Mobilization in Russia for June 10-12, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary

Authorities and Legislation

Russia’s Central Election Commission has postponed 43 municipal elections across eight districts in the Kursk region bordering Ukraine, declaring the elections will be held "when a brighter time comes." The decision effects election campaigns in the Belovsky, Bolshesoldatsky, Glushkovsky, Korenevsky, Lgovsky, Rylsky, Sudzhansky, and Khomutovsky districts.

Authorities are considering lowering the minimum age for criminal prosecution from 16 to 14 for destroying or damaging monuments to military glory and other sites commemorating those who died defending the fatherland. Deputy Minister of Justice Elena Ardyeva stated that since February 2022, authorities have registered over 370 instances of monument desecration by minors. The ministry is also proposing the introduction of fines and an increase in the responsibility of parents for the actions of underage children.

Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising

Authorities in the Volgograd region confiscated the passports of two men who acquired Russian citizenship but failed to register for military service within the two-week period required by law. The passports will now be annulled.

Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers

Russia and Ukraine have conducted another prisoner of war exchange. This was confirmed by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the MoD of the Russian Federation. According to Zelenskyy, servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who were severely wounded and seriously ill, have been released from captivity. The parties did not specify the number of exchanged POW, nor were there any mentions of the equal nature of the exchange this time. Over the past few days, the parties conducted two POW exchanges and also exchanged the bodies of the deceased.

A resident of the Irkutsk region, born in 2001, has been reported killed in the war. He was identified as Aleksey Khmelyov, a graduate of a boarding school for children with mental disabilities. After graduating from the orphanage, he ended up in a penal colony for robbing a house while under the influence of alcohol, along with an accomplice. While in custody, Khmelyov signed a contract with the MoD and was deployed to the war. He served in the assault company of the 155th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade and was killed in May 2025.

The mother of 18-year-old Kirill Vereshchenko from the Irkutsk region says that despite suffering from epilepsy and having a brain cyst, her son signed a contract with the MoD and went to war in order to help his cousins. Due to his condition, the young man had studied under an individualized education program. According to his mother, he was only able to sign the contract on his fourth attempt—and in another region—at a draft office in the city of Ufa. Two and a half months into his service, he sustained a shrapnel wound to his leg. However, his mother claims he received inadequate medical care and may be sent back to the frontline, even though the shrapnel has still not been removed. The Vereshchenko family is demanding his discharge from military service.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

A court in the city of Petrozavodsk has received the case of 50-year-old Igor Korbelainen, who is accused of desertion, murder, and inflicting grievous bodily harm. The details of the charges have not been disclosed, but Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet] has found that Korbelainen had previously been convicted multiple times. In 2014, he was sentenced to nine years in a penal colony for the murder of a drinking companion. He was released on parole in 2020, but in March 2021 committed another violent crime. According to investigators, during a dispute in a shared kitchen at a dormitory, he stabbed a teenager multiple times in the stomach. The teenager survived, and Korbelainen was sentenced to eight years in prison. Korbelainen may have become a suspect in the desertion case after signing a military contract while serving his sentence in the penal colony. How he was recruited and where he served remains unclear.

In the Volgograd region, authorities arrested 33-year-old contract soldier Maksim Valkovich, who fled his military unit and shot two people in the town of Petrov Val. Law enforcement officers also discovered a weapons cache in the suspect's possession.

In Krasnodar, three men aged 24 and 25 were arrested for attempting to set fire to a relay cabinet on the railroad near Krasnodar-2 station. According to prosecutors, the suspects allegedly received an offer through a messenger app to torch the relay cabinet in exchange for payment from an unknown individual. The men face criminal charges for attempting to commit a terrorist attack. Two of them have prior criminal records.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) reported detaining a Ukrainian citizen in Veliky Novgorod who, according to the intelligence services, set fire to two vehicles belonging to Russian soldiers and planned to blow up a third with the driver inside. The detainee stated that in October 2023 he "contacted handlers whose information he found" through a "Telegram channel run by Ukrainian intelligence services." Beyond the arsons, the FSB alleges the suspect also "conducted reconnaissance of critical infrastructure sites and gathered data on defense industry employees and leaders of volunteer organizations in the region." The man faces criminal charges for preparing an act of terror and possession of explosives. The intelligence services also plan to charge him with sabotage and under the new article on "providing assistance to the enemy in activities knowingly directed against the Russian Federation."

A court in Saint Petersburg remanded Artyom Ishchenko, accused of assisting terrorist activities, into custody. According to investigators, no later than February 2025, he received a task to "carry out reconnaissance of objects of the Leningrad Naval Base" and began to execute it. The accused sent photos and messages to an unknown client via a messenger app. Ishchenko was detained on June 11, and he pleaded guilty to the charges.

Samara artist and eco-activist Irina Izmailova was sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges of treason, manufacture and possession of explosives. The prosecutor had requested a 24-year sentence in a penal colony for the young woman. According to investigators, Izmailova allegedly contacted the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) during a trip to Moldova. Later, she received a detonator in Turkey and also manufactured explosives at the behest of a representative of Ukrainian intelligence services. The defense claims that she destroyed the substance and that her confession was obtained without a lawyer. The young woman has been in a pre-trial detention center since Sept. 1, 2023, after her boyfriend, also an eco-activist, Aleksandr Kudashev, went to fight on the side of Ukraine as part of the Russian Volunteer Corps. In early June, it became known that Kudashev was killed in May from an artillery attack, presumably near the city of Kharkiv. Mediazona previously reported in detail on Izmailova's case.

In Crimea, law enforcement officials have initiated a criminal case on charges of treason against a 42-year-old woman and her 24-year-old daughter. According to law enforcement, in September 2023, the two allegedly shared photographs of Russian Armed Forces facilities with a channel controlled by Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate via an internet messenger app. The names of the accused have not been disclosed.

In a similar case, a 28-year-old woman from the Dzhankoy district of Crimea was also charged with treason. Law enforcement claims she established contact through Telegram with a handler and subsequently provided Ukrainian intelligence with images of air defense systems and the deployment locations of military personnel in Crimea. She allegedly received 15,000 rubles [$190] in March 2024 in exchange for the images.

In the Vologda region, 19-year-old Danila Petrov was fined 30,000 rubles [$380] for failing to report a crime. According to investigators, Petrov was aware that his acquaintance, Anton Dunaev, had been communicating with members of the Freedom of Russia Legion and was preparing a terrorist attack, yet he did not inform the authorities. Dunaev himself was sentenced in December 2024 to eight years in a penal colony for participating in a terrorist organization, preparing a terrorist act, knowingly filing a false report about a terrorist attack, and treason.

Longreads

The Vyorstka media outlet has reported on how Russians are recruiting their fellow citizens to join the war, the associated payouts, and their regrets, if any. Some recruiters promise the generous payouts and jobs behind the front lines, while others urge men to enlist quickly, claiming that "victory is near" and that now is the time to secure all the available benefits.

The Sibir.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet published a report on families of Russians killed in the war who are uncertain whether the remains they received actually belong to their loved ones. Authorities prohibit them from opening the coffins or conducting DNA tests, yet some have defied the ban and gone ahead with exhumations.

Sibir.Realii also reports on the case of Azamat Batyrbayev, a serviceman who raped and assaulted his ex-wife, Diniya Baysuakova, while on leave in January 2025. He returned to the war on April 28. The case against him was dropped, yet he continues to threaten the victim, claiming that he will "finish what he started."