl region, officers of the Federal Security Service (FSB) detained a 40-year-old local woman on suspicion of a terrorist attack. According to the intelligence services, on June 17, she attempted, at the direction of "Ukrainian call centers," to carry out a series of arson attacks on bank offices in the city of Yaroslavl.
The FSB announced the detention of three individuals in the Krasnodar region, Adygea and the Tyumen region on charges related to preparing an act of terror and the illegal possession of explosives or explosive devices. Authorities said they are also considering opening a criminal case for treason. Law enforcement officers allege that the suspects, acting on instructions from "Ukrainian handlers," were preparing what officials described as "sabotage and terrorist attacks" targeting volunteers assisting the military, military personnel themselves, as well as transportation infrastructure and fuel-and-energy facilities.
A new criminal case alleging preparation of a terrorist attack has also been opened against the artist Daniil Krinari, who had previously been sentenced to five years in a penal colony for what Russian authorities described as "confidential" cooperation with a foreign state. Krinari had earlier been added to Russia’s Registry of Extremists and Terrorists, though the specific charge underlying that designation had not been publicly disclosed. Details of the new case remain unknown. The artist was first detained in December 2022 in Grodno, Belarus, and was later extradited to Moscow at the request of the FSB.
The Second Western District Military Court has sentenced a 16-year-old from the town of Liski in the Voronezh region to seven years in a juvenile correctional facility in a case involving preparation for a terrorist attack and illegal explosives trafficking. According to investigators, in May 2025, the teenager established contact with Ukrainian intelligence services and, acting on their instructions for a financial reward, retrieved an explosive device and an improvised bomb from a cache and moved them to another location. The bomb was allegedly intended to blow up a Russian service member's car, but law enforcement officers detained the suspect before it could be planted.
The "Zaporizhzhia Regional Court," established by Russian authorities, has sentenced 71-year-old Ivan Cherny, a resident of the occupied town of Tokmak, to 13 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of high treason. According to investigators, the elderly man, who received a Russian passport in June 2023, made 27 donations to the account associated with the Armed Forces of Ukraine between November 2023 and May 2025. The total amount of the donations was 4,100 hryvnias, or $130.
The District Military Court has sentenced Marina Meshkova, a resident of occupied Melitopol, to 14 years in a penal colony on charges of high treason and the financing of terrorism. The court ruled that from Dec. 23, 2023, to April 14, 2024, she made several monetary transfers to the Freedom of Russia Legion, and from Jan. 18 to May 14, 2024, transferred money to bank cards associated with the AFU.
The Second Western District Military Court sentenced Roman Tarasov, 21, a resident of Murom, to 17 years in prison on charges of committing and preparing a terrorist attack. He was also ordered to pay more than 2 million rubles [$27,290] in compensation to victims and the state. According to law enforcement, in February 2022 Tarasov and his associates, angered by the start of the invasion, formed a "criminal group" to carry out arson attacks, "intimidate the population" and "pressure government officials." In March and September 2025, he allegedly doused two cars in Moscow with gasoline and set them on fire at the direction of his handler in exchange for money. He was also accused of preparing to set fire to a car belonging to a General Staff officer but was detained before carrying out the attack.
Assistance
The Orenburg region has introduced fines for employers who refuse to hire former war participants. The regional parliament had previously established a 0.5% quota for all companies with at least 200 employees.
Longreads
Memorial, the Russian human rights defense center, published a report on the tightening of political repression in Russia since the start of the invasion of Ukraine. Since 2021, new criminal statutes have been introduced, prison sentences in politically motivated cases have nearly doubled, and torture has effectively been legalized.
Sibir.Realii, part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, reports on several cases of convicts who were previously recruited to participate in the war escaping on the way from their penal colonies to their military units. After returning home, some went on to commit new crimes, sometimes more serious than their original offenses.