Mobilization in Russia for June 24-25, 2024 CIT Volunteer Summary

Authorities and Legislation

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s former Defense Minister, and Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.The charges include, among others, directing attacks against civilian targets in Ukraine, and relate to crimes committed between October 2022 and March 2023, when the RuAF were targeting Ukraine’s critical infrastructure.

Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising

In the city of Nizhnekamsk, employees of a mobile recruiting center for military contract service are trying to hand out flyers to passersby and convince them to join the war. In addition to a million-ruble [$11,400] sign-up bonus, the recruiters are promising that kindergarten, school and camp trips will be free for the children of any man who enlists. They are even willing to arrange a car for anyone who cannot otherwise get to the recruiting center on their own.

In the Khanty-Mansi autonomous region–Yugra, half as many people is seeking help from the Favor center, which provides homeless people with shelter or assistance in restoring their documents. The center’s director, Demid Lazhintsev, attributes this to the fact that the homeless are joining the "special military operation" en masse.

Yury Gritsenko, a serial killer who attacked women with a hammer in Moscow and the Moscow region, was recruited for the war from a penal colony and served for about a year in a medical evacuation platoon, according to the SHOT Telegram channel. The 62-year-old man was not accepted into the assault troops due to his health condition. In 2002, Gritsenko, who previously worked in the police, was sentenced to 22 years in a penal colony for a series of murders and robberies. During his imprisonment, Gritsenko was known as an extremely aggressive and uncontrollable inmate. It was previously reported that Gritsenko would be released this summer, but it was revealed that he joined the Storm-Z unit in September 2023.

In Moscow, a college student who was delivering an educational certificate to the draft office on Ugreshskaya Street had his phone confiscated and was taken to a military unit despite being underweight, reports the Idite Lesom! [Flee through the woods/Get lost you all] Telegram channel.

Idite Lesom! reports on instances where young men were coerced into joining the army and signing contracts through deceit, threats, force and torture. One conscript who refused to sign a contract was assigned the most grueling tasks, including unloading trucks with the bodies of those killed in the war. He was also assigned extra duties and deprived of sleep. Soldiers with hepatitis C deemed fit for service by the medical evaluation board continue to serve on the frontline.

A businessman from Chelyabinsk was fined for failing to appear for military training—the draft office employee handed him the draft notice under the guise of being a client, the human rights organization Shkola Prizyvnika [Conscript School] reports. The 41-year-old man had completed a university military training program in 2004 and was enlisted in the reserves as a lieutenant. In early May, he received a call from the draft office demanding him to come in for a data check-up. The man ignored the call, and three days later, a draft office employee came to his workplace posing as a client and handed him a draft notice stating that he was required to appear at the draft office the next day for military training. The man did not go to the draft office. Three weeks later, the traffic police stopped him, informed him that he was "wanted," and took him to the draft office. There, he was fined and given a new draft notice "for a medical examination and military service register data check-up."

In Moscow, the distribution of "SMS draft notices"—text messages without legal force—continues. For instance, a conscript suing the Unified Military Recruitment Center received a text message stating that, according to the decision of the draft board, he was conscripted and required to report to the military collection point.

Authorities and Relatives of Mobilized Soldiers

The Krasnoyarsk administration announced that children of soldiers missing in the war with Ukraine will receive 50,000 rubles [$570]. The payments will be made if no news from the missing soldier has been received for more than six months. To receive the payments, a notice from the draft office or a missing person certificate is also required. This support measure applies to all children up to the age of 18 and full-time students up to the age of 23.

Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers

The list of mobilized soldiers killed in the war has been updated to include Ivan Barkin from the Volgograd region, Antonin Tikhonov from Russia’s constituent Republic of Udmurtia, Nail Mukhiddenov and Radik Minnekaev from Russia’s constituent Republic of Tatarstan, Dmitry Platonov and Nikita Svinin from the Kirov region, as well as Aleksandr Yakovlev, Leonid Filippov and Valentin Utkin from Russia’s constituent Republic of Chuvashia.

The Ministry of Defense has reported that Russia and Ukraine have conducted a 90-for-90 POW exchange. The previous exchange took place on May 31, when the sides exchanged 75 prisoners each.

The Vyorstka media outlet has studied the scientific papers of several dozen Ministry of Defense doctors and found that almost half of the wounded Russian soldiers suffered injuries to their arms or legs. Another 18 percent were wounded in the abdomen, while one in 11 received a head injury, and one in 12-13 was wounded in the chest. From February to August 2022, 86.5 percent of soldiers and officers were evacuated to hospitals with shrapnel wounds, 6 percent with gunshot wounds, and 3 percent with burns. The medical professionals said that on the frontline, it was impossible to neither widely implement emergency medical care nor provide early specialized medical assistance on a large scale. From the fall of 2022 to the spring of 2023, the average evacuation time for the severely wounded was 3.5 hours, while according to the existing standards it should not exceed 1-2 hours. The number of military personnel undergoing rehabilitation in health resorts has increased from about 38,000 in 2022 to 50,000 in 2023. Only 8 percent of shell-shocked Russian soldiers fully recovered their hearing after treatment. One in five soldiers felt an improvement, but in 70 percent of cases the medical treatment was useless.

