Mobilization in Russia for March 12-15, 2026 CIT Volunteer Summary
Army Recruitment
The plan to recruit students from the Russian State University for the Humanities into the Unmanned Systems Forces is 200 people, the outlet T-invariant reports, citing a source at the university. The timeframe for fulfilling the plan has not been specified. According to the source, the task was set for the institute and faculty heads by the university’s vice-rector for academic affairs, Pavel Shkarenkov, during a meeting. The outlet notes that in recent years the Russian State University for the Humanities has been actively building cooperation with the GROM Kaskad unmanned aviation brigade and has regularly sent drones and other aid to the frontline. Students are also involved in these activities. Earlier reports indicated that recruitment quotas are in place at other universities as well. In particular, Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University plans to recruit 109 students by the end of April, while at Far Eastern Federal University the monthly quota is 32 people.
The student outlet Groza has calculated that in less than two months, 194 universities and colleges have encouraged students to enlist in UAV troops. The estimate is based on reader reports and open data. The published list also includes cases where recruitment efforts took place in just one faculty or institute rather than across the entire institution. Groza says it receives daily complaints from students about campaigning and pressure to enlist in "UAV troops." Earlier, the outlet Vyorstka estimated that the recruitment campaign aimed at drawing students into unmanned systems troops has affected at least 207 universities, colleges and technical schools in Russia and in the occupied territories.
In Saratov, military investigators have conducted a raid to identify migrants who had obtained Russian citizenship but had not undergone military registration. On March 13, law enforcement officers checked more than 150 people, more than 15 of whom were summoned to a draft office. According to the Investigative Committee, more than 25 such checks were conducted in the region in 2025, during which more than 500 notices were issued to people who had obtained Russian citizenship but had not undergone military registration.
Kirill Shlemov, a resident of Chelyabinsk accused of attempted murder of his former girlfriend, has signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense and gone to the war against Ukraine, due to which the criminal case was suspended. The investigation believes that on Nov. 25, 2025, during a quarrel, Shlemov pushed 21-year-old Kristina off the balcony of the fifth floor. After the fall, she entered a coma and remained on a ventilator for a long time.
Mobilized Soldiers, Contract Soldiers and Conscripts
Based on open sources, Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet] and BBC News Russian, together with volunteers, have verified the names of 203,306 Russian fighters killed in Ukraine, including 18,170 mobilized soldiers. Over the past week, the list has grown by 540 soldiers, 78 of whom were mobilized.
Thirty-eight-year-old contract soldier Denis Domenko, who signed a contract in February 2025 and was assigned to the 114th Motorized Rifle Brigade, was seriously wounded in August of the same year and spent three days making his way back from the forward positions. He subsequently underwent numerous medical operations, during which doctors removed 27 mm of bone from his skull; fragments still remain lodged in his head. Despite his injuries, a medical leave and a service fitness category "V" (partially fit for military service) marked with a red stamp, he was declared AWOL in November while still in the hospital. Later, after Domenko received a referral to a military medical board, he was removed from the unit’s reserve list and told he would be sent back to forward positions—even though the military investigation department had ordered the command to immediately send him for the medical examination.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
The Southern District Military Court has replaced the suspended sentence of 34-year-old serviceman Aleksey Penkov with five years in prison in a case involving fraud related to military compensation payments. Penkov signed a contract with the MoD in April 2020, before Russia’s full-scale invasion. According to investigators, between February and June 2024 in the Donetsk region he and a group of accomplices fraudulently obtained about 51 million rubles [$639,100] by claiming compensation for injuries they had not actually sustained. The court also ordered him to repay 50 million rubles [$626,500] to the MoD as compensation for damages and stripped him of the rank of junior sergeant and his state awards.
A court in the Sverdlovsk region hasfined a local resident 70,000 rubles [$880] for evading regular conscription. According to the prosecution, the draft board had previously declared the man temporarily unfit for military service (fitness category "G") and granted him a draft deferment. After the deferment expired, however, he received a draft notice but failed to appear at the draft office for the required conscription procedures. The defendant fully pleaded guilty and agreed to have the case evaluated under a special procedure.
