Mobilization in Russia for June 2-4, 2026 CIT Volunteer Summary
Army Recruitment
The Ukrainian Hochu Zhit [I Want to Live] project published a list of 1,059 students at Russian universities who, the project claims, signed contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense while still enrolled. According to the project, more than half are in their first or second year, and about 80% are ages 18 to 21. Most of those enlisting are students at regional universities, technical schools and colleges who have either just enrolled or are midway through their studies. The Astra Telegram channel verified the identities of 47 of them and spoke with two mothers whose sons are on the list; both confirmed information about their sons. Four other families indirectly confirmed certain details but declined to speak.
Russian universities are expelling students enrolled in military training centers and seeking full tuition reimbursement from those who refuse to sign a contract with the MoD. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, courts have heard at least 28 such cases in various regions of Russia. In at least half of those cases, court decisions indicate that students signed tuition contracts long before the full-scale invasion, and in four other cases, universities expelled students before Feb. 24, 2022. Amounts sought range from several hundred thousand to more than 1 million rubles [$14,000], depending on how many years each student was enrolled. Universities justify their demands by arguing that before enrollment, students signed targeted training contracts with the MoD under which they were required to sign a military contract after graduation. In return, the universities paid for their education. Some students have won their lawsuits on medical grounds.
Relatives of 51-year-old Pyotr Bobrov from the village of Danilovka, Primorsky region [Russia's federal subject], claim that he was forced to sign a contract with the MoD while intoxicated. According to them, military personnel seized him, put him into a vehicle, and took him to a military unit in the village of Sergeyevka. His relatives submitted a statement from Bobrov to the military prosecutor’s office, but were told that the chances of bringing him home were "zero."
A similar incident was reported in the city of Novosibirsk. There, Sergey Konovalov, who had been detained for drunk driving, was taken to a hospital for what was described as a medical examination. After traffic police officers delivered him to the hospital, draft office officers arrived, attempting first to pressure him into signing a military contract and then to force him into a vehicle. According to reports, Konovalov’s relatives managed to prevent them from taking him away.
Relatives of 30-year-old Daniil Rudnev from the city of Ulyanovsk say that he was persuaded to sign a contract with the MoD and has already been sent to a combat zone despite being disabled since childhood, unable to read or write, and having severe speech difficulties. According to medical records, Rudnev has been continuously registered with a local psychiatric clinic since 2008 and has been officially declared legally incapacitated, yet a military medical board reportedly found him fully healthy and fit for service. Rudnev signed the contract on May 20 and informed his relatives about it several days later, on May 24. By that point, he was already in Ukraine. According to his family, he is now pleading to be brought home, crying and saying that he could be sent on an assault mission at any moment. He has not been in contact for several days because he is reportedly “at a firing range.” Similar cases involving the recruitment of people with mental disabilities have previously been reported in Russia’s constituent republics of Tatarstan, Udmurtia, and the Perm region.
A similar case was reported in the city of Tyumen. There, Dmitry Chernysh signed a contract with the MoD despite having a heart defect, significant speech and mobility impairments, and only a ninth-grade education. According to his sister, unknown individuals took him to the city of Kurgan, where he was pressured into signing the contract. In response to her complaint to the military prosecutor’s office, she was sent a copy of a statement purportedly written by her brother, asserting that no pressure had been exerted on him when he signed the contract.
Twenty-one-year-old Emil S. from the city of Kazan, who has been seeking to replace statutory military service with alternative civilian service on pacifist grounds, has faced accusations of draft evasion. After his application for alternative service was denied on the grounds that he had allegedly missed the filing deadline, he challenged the decision in court and claimed that the draft office may have falsified documents. In May 2026, he was reportedly brought to the draft office under the pretext of providing paperwork, where he was handed two draft notices. He refused to sign either of them. Following this, officials drew up an administrative case against him for failing to appear in response to a draft notice issued in November 2025.
Mobilized Soldiers, Contract Soldiers and Conscripts
The number of appeals from servicemen and their families to regional human rights ombudsmen increased significantly in 2025, according to reports from ombudsmen across Siberia. In the Novosibirsk region, the number of appeals related to the "special military operation" rose nearly 2.5-fold compared with 2024, reaching 1,945. More than 70% of these requests concerned establishing the whereabouts of servicemen or securing their return from captivity. In Buryatia [Russia's constituent republic], more than 1,100 of nearly 4,500 appeals involved requests for assistance in obtaining discharge from the military or transfer out of combat zones. In the Irkutsk region, 939 participants in the war were granted disability status in 2025 alone, but state authorities recognized only 611 of those cases as related to military service, a determination that affects eligibility for benefits and pension payments.
Ivan Myrsanov, a former police officer from Russia's constituent Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) who was convicted of murdering his wife in January 2024, signed a contract with the MoD and went to war one month after being sentenced to 10 years in a maximum security penal colony. According to media reports, he later attempted to desert and was subsequently discharged on medical grounds. In May 2026, Myrsanov attempted to return to his two children, who were living under the guardianship of his adult stepson, but was turned away.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
The Central District Military Court in Yekaterinburg sentenced 27-year-old former serviceman Ranis Samatov to 15 years in a maximum security penal colony for murder with extreme brutality. According to investigators, in September 2024, Samatov and an acquaintance assaulted a 36-year-old man following an argument and then stabbed him more than 150 times. Before his arrest, Samatov had participated in the war against Ukraine after signing a military contract while serving a prison sentence and was awarded the Medal for Courage.