A contract soldier from the Primorsky region [Russia's federal subject], who became deaf and can only move with a cane after being wounded, is being sent back to the frontline. In July 2023, the man signed a contract and was deployed in the Avdiivka direction, where he sustained his first injury after a few months. However, a week later, he was sent back to the forward positions, where he was almost immediately wounded again—his lung and diaphragm were punctured, and a fragment lodged in his liver, and he became nearly deaf. He did not have time to undergo a military medical board and was sent to Rostov, where, according to him, many soldiers with severe injuries remained untreated.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

The Barnaul Garrison Military Court sentenced serviceman Sergey Kosishchev to 10 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of murder. During a conflict that arose while drinking alcohol, Kosishchev stabbed his drinking companion in the neck with a shiv, killing him. The murderer had a criminal record: in 2007, a Moscow court found a person of the same name guilty of attempted murder and sentenced him to nine years in a penal colony. In 2021, a court in Barnaul sentenced him to three years in a maximum security penal colony for grievous bodily harm with a weapon after Kosishchev assaulted an opponent with a metal pipe.

In Yekaterinburg, a war participant is on trial for the murder of a cellmate in a pre-trial detention center. Thirty-seven-year-old Denis Galiyakhmetov was convicted of desertion. According to investigators, he assaulted his cellmate, Georgy Koryukov, who subsequently died. Galiyakhmetov faces up to 15 years in prison. The accused claims he was merely defending himself, as Koryukov was behaving erratically. The deceased's sister claims that her brother had a mental illness.

A resident of the Primorsky region, Vladimir Khvan, was sentenced to three and a half years in a penal colony for "cooperation with foreigners on a confidential basis." According to court records, another case under the same article is being considered. As reported by Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet], in the spring of 2024, regional Federal Security Service (FSB) officers detained two residents of Primorye on suspicion of cooperating with the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine. One was accused of espionage in favor of the Main Intelligence Directorate and a "Ukrainian nationalist organization." The other was accused of "cooperation on a confidential basis with a foreign state" for contacts with the "Freedom of Russia Legion."

Maksim Khromov, a 24-year-old resident of Tyumen, has beenfined 40,000 rubles [$460] for evading conscription for almost six months. According to the verdict, on Oct. 7, 2023, the conscript refused to receive his summons while at the draft office. He hid in an apartment until April 26, 2024, when the police found him. Despite the verdict, Khromov will still have to serve in the armed forces.

Mediazona has reported the story of 9th grader Arseniy Turbin, who was sentenced to five years in a juvenile penal colony on charges of participation in a terrorist organization for distributing leaflets criticizing Putin in his neighbors' mailboxes.

Assistance

Governor of the Leningrad region Aleksandr Drozdenko has announced that he had agreed with Aleksandr Lukashenko on the rehabilitation of Russian soldiers in "Belarusian resorts." According to Drozdenko, this offer applies not only to residents of the Leningrad region but also to all military personnel who have been disabled or injured in the war with Ukraine.

Governor of the Rostov region Vasily Golubev has introduced concessions for the purchase of garden and vegetable for "veterans of the special military operation." According to the decree he signed, veterans will be able to purchase garden and vegetable plots out of turn for only 5% of the cadastral value.

Chairman of the Yakutsk City Council Albert Semyonov participated in the "Donate Your Rifle for the Special Military Operation" campaign, giving his Saiga rifle to Russian soldiers to help them shoot down Ukrainian drones. Additionally, the director of the Sakhalin Museum-Memorial Complex "Victory," Yury Filipenko delivered a car and children’s letters to the military.

Miscellaneous

The Ministry of Defense hasclassified the number of military personnel with disabilities. Previously, reports on families receiving military pensions were available in the Unified Interdepartmental Information and Statistical System. Now, the table shows 0. The latest information, dated 2021, indicated that 27,000 people received disability pensions. Data on families receiving pensions due to the loss of a breadwinner have also disappeared. This information previously provided insights into the rising number of casualties.

As Vazhnyye Istorii [IStories, independent Russian investigative media outlet] discovered, Russians have filed almost 3,500 reports against each other since the beginning of the full-scale war. Most often, the reports are written by anonymous Telegram channels, with the participants of the Mrakoborets Telegram channel becoming the leaders in the number of reports. They "specialize" in anti-war statements but sometimes tackle topics of "Russophobia" and LGBTQ+. Participants write at least three reports a day, totaling nearly 2,500 reports over two years.

It also became known that a Russian Aerospace Forces helicopter pilot and pro-Russian blogger Aleksey Voevoda reported a resident of the Zaporizhzhia region for speaking to him in Ukrainian. Voevoda himself shared this during a broadcast with another pro-Russian milblogger Kirill Fyodorov.

Longreads

Over the past two years, Russian soldiers, returning from the war in Ukraine, have killed no less than 100 people. Novaya Gazeta [independent Russian newspaper] discussed the prospects of the veterans becoming a new elite in Russia.

Researchers from the Public Sociology Laboratory (PS Lab) spent a month studying life in a small town deep in Russia to understand its citizens' attitudes towards the war with Ukraine. Observations confirmed the contradictory attitude of the inhabitants towards the war. Although they hardly publicly support the aggression in Ukraine, the war remains one of the main topics of their daily lives. Participation in the war is often seen as a way to solve personal financial problems. There is dissatisfaction with the war, but the majority justifies it and does not criticize the authorities, while the issue of the war as a crime against Ukrainians is silenced.