Mobilization in Russia for June 3-5, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
A new section to help users find their nearest bomb shelter will soon appear on the Gosuslugi public services portal, according to Sergey Starovoytov, Deputy Director of the Civil Defense and Population Protection Department at the Ministry of Emergency Situations. He stated that this system has already undergone testing in the Kursk and Belgorod regions and could be extended to the entire country by the end of the year. Separately, officials plan to display videos with maps of bomb shelters on public transport in Moscow during UAV attacks.
Speaking to the Kursk regional legislative assembly, Acting Governor Alexander Khinshtein reported that 576 border area residents were missing, while the "approximate whereabouts have been established" for another 421 individuals, a status the official did not clarify. According to Khinshtein, the military has cleared eight percent of border areas—493,000 hectares—of mines since March 15. In contrast, Russia’s Minister of Defense Andrey Belousov claimed that mine-clearing operations have only covered 42,000 hectares, a figure the press release described as "a large part of the territory of the Kursk region."
The Vyorstka media outlet published an article detailing how the Kursk region changed during the full-scale war and the incursion by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising
In Bashkortostan [Russia's constituent republic], 78 migrants have received Russian citizenship for participating in the war in Ukraine. A total of 86 migrants applied for citizenship under this program.
In the city of Saratov, a raid was conducted to identify migrants who had obtained Russian passports but failed to register for military service. Law enforcement officers checked over 150 men and issued draft notices to 40 of them, requiring them to report to enlistment offices.
Aleksey Kuznetsov, a 39-year-old police major who, while drunk, hit three young people on the roadside in April 2024, killing two of them, signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense and went to war before facing trial, admitting guilt, or paying any damages. The families of the victims are now demanding that the case be reopened.
In the Kurgan region, 64 men who owed child support have gone to war in order to pay off their debts. The region’s new debtor’s registry currently lists around 3,000 people.
Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers
A contract soldier who had lost the fingers on one hand was sent to the frontline despite being promised a rear-duty position. He signed a contract in April 2023; by that time, he had already lost the fingers in a 2012 accident. Upon enlisting, he was assured he would serve in a support role in the rear, but was ultimately deployed to the front. During his service, he sustained three injuries, yet was neither granted medical leave nor provided with official documentation of his wounds.
Vyorstka analyzed and verified a list of named casualties from the 15th Motor Rifle Brigade, based in Samara, obtained from the Ukrainian Hochu Zhit [I Want to Live] project. Since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, the brigade has lost over 12,000 personnel: at least 7,436 confirmed dead and another 5,253 listed as missing in action. Due to these extremely high losses, the brigade has reportedly gone through at least three full rotations of personnel despite having a peacetime strength of just over 2,000 troops. According to Hochu Zhit, this represents one of the highest casualty rates among all units of the Russian Armed Forces. This is supported by cross-referencing the names of the dead in Mediazona’s [independent Russian media outlet] database: the brigade accounts for 3,500 confirmed mentions—the highest number for any Russian unit. Approximately 89% of the brigade's casualties were among enlisted personnel, with officers making up only about 1%.
Vazhnyye Istorii [IStories, independent Russian investigative media outlet] has analyzed leaked data containing personal identification tag numbers of the RuAF servicemen. Based on this information, journalists were able to approximate the size of units composed of residents from the occupied territories. In the early 2023, when the "people’s militias" were incorporated into the RuAF, they comprised more than 73,000 personnel. According to estimates from both Russian and Ukrainian sources, the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) could have mobilized between 55,000 and 80,000 people, and by the start of the full-scale invasion, the total strength of these formations could have exceeded 100,000.
According to calculations by Mediazona, from January through June 2025, Russian courts received more than 26,000 lawsuits seeking to declare individuals missing, missed in action or deceased. This exceeds the total for all of 2024, when there were 22,600 such cases. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the petitioners are unit commanders or other structures within the MoD. The lawsuits began to be filed en masse starting in the second half of 2024, and this process has accelerated even further in 2025. According to the journalists’ estimates, by mid-2025, between 30,000 and 40,000 military personnel have already been requested to be declared missing or deceased through the courts.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
Children
In the Perm region [Russia's federal subject], a military-orthodox camp for 10-year-old children has been operating for over a year. There, they are taught "God's law," hand-to-hand combat, formation, firearms and tactical training, survival and working with drones.
Assistance
Bashkortostan may introduce quotas for the employment of soldiers who have returned from war. If it happens, some 1,100 employers will have to reserve 5,030 jobs. Earlier similar measures were introduced in the Samara and Vologda regions, as well as in the Primorsky region [Russia's federal subject].
The speaker of the parliament of Russia's constituent republic of Sakha (Yakutia) proposed that war orphans be given apartments at the expense of the national budget.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
In Aksay, 35-year-old serviceman Igor Radchenko from the Rostov region, while intoxicated, brutally assaulted local resident Igor Bublikov. As a result of the assault, 50-year-old Bublikov sustained a traumatic brain injury and soon died in intensive care. Radchenko has been detained. According to the family, he was transferred to the Military Prosecutor's Office.
