Mobilization in Russia for March 31-April 2, 2026 CIT Volunteer Summary

Authorities and Legislation

Russian IT companies could lose their accreditation if their services remain accessible to users with active VPNs. This, in turn, will prevent their employees from receiving draft deferments from statutory military service. The registry of the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media currently includes about 20,000 companies. According to sources, the Federal Security Service will detect VPN traffic and report this data to the ministry.

Army Recruitment

Citing sources, Faridaily reports that in early 2026, Science and Higher Education Minister Valery Falkov met with rectors of major universities and declared that at least 2% of students must sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense. According to last year's data, 2.2 million men were enrolled in Russian universities. If universities fulfill this requirement, the Russian Armed Forces will receive at least an additional 44,000 recruits. If authorities establish a similar quota for technical colleges, up to 76,000 young people could sign contracts in total. As the Vazhnyye Istorii [IStories, independent Russian investigative media outlet] previously reported, the Ministry of Defense plans to recruit 78,800 people into the newly created Unmanned Systems Forces by the end of 2026, with 58,000 to be drawn from students, graduates of UAV operation courses, former aviation unit personnel and "female citizens" with relevant training.

Reports continue to emerge about efforts to encourage university and college students to sign contracts with the MoD. At Moscow College