Mobilization in Russia for June 7–9, 2026 CIT Volunteer Summary
Army Recruitment
[Alexandre]In the first quarter of 2026, 71,200 people signed contracts with the Ministry of Defense, according to federal budget expenditure data reviewed by Vazhnyye Istorii [IStories], an independent Russian investigative media outlet. Compared to the same period in 2025, the number of people enlisting fell by 20%—in the first quarter of 2025, 89,600 people received sign-up bonuses, compared to 73,300 in the same period of 2024. The federal budget data correlates with regional budget data previously reviewed by Janis Kluge, a researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. According to his calculations, around 70,500 people may have joined the Russian Armed Forces in the first three months of the year. In late March, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, stated that 80,000 people had signed contracts with the Ministry of Defense since the start of the year, "not counting volunteer fighters." Typically, figures announced by authorities exceed calculations based on sign-up bonus data by 5% to 15%. The contract recruitment rate also fell at the end of 2025—in the fourth quarter, an average of 1,100 people signed contracts per day, a third fewer than during the same period in 2024. In total, 364,000 people signed contracts last year, which is 10% fewer than in 2024. At the same time, according to Kluge's estimate, by the end of spring 2026, the recruitment rate may have stabilized at around 1,000 new contracts per day, or 30,000 people per month.
The actual residential addresses of some conscripts have started to appear in the Unified Military Register [a digital system used to identify citizens subject to military service and serve draft notices]. Two men noticed this after logging into their personal accounts on the register's website and discovering the system listed their actual residential addresses instead of their official registration addresses. Neither man had provided his actual residential address to the draft office, but one of the men had previously provided this information to the State Inspectorate for Road Traffic Safety. Human rights advocates say it remains unclear exactly where the register obtains such data.
A draft office in Omsk is encouraging reservists to join the mobilization reserve. According to one man, he and about 20 other reservists were taken into a separate room, where they were first asked to fill out a questionnaire, then shown videos about the mobilization reserve and invited to join before being allowed to leave.
Former FSB Lieutenant Colonel Boris Kharchenko, who was convicted of organizing a murder and the attempted murder of a businessman, has signed a contract with the MoD to participate in the war and has been released from prison. It is unclear when exactly he was released or to which military unit he was assigned. In February 2026, Kharchenko was sentenced to 18 years in a maximum security penal colony for the 2002 attempted murder of businessman Leonid Beluga and the murder of driver Valentin Botner. According to the case materials, Kharchenko accepted a contract killing and passed the job to former law enforcement officer Timur Zornyakov, who fired a grenade launcher at Beluga’s vehicle. Zornyakov was sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony.
Mobilized Soldiers, Contract Soldiers and Conscripts
A serviceman suffering from tuberculosis was reportedly denied treatment and returned to the frontline. The man, whose name was not disclosed, underwent multiple medical examinations in 2024-2025, including at a MoD medical center, which confirmed the diagnosis. However, his command refused to remove him from service. He subsequently fled, prompting authorities to open a criminal case against him for going AWOL. He was later found and returned to his unit, after which commanders allegedly pressured him into signing a request to suspend the criminal proceedings. He is now back on the frontline.
Thirty-year-old Daniil Rudnev, a disabled man from Ulyanovsk who was persuaded to sign a military contract, has returned home from the war, according to acquaintances of his family cited by the Idel.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet. Earlier, the outlet reported on Rudnev’s case, noting that he cannot read or write and has significant speech impairments. Despite this, he was persuaded to sign a contract with the MoD and sent to a combat zone.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
A criminal case involving 29 incidents has been opened against Aleksandr Tonilin, a sniper in the 272nd Motorized Rifle Regiment. The majority of charges involve abuse of authority and include the use of weapons or specialized equipment, "causing grave consequences" committed in a group for financial gain or other personal interests. Tonilin has also been accused of murder of several people as part of a group, attempted murder, four episodes of bribery, concealment of grave crimes, extortion, hazing and other offenses. Tonilin's lawyer stated that the man was forced to commit these crimes by his commanders, who have also been detained. He did not disclose details of the charges. Earlier, the Vyorstka media outlet reported that Tonilin extorted money from other servicemen and then killed them to eliminate evidence and witnesses.
The Central District Military Court has sentenced Artyom Buchin, a participant in the war against Ukraine, to life imprisonment in a case involving the murder and rape of his 26-year-old ex-wife and her seven-year-old daughter. Buchin was detained two days after committing the crime. The man has a history of multiple convictions. In 2018, he was convicted of robbery. After being released from a penal colony in May 2022, he raped and killed a 23-year-old nurse in August. For this, in February 2023, the court sentenced him to 20 years in a maximum security penal colony. However, in August 2023, Buchin signed a contract with the MoD and went to war instead of serving his sentence.
The Southern District Military Court has sentenced six captured servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine—30-year-olds Tymofiy Vashchenko and Andriy Zhyzhoma, 33-year-old Denys Shelomiienko, 36-year-old Serhiy Medvedev, 39-year-old Artem Stanishevskyi, and 52-year-old Volodymyr Shulipa. Zhyzhoma, Shelomiienko, Medvedev and Stanishevskyi were convicted under charges of participating in a terrorist community and undergoing training to conduct terrorist activities. Vashchenko was convicted of participating in a terrorist community due to his service in the Azov Brigade, while Volodymyr Shulipa was convicted of participating in a terrorist organization due to his service in the Aidar battalion. Zhyzhoma, Stanishevskyi and Medvedev were sentenced to 18 years in prison, and Shelomiienko to 16 years in a maximum security penal colony.
