Mobilization in Russia for June 18-21, 2026 CIT Volunteer Summary
Army Recruitment
Head of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov [Russia’s constituent republic], stated that 54,465 people have left the republic for the war against Ukraine, and that 1,410 personnel from the Rosgvardia [Russian National Guard] and 264 employees from the Ministry of Internal Affairs are also on the frontline. According to Minnikhanov, 12,077 people signed contracts with the Ministry of Defense in Tatarstan in 2023, another 12,951 in 2024, and 13,113 in 2025. During the first six months of this year, 5,274 people went to the frontline. Minnikhanov added that, including all forms of support, Tatarstan has spent 91 billion rubles [$1 billion] on the war. In mid-July 2025, Minnikhanov said that about 45,000 residents of Tatarstan had served in the war or were participating in it. According to data from the independent Russian media outlet Mediazona, at least 8,492 residents of the republic were killed on the frontline.
Roundups in the Penza Region
In Penza, roundups of men continue, and several channels are publishing videos of the incidents. According to locals, traffic police crews, alongside draft office workers, OMON riot police, and Rosgvardia troops in balaclavas, stand guard, while police officers patrol the streets in civilian vehicles and go door-to-door. Law enforcement officers also stop public transport and conduct raids to check military registration documents. Officers pull some men from their private cars, shove lone male pedestrians into minibuses, and take them to a draft office, where they are beaten. According to locals in Kuznetsk, taxi drivers are allegedly taking men to the police station instead of their destinations, where officers force them into military service. Meanwhile local media outlets are not reporting on the roundups, and residents speak of "busification" [a Ukrainian term for a controversial method of forced conscription] in the comments on local publications' posts, expressing outrage over the journalists' silence. Civilian authorities have also not commented on the situation. Rumors circulating in city chats suggest that law enforcement received a quota to recruit 1,500 people for the war. The roundups in the region began several months ago, but recently they have grown in scale and brutality. Locals say authorities have not opened "a single criminal case in the Penza region based on relatives' complaints."
The Idite Lesom! [Flee through the woods/Get lost you all] project has reported another case involving a resident of Penza who was tricked into signing a military contract. According to the account, the man, who was intoxicated at the time, was picked up by a civilian vehicle without markings and taken to a police station. There, he was told that he could secure his release by signing a detention report, which ultimately turned out to be a contract with the MoD. The project says it is aware of at least 40 similar cases, although in some instances the men involved were eventually released. It has also reported raids targeting men in the town of Serdobsk, while detentions under various pretexts aimed at coercing men into signing military contracts are continuing in the towns of Kuznetsk and Kamenka.
In Kuznetsk, a wheelchair-bound war veteran confronted officers from the military traffic police who were conducting raids targeting young men for delivery to draft offices. In a video circulated online, the man berates and threatens the patrol. After one of the officers begins filming him, he pulls out a knife and pursues the serviceman. As Vazhnyye Istorii [IStories, independent Russian investigative media outlet] later established, the man is Dmitry Afanasov, 34, who has five prior convictions for assault and theft, the most recent dating to January 2026. He had previously been sentenced in May 2023 to five years in prison for theft, battery, and robbery. According to another court ruling issued in March 2023, Afanasov was not disabled at that time, suggesting that he likely enlisted from a penal colony to fight in the war. In January 2025, he was hospitalized with injuries sustained during his service.
In comments to Mediazona, Andrey Surkov, the Penza region's military commissar, dismissed as staged a video showing women attempting to free men from the gates of a draft office following a roundup. He claimed that the authorities had already identified those who organized the filming. Surkov insisted that there had been no roundups or coercive actions in the region. He also accused the video's creators of attempting to discredit the military and carrying out a form of sabotage against the Russian authorities.
At the same time, the Penza regional branch of the Interior Ministry stated that reports of mass detentions of men and coercion into signing military contracts "do not correspond to reality." According to the ministry, police officers were merely "assisting" the Investigative Committee’s military investigative department during raids aimed at "identifying individuals who obtained Russian citizenship and failed to register for military service in a timely manner." The ministry acknowledged that the inspections could target not only “new citizens” but also any individuals who had failed to fulfill their military registration obligations. Officials emphasized that such operations are routine and periodically conducted throughout the region. Lawyers, however, note that it remains unclear why military investigators would participate in such "routine raids." The primary function of investigators is to conduct criminal investigations, while military registration falls outside their authority, meaning there appears to be no legal basis for involving military investigators in these operations. At the same time, the authorities officially confirmed that the raids had taken place. The ministry later issued a second statement, asserting that videos of the detentions “have nothing to do with deployment to the special military operation zone” and warning that "individuals disseminating false information will be held accountable in accordance with the law."