The Southern District Military Court has sentenced two former Ukrainian servicemen—36‑year‑old Artyom Onoprienko and 46‑year‑old Anatoly Rudenko—to 18 and 19 years in prison, respectively, on charges of participating in a terrorist community and training for terrorism. Prosecutors said Onoprienko had served in the Aidar Battalion, while Rudenko was linked to the Donbas battalion. However, Mediazona reported that both men had resigned from the Ukrainian army well before Russia’s full‑scale invasion—Onoprienko’s service in Aidar ended in the summer of 2019, while Rudenko left the Donbas Battalion in the summer of 2020.
The Second Western District Military Court has sentenced five Ukrainian servicemen in a terrorist attack case tied to an incursion into Russia’s Kursk region. Oleksandr Garbuz, 53, was sentenced to 18 years for allegedly mining roads in the Sudzhansky district in October 2024. He was taken prisoner on July 23, 2025. Volodymyr Koshmela was sentenced to 17 years for allegedly collecting intelligence on Russian soldiers in the Sudzhansky district between December 2024 and January 2025, and for participating in the "blocking" of the village of Guyevo. He was captured on Jan. 24, 2025. Serhiy Mekhonoshin was sentenced to 16 years for involvement in the incursion into the Glushkovsky district. He was taken prisoner on Sept. 25, 2025. Mykola Cheban was sentenced to 16 years for the Glushkovsky district incursion. He was captured on June 9, 2025. Oleksandr Sychugov, 47, was sentenced to 15 years for participating in the "blocking" of the village of Tyotkino in the Glushkovsky district beginning April 19, 2025. He was taken prisoner on May 31, 2025.
Police in the Moscow region detained a 15-year-old boy from Moscow on terrorism and property destruction charges. According to police, the teenager set fire to automated gas stations in the villages of Pionersky and Onufrievo, burning two fuel pumps. No one was injured. The boy said he had acted under instructions from unidentified individuals who contacted him by phone.
Law enforcement officers in Novokuznetsk detained a 27-year-old local woman in a case involving deliberate property damage. According to investigators, the woman, acting on instructions from scammers, took out several loans totaling more than 670,000 rubles [$8,400], of which she transferred 270,000 rubles [$3,380] to the fraudsters. The "handlers" later told her she had allegedly financed terrorism and offered to help her avoid liability in exchange for setting fire to a police vehicle. On March 13, the woman set fire to a car parked outside a police station and was detained at the scene. A court has not yet decided on pretrial restrictions.
Officers of the Federal Security Service (FSB) have detained two Russian citizens, aged 21 and 36, in a treason case. According to law enforcement, one of the men was detained in the Tver region and the other in the Moscow region. Both allegedly contacted representatives of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and began collecting information about military facilities in the Moscow region, Tula region and Tver region. In a video released by the FSB, the 36-year-old detainee from the Tver region says he sent Ukrainian intelligence services a recording showing a train carrying military vehicles.
The Russian-installed "Supreme Court of Crimea" sentenced a resident of Yalta, believed to be 32-year-old Charaz Akimov, to 18 years in prison on charges of treason. According to the prosecution, acting on instructions from Ukrainian intelligence, the man filmed and drew diagrams of the deployment of Russian naval vessels and passed the information to a representative of the Main Directorate of Intelligence. In 2025, Akimov had been sentenced to five years in a penal colony under an article on "confidential" cooperation with foreigners, but the ruling was later overturned and he was subsequently charged with treason. The FSB reported Akimov’s detention in December 2024. In a video released by law enforcement officers, he said he had found a Telegram bot called "Budanov’s Case," referring to Kyrylo Budanov, Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine's Ministry of Defense, sent a screenshot of his Ukrainian passport and began receiving assignments. He said that in the winter of 2023 he was asked to carry out two tasks. One of them was to travel to Sevastopol and film the movement of ships in the Southern Bay.
Children and Militarization
Schools, libraries and kindergartens in the Kursk region held events marking the anniversary of the "liberation of the town of Sudzha from the Armed Forces of Ukraine." As part of the events, children were told about the military operation "Potok," shown documentary films and involved in "patriotic" activities dedicated to the events of March 2025.