The Rostov Garrison Military Court suspended proceedings in the case of Shalva Gabarayev, a special forces commander of the MoD of South Ossetia [a Russian-occupied territory], who is accused of hooliganism and attempted murder committed from molester motives. Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet] has reported that, according to investigators, the case stems from a brawl in which the serviceman allegedly attempted to kill his opponent. After five months of supervision by the military police and the commandant's office, Gabarayev returned to the frontline at the request of his command.
In the Sverdlovsk region, a group of local residents suspected of fraud has been detained. The detainees were persuading men to sign contracts with the MoD under various pretexts, after which they gained access to their bank accounts and payments. The suspects also used fictitious marriages to obtain subsequent benefit payments. According to investigators, the group may be responsible for more than 20 instances of fraud.
A Volgograd resident was sent to a pre-trial detention center in a case involving treason, complicity in deliberately false reports of terrorist attacks, fraud and unauthorized access to computer information. According to the Federal Security Service (FSB), he has been collaborating with a representative of the Armed Forces of Ukraine since 2023, activating SIM cards for payment and registering electronic wallets for phone scammers. According to the FSB, at least 15 false reports of imminent terrorist attacks were sent from numbers that the detainee used across seven Russian regions. It is alleged that at the time he committed these actions, the man was serving a sentence at a correctional center on compulsory labor.
Police detained a 24-year-old resident of Cherkessk suspected of carrying out a terrorist attack. According to investigators, the man had previously been contacted by scammers posing as officials from various government agencies. They told him that unknown individuals had taken out a loan and 10 microloans in his name, and then convinced him that the state had repaid his debts—but that in return he needed to complete a task: to set fire to a relay cabinet in Nizhny Novgorod. As a result, he went to the Pochinki–Varya railway section, where he carried out the arson.
The 1st Western District Military Court sentenced 27-year-old paramedic Nikita Nikitin to 12 years in prison in a case involving a terrorist attack. According to investigators, on July 29, 2025, he threw a Molotov cocktail at a Sberbank branch in Pushkin after being persuaded by scammers to transfer 3.5 million rubles [$47,600] that he had taken out as a loan. The bank’s security guards activated the alarm and extinguished the bottle. Other visitors detained the man and then handed him over to private security.
The Khabarovsk Regional Court sentenced a local resident to 14 years in a maximum security penal colony in a treason case. According to investigators, in February 2025, the man passed information to a representative of Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR), including details concerning FSB activities, which authorities claim could have been used to compromise Russia’s security.
The Second District Military Court sentenced Konstantin Stepanov, a 27-year-old employee of the Bank of Russia, to 14 years in prison on charges of participation in a terrorist organization and involvement in its activities. According to investigators, in May 2024, Stepanov decided to join the Freedom of Russia Legion in order to take part directly in combat operations. To that end, prosecutors said, he completed and submitted an application to join the group and contacted its handlers, offering to "create conditions for the commission of crimes" in the interests of the Freedom of Russia Legion. Stepanov was also accused of attempting to recruit a Russian serviceman to join the Russian Volunteer Corps between May 24 and June 3, 2024. Law enforcement officers detained him on Sept. 4 of that year.
The Central District Military Court sentenced Mikhail Kuzin, a native of the city of Miass in the Chelyabinsk region, to 15 and a half years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of treason, justifying terrorism and participation in a terrorist organization. According to investigators, acting on instructions from the Freedom of Russia Legion, Kuzin posted leaflets at a cemetery on the graves of Russian servicemen. The leaflets featured an image of Vladimir Putin alongside the message, "If not for him, I would still be alive. Stop the war!" and a QR code linking to the website of the Freedom of Russia Legion.
The same court sentenced a Samara resident to 16 years in prison in a case involving high treason and justifying terrorism. Presumably, the man is Mikhail Kondratyev. According to investigators, he sent photos and videos of a fuel-and-energy facility to a "Ukrainian media propagandist." The information was allegedly intended for later drone strikes. He also supported online the activities of organizations that fight on Ukraine’s side and are considered terrorist groups in Russia.
Children and MilitarizationÂ
According to authorities in Kabardino-Balkaria [Russia’s constituent republic], more than 5,000 schoolchildren and college students will be brought into military-patriotic training camps, where participants in the war against Ukraine will teach them the basics of military affairs, UAV operation, terrain navigation, emergency response and first aid.
Books about the war against Ukraine have been added to a list of works for extracurricular reading, Minister of Education Sergey Kravtsov said. In addition, contemporary pro-war catchphrases have been added to a school literature textbook.
Miscellaneous
During the war, spending on "patriotic education" for Russians has increased 20-fold. While 3.4 billion rubles [$46.19 million] was allocated for these needs in 2021, the 2026 budget already includes 70 billion rubles [$951 million]. Of that money, more than a third will go to the Internet Development Institute, nearly 10 billion rubles [$136 million] to the Movement of the First state-led youth movement, and another 7.4 billion rubles [$101 million] will go toward bringing citizens into the "patriotic education" system itself.
Longreads
The Kavkaz.Realii [Caucasus.Realities, part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] media outlet reported on lawsuits filed by Russian service members against the MoD over refusals to discharge them, unlawful deployments to the frontline and disputes over payments.
Novaya Gazeta Europe [European edition of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta] published an interview with two men who managed to escape the Russian army and reach Finland.