Relatives of men who were caught up in the roundups and later signed military contracts under pressure told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Mediazona, and the Agentstvo [Agency] independent media outlet that their family members had been seized on the streets, beaten at draft offices, and then issued new passports and bank cards after signing the contracts. At least some of them have already been sent to occupied Mariupol.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
The Kursk Garrison Military Court has sentenced member of the "PMC Yastreb [Hawk]" Ivan Timokhov to five years in a maximum security penal colony for abuse of authority involving torture. According to investigators, in fall 2024 on the territory of the Belgorod region, Timokhov, acting on orders from his superiors, placed military correspondent Roman Semyonov, 62, in "a wooden structure dug into the ground," where he spent 12 days. The victim stated that, after enduring "prolonged and brutal torture," he was placed in a coffin and buried in the ground in a vertical position for "two weeks." On Oct. 2, 2024, he was freed from the coffin by military investigators. Semenov has linked the incident to his investigation into the activities of the "PMC Yastreb" and his work for the Soyuz Natsionalnostey [Union of Nationalities] magazine.
In the town of Anzhero-Sudzhensk in the Kemerovo region, a 17-year-old teenager has been detained in connection with a case of intentional destruction of property. According to investigators, an unknown person contacted the teenager online, persuading him to set fire to a police service vehicle and threatening to disclose his personal data. The teenager entered a parking lot near a Ministry of Internal Affairs building, doused the car with a flammable liquid, and set it on fire. The teenager fled the scene, but was later detained.
The FSB reported detaining a Moscow region resident for carrying out "intimidation actions" against three servicemembers while posing as debt collectors. According to the agency, the young man found a job listing on an online marketplace, contacted a "representative of Ukrainian intelligence services" via Telegram who identified himself as a debt collection agency employee, and in May "carried out so-called intimidation actions at the home addresses of three Ministry of Defense servicemembers." The specific nature of the intimidation actions was not disclosed. A criminal case has been opened against him on charges of hooliganism, and investigators are also considering high treason charges. The FSB also said that more than 20 people had previously faced criminal charges for "making threats and planning attacks on Roskomnadzor [Russia’s internet censorship agency] officials."
In Yekaterinburg, a young woman was detained after taking thousands of photographs of graves of Russian servicemembers. The charges against her have not been disclosed. According to law enforcement, she found work online and over several months traveled to Ufa, Kazan, Magnitogorsk, Yaroslavl and Ivanovo, where she photographed graves and sent the images to her handler in Ukraine, receiving 80 rubles [$1.09] per photograph. According to authorities, Ukraine uses such photographs to create deepfakes: contacting the relatives of killed soldiers, telling them their loved one is actually alive and being held in Ukrainian captivity, and demanding money for their return. Cemeteries in the city will also install signs warning of administrative and criminal penalties for sharing photographs and information about the graves of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine.
A resident of Rybinsk, born in 1991 and identified by the surname Kravchenko, was sentenced to 15 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of treason and publicly inciting extremist activities online. According to the FSB, he collected information on the locations of the Ministry of Defense facilities, major defense industry enterprises and critical infrastructure sites in the Yaroslavl region on behalf of Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate. Authorities also accused him of posting comments on the internet.
A Russian court sentenced Romanian citizen David-Adrian Kercho to 15 years in a penal colony on espionage charges. Intelligence services allege that in August 2024, Kercho passed information about the locations of air-defense systems in Sochi to Ukrainian intelligence. Russian law enforcement authorities say that in return, a Ukrainian handler promised Kercho assistance in safely leaving Russia and joining a Ukrainian armed formation.
The Second Eastern District Military Court sentenced a 20-year-old man to nine years in a penal colony on charges of treason and participation in the activities of a terrorist organization. According to prosecutors, in early 2024 he initiated contact via Telegram with a representative of an organization banned in Russia as a terrorist group. Investigators say that, acting on instructions from a handler, he collected and transmitted information about facilities belonging to the Russian Armed Forces and volunteer organizations in the Zabaykalsky region that provide assistance to the military.
Longreads
TV Rain [independent Russian television channel] published a video report on how relatives of killed Russian servicemen divide compensation payments awarded after their deaths, while fraudsters attempt to obtain the money through deception.