Danil Shargan, the head of a children's patriotic center and a war veteran, has been charged with torturing children in the Novosibirsk region. Investigators believe that he systematically assaulted at least two students at the center with wooden sticks and an unidentified object to the head. In 2024, the mother of one of the children accused Shargan of beating her 10-year-old son. A criminal case was then initiated against him and has now been referred to court. Shargan denies the charges, claiming that the child allegedly "hit himself against a log." Despite the charges, Shargan continues to work with children and conduct military training sessions.
The Garrison Military Court in Buryatia [Russia's constituent republic] found serviceman Ravil Bayguzhin guilty of bribery and sentenced him to a fine of 2.5 million rubles [$31,700] with a six-year ban on holding certain positions in state bodies. The military officer received 300,000 rubles [$3,800] from a fellow soldier for "assisting the briber's transfer to the investigation group of the military commandant's office."
In the Kemerovo region, a 16-year-old young man has been detained on the footbridge of Prokopyevsk station with a balaclava and a bottle of flammable liquid. According to the transport police, he was planning to set fire to a locomotive, acting on an order received via a messenger app for a promised reward. A criminal case has been initiated for an attempted act of terror.
The Central District Military Court in the city of Yekaterinburg has sentenced 39-year-old Valeriya Marchenko to 20 years in a penal colony for charges including preparing an act of terror committed in a group in conspiracy, state treason, and undergoing training for terrorist activities. According to investigators, in March 2024, Marchenko attempted to set fire to the Central Draft Office of the Sverdlovsk region in Yekaterinburg with eight Molotov cocktails. She was apprehended by FSB officers on her way to the building. A Sotavision’s source close to Marchenko claims that a member of Hochu Zhit suggested she set fire to the draft office and provided photo instructions for making an incendiary mixture. The entire process took place behind closed doors.
In another case, the court sentenced Kirill Bobrov, a resident of Ufa, to 16 years in prison for charges including establishing an extremist community, inciting hatred or enmity using violence and an organized group, public calls for terrorism, and five arsons committed in a group in conspiracy. According to the court, in November 2011, Bobrov created an "extremist community" aimed at inciting hatred, enmity, and humiliation against businessmen, government officials and members of United Russia [Putin’s ruling party]. Additionally, he allegedly posted videos online of arson attacks on government buildings and left comments criticizing the Russian government.
In annexed Crimea, two women have been detained on charges of treason for allegedly collaborating with Ukrainian intelligence services. According to the FSB, one woman was transmitting data about Russian soldiers to Kyiv, while the other, acting on the instructions of her handlers, conducted visual surveillance and collected data on a certain military unit of the Black Sea Fleet for the Security Service of Ukraine [SBU]. One of the women, in a published video, stated that her handler contacted her and asked her to take photos of air defense systems near Kerch, and later instructed her to set fire to a transformer box, which she did in August 2023.
A military court in Moscow sentenced 54-year-old archaeologist Andrey Veryanov to 24 years in prison on charges of treason. Veryanov was detained in Moscow on Dec. 5, 2023, after which the court placed him in a pre-trial detention center. In a letter from detention, he wrote that he had participated in protests and rallies. Details of the criminal case remain undisclosed. According to the BBC Russian Service, Veryanov was also charged with organizing and participating in the activities of a terrorist organization. He was reportedly suspected of collaborating with the Freedom of Russia Legion.
Separately, a 56-year-old resident of the Rostov region was sentenced to 12 years in prison on treason charges. Investigators say that in 2022, he transferred money to a Ukrainian bank account with the funds allegedly given in support of the AFU.
In annexed Crimea, former police officer Lyudmila Kolesnikova, 34, was sentenced to 17 years in a penal colony on treason charges. Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kolesnikova left for Ireland, where she was granted temporary protection. She returned to Yalta in 2024 due to her mother’s serious illness. After her mother’s funeral, Kolesnikova was detained. Crimean blogger and informant Aleksandr Talipov, who collaborates with law enforcement, claims Kolesnikova was accused of funding the AFU. The details of her case were further reported by Mediazona.
Longreads
Mediazona has published an article about teenagers who, in their pursuit of quick money, had committed railway arson, and are now facing trial. The same employer, operating under the nickname "Novgorodian pirate," has repeatedly emerged in different cases.
The Vot Tak [Like This] media outlet has published a story told by deserter Ilya Yelokhin about the executions and torture of soldiers in the Russian-occupied part of the Donetsk region of Ukraine. The Insider [independent Russian investigative media outlet] has published stories about two other deserters.
The Govorit NeMoskva [NonMoscow Is Speaking] Telegram channel has published an article about the wives of the participants in the invasion of Ukraine.