Mobilization in Russia for June 8-10, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
The federal government has introduced legislation in the State Duma [lower house of Russia’s Federal Assembly] that would permit members of "volunteer units" to obtain military ranks without completing a military training course or attestation. At present, the law does not provide for this, even if these “volunteer fighters” participate in combat operations. They are not military personnel because they sign short-term contracts not for military service, but for "voluntary assistance in the fulfillment of tasks" for the Russian Armed Forces. However, beginning in 2025, members of volunteer units became liable for crimes against military service.
Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising
An analysis of federal budget expenditures by Vazhnyye Istorii [IStories, independent Russian investigative media outlet] indicates that 89,600 individuals signed contracts with the Ministry of Defense in the first quarter of 2025, a 22% increase over the same period in 2024. Russia spent 35.8 billion rubles [$453 million] on payments to contract soldiers in the first quarter, which already exceeds the 30 billion rubles [$379 million] the government had budgeted for the entire year, an amount that was projected annually for 2025–2027. According to budget expenditures data, between 374,200 and 407,200 people signed contracts in 2024, with 157,000 of them joining in the fourth quarter alone, while in 2023, the RuAF added 345,000 new recruits.
The Voyennye Advokaty [Military Lawyers] Telegram channel reports that military investigators are conducting raids in the Krasnodar, Moscow and Saratov regions, to identify naturalized citizens who failed to register for military service. Following changes in legislation, failure to fulfill the obligation to register can now result in the revocation of acquired citizenship. However, loss of citizenship does not apply to foreigners who obtained it without taking the oath, nor to those who are already registered for military service but failed to respond to a draft notice.
According to the Krym.Realii outlet, citing a report from the Office of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, law enforcement officers carried out a raid last week at one of the markets in the annexed city of Sevastopol. As a result of the inspection, 13 individuals were served draft notices to report to enlistment offices for registration.
In Dagestan [Russia’s constituent republic], mass raids targeting conscription-age men are underway, according to the Idite Lesom! [Flee through the woods/Get lost you all] Telegram channel. Ivan Chuvilyaev, the channel’s press secretary, reported that a tinted-window bus is allegedly traveling across the republic, detaining conscription age men regardless of their fitness for military service or whether they have a valid draft deferral or exemption. Even university students with official deferrals are being forcibly taken to draft offices, where they are pressured to rush through enlistment procedures in a single day, circumventing normal timelines. According to Chuvilyaev, the situation in the region resembles the conditions seen during the mobilization campaign. The human rights advocate also warned that conscripts may ultimately be sent to the war.
The Telegraph has reported on the stories of several African men who were allegedly deceived into signing military contracts and subsequently sent to fight in the war against Ukraine. Foreign nationals arrive in Russia responding to fake job offers, and upon crossing the border, they are detained and coerced into signing contracts. Their phones and documents are reportedly confiscated.
Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers
The Kirov region has the highest per capita number of military deaths among the regions of the Volga Federal District, with 57 fatalities per 10,000 men aged 18 to 66. The Perm region [Russia’s federal subject] ranks second, with 47 deaths per 10,000 men, followed by Bashkortostan [Russia's constituent republic] in third place with 46. Three regions share the fourth-highest fatality rate of 43 deaths per 10,000 people: Russia’s Tatarstan and Udmurtia constituent republics, and the Saratov region. In absolute terms nationwide, Bashkortostan leads with 5,798 confirmed military deaths, followed by Tatarstan with 5,222.
Russia and Ukraine carried out two prisoner-of-war exchanges. On June 9, both sides exchanged servicemen under the age of 25. While the exact number of individuals exchanged was not disclosed, Russia’s Ministry of Defense stated that the exchange followed a one-for-one format. The following day, June 10, the two sides exchanged wounded soldiers. No numbers were released, and this time there was no mention of whether the exchange was equal.
Contract soldier Yury K., who had previously complained about being sent to forward positions despite missing fingers on his hand, recorded a new video in which he recanted his complaints about command. Relatives of Nesterenko believe the video was recorded under duress. According to his lawyer, after the first video appeared, the man urgently asked to delete the post within an hour or he'd be sent "to hell". Later, messages with the video were deleted, and the soldier wrote to relatives that he had reached an agreement with his commander and was now "doing fine." Nevertheless, he has not been in contact since June 5. The second video was sent to the Ostorozhno, Novosti [Beware the News] Telegram channel by an unknown person who identified himself as an acquaintance of the man.
Assistance
In 2024, Russians with disabilities received 53% more limb prostheses than a year earlier, according to Ministry of Labor data. The number of arm prostheses issued increased by 75%—from 8,200 to 14,500. Products for people missing lower limbs were distributed 51% more—138,000 instead of 91,000. The number of wheelchairs issued also rose by 18% from 2023 to 2024. According to the Ministry of Labor, 81,000 people were registered as needing leg prostheses in 2024—12% more than the previous year. The number of those needing arm prosthesis grew by 31% over the year.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
In the Volgograd region, an emergency response protocol has been initiated after 34-year-old contract soldier Mikhail Valkovich, a participant in the war with Ukraine, previously convicted for robbery and unintentional murder, escaped from his military unit armed with an assault rifle and opened fire on two men on the outskirts of the Petrov Val town. According to local residents, Valkovich wanted to meet with a new supposed partner of his ex-wife. When the partner did not appear at the meeting, Valkovich discharged the assault rifle at two of his friends. As a result, one of them is in intensive care, the other hospitalized in a moderate condition.