In Saint Petersburg, a man born in 1974 has been detained on suspicion of assisting terrorism. According to investigators, the Saint Petersburg resident contacted Ukrainian intelligence and, on the instructions of a handler, "prepared for a sabotage and terrorist act": he photographed one of the city’s facilities and installed a video camera. For this, he was allegedly promised repayment of a $3,500 debt and an additional reward of $5,000. He never received the money. The man was placed in a pre-trial detention center.
An eleventh-grade school student from Nyagan has been remanded to a pre-trial detention center in a case involving ties to a terrorist organization. He was detained on May 8 as a suspect who had joined the Russian Volunteer Corps.
The Second Eastern District Military Court has sentenced 22-year-old Irkutsk region resident Sergey Tarasov to 10 years of imprisonment in a case involving an act of terror. According to investigators, in November 2025, the man, acting on instructions of phone scammers who posed as officers of the FSB, told him that his account on the Gosuslugi public services portal had been hacked and sent him a "fake link showing a transfer [of money] to another person’s account." Tarasov set fire to a transformer substation in the Yubileyny neighborhood, leaving 17 apartment buildings and two government buildings without electricity. He was detained a few hours later.
In the Ivanovo region, 55-year-old Kineshma resident Yevgeny Ostroukhov has been sentenced to 15 years in a penal colony on charges of treason. According to his wife, he was accused of proactively contacting Ukrainian intelligence in early 2025 and offering cooperation in exchange for payment. She claims that Ostroukhov is "a patriot to the core" and intended to deceive the Ukrainians, for which purpose he sent them the first information he found online about a certain chemical plant. Later, Ostroukhov allegedly received 3,000 rubles [$41] "for a trip" to the facility, but simply kept the money for himself. According to the court, the man "collected and transmitted to the enemy information about the location of a defense industry enterprise" and military units.
Vasily Vtyurin, a resident of the Omsk region, was sentenced to 17 years in a penal colony on charges of membership in a terrorist organization and terrorist training. According to the prosecution, in November 2023 Vtyurin contacted the Freedom of Russia Legion to pass along information on the location of a military enlistment office, railway relay cabinets and the movement of a military train. He also discussed with Legion representatives the possibility of fighting on Ukraine’s side and organizing a meeting with other members of the movement in Omsk. He was detained in March 2024.
The Southern District Military Court has handed down sentences in the case concerning the August 2022 car bombing of Ivan Sushko, the head of the occupation administration of the village of Mykhailivka. The court sentenced 50-year-old Volodymyr Teteriev to life imprisonment under the article on an act of international terrorism and to nine years for explosives trafficking by an organized group. Meanwhile, 35-year-old Oleksii Kyrychenko, 24-year-old Oleksandr Liakhovchenko, and 36-year-old Dmytro Novikov received 18 years of imprisonment each, while 22-year-old Danylo Smola was sentenced to 17 years. According to Teteriev, on Aug. 23, 2023—exactly one year after the car bombing—he was seized by men in balaclavas and tortured into confessing to the official's murder. All five defendants testified in court about being abducted and tortured. Teteriev stated that he signed the confession after law enforcement officers threatened to "torture his elderly mother to death." The Investigative Committee refused to open a criminal case into the torture allegations. Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet] has published excerpts from Teteriev's court testimony.
A court established by Russian authorities in the Kherson region sentenced a married couple convicted of collaborating with Ukrainian intelligence services. The husband was found guilty of high treason and illegal possession of explosives and sentenced to 16 years in a maximum security penal colony. His wife, Yelena Usenko, was sentenced to nine years in a penal colony on charges of illegal possession of explosives. According to investigators, the husband agreed to cooperate with Ukrainian intelligence services in the spring of 2024. From March through November of that year, he received and stored explosives, explosive devices and related components at his home and in caches. His wife assisted him.
In 2025, courts in Russia and in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories convicted 478 people on charges of high treason, espionage and related offenses, a 24% increase from the previous year, when 385 people were convicted. The figures come from a report by the Pervy Otdel [Department One] human rights project based on research by Parubets Analytics. On average, courts handed down two high treason convictions every working day. The median sentence for high treason was 15 years, while espionage convictions carried an average of 14 years. At least four people received life sentences, at least three of whom were Ukrainian nationals. Courts also heard 58 cases last year involving espionage and cooperation with a foreign organization on a confidential basis.
Children and Militarization
Russian schoolchildren and university students may soon be enlisted to collect oral histories from war participants and volunteers who support the frontline. The Russian Military Historical Society proposed the idea, which has already received support from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The interviews are expected to be incorporated into the "patriotic education" of young people and into exhibits at school museums. They will also "serve as a foundation for the postwar study of the Special Military Operation" by professional historians.
Assistance
Andrey Nazarov, the prime minister of Bashkortostan [Russia's constituent republic]], reported that nearly 4,000 participants in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have returned to the republic. According to his data, one in three of them is disabled. Nazarov also said that 75% of returning veterans in Bashkortostan have found employment. Since the beginning of the year, 600 veterans have applied to the employment service, and 335 of them have been placed in jobs. The regional authorities also provide war participants with rehabilitation vouchers worth 52,500 rubles [$720] each.
Meanwhile, authorities in Chuvashia [Russia’s constituent republic] reported that 57% of those who returned from the war in Ukraine are currently employed.
Longreads
The Veter [Wind] project reports on the difficulties Russian soldiers returning from the frontline face when trying to find work in the civilian sector.
Mediazona reports on an incident in the Tula region in which two war veterans and an associate allegedly stormed a military unit in the Tula region, accused two soldiers of extortion in front of assembled troops, and then abducted and tortured them in an attempt to force the soldiers to hand over ownership documents for a car and an apartment. Military commanders reportedly chose not to intervene.