In Russia's constituent Republic of Altai, the Barnaul Garrison Military Court has sentenced Taisia Shchegolikhina, a contract servicewoman, to seven years in a penal colony for using forged conclusions from the military medical board and simulating illness during mobilization. According to the case materials, from January to October 2024, Shchegolikhina submitted nine requests for exemption from military service, each accompanied by a forged conclusion from the military medical board stating the need for 30 days of leave. The command agreed on eight occasions, and on the ninth, they initiated the authenticity verification of the documents.
In the Omsk region, a 14-year-old and two 15-year-old teenagers have been accused of committing an act of terror. According to law enforcement officers, the minors received an offer in a messenger app to set fire to relay cabinets and send a video report of the arson. On Dec. 29, 2024, in the Kalachinsk district, the young people forced opened the equipment and set fire to it, after which they were detained. Reportedly, the case against them has already been sent to court.
The Tyumen Regional Court sentenced 18-year-old Daniil Korkin to nine years and his peer Maksim Yurchuk to eight years in a penal colony for charges of sabotage, preparation for it, and money laundering in cryptocurrency. According to investigators, in November 2023, the college students from Tyumen received instructions via Telegram from an unknown source. In the early hours of Nov. 2, they set fire to relay cabinets near Utyashevo station, and on the evening of Nov. 17, they targeted the cabin of an electric locomotive at Tyumen station. The teenagers were apprehended shortly after these incidents. The case also involves a third teenager who is below the age of criminal responsibility. The Astra Telegram channel claimed that this third individual was a 15-year-old born in Ukraine.
The investigative department of the FSB for the Orenburg region reported preventing the smuggling of parts for Mi-8 and Mi-17 helicopters valued at over 400 million rubles [$5.06 million], allegedly destined for Ukraine. Criminal cases for smuggling technology potentially used in weapon creation have been initiated against six suspects, including citizens of Russia, Ukraine, and Middle Eastern countries.
The Federal Security Service announced the arrest of a Russian national accused of plotting a terrorist attack in the Krasnodar region on behalf of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). According to intelligence agencies, the 22-year-old man was allegedly recruited via WhatsApp in January 2025 “to gather reconnaissance information on Russian territory.” For compensation, he reportedly filmed military facilities and collected data on the movements of Black Sea Fleet vessels. In March, he was sent coordinates for explosives intended to target an energy infrastructure facility in Novorossiysk. He was detained while attempting to retrieve the explosives. A criminal case has been opened on charges of preparing an act of terror and illegal use of explosives. The accused has pleaded guilty, according to the FSB.
Law enforcement officials detained a man accused of planning a terrorist attack at Sukhumi Airport, located in the unrecognized region of Abkhazia. The suspect, reportedly an engineer, allegedly intended to pass detailed plans of the airport and a nearby secured parking lot—used for official international delegations—to Ukrainian intelligence. Authorities have not disclosed the suspect’s name, charges, or further details of the investigation.
In Saint Petersburg, former police officer Konstantin Podosvelev was sentenced to 14 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of damaging cultural heritage sites, vandalism, and participation in a terrorist organization. Podosvelev was arrested on Feb. 14, 2024, after graffiti reading “University for Killers” appeared on the Polytechnic University’s wall, along with inscriptions saying “Russian Orthodox Church for Killers” on two local churches. Investigators say he made the markings on orders from the “Freedom of Russia Legion.” Podosvelev has denied the charges, claiming that confessions were extracted from him under torture and threats.
A military court in Rostov-on-Don has sentenced resident of Moscow Aleksandr Filiptsev to 15 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of participation in a terrorist community and preparation of three terrorist attacks. According to the law enforcement officers, in 2023 the man, together with two residents of the city of Luhansk, agreed to provide Ukrainian intelligence services with information about the locations of Russian soldiers and military vehicles on the territory of the Krasnodar region and the "LPR." In the summer of 2024, Filiptsev sent “unidentified members of the terrorist community” the coordinates of the railroad tracks near the city of Sochi, which were supposed to be the target of a missile strike.
The Southern District Military Court has sentenced an instructor of the sergeant school of the Ukrainian Azov Brigade, Oleksandr Koliuda, to 18 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of participation in a terrorist community and training in terrorist activities. Koliuda was captured in May 2022 when he and other members of the Azov Brigade left the besieged Azovstal Steel Factory in the city of Mariupol.
Longreads
The Lyudi Baikala [People of Baikal] independent media outlet tells the story of 18-year-old Vitaly Ivanov, who was killed in the war. The young man was detained on suspicion of robbing a store and, threatened with sexualized violence, was forced to sign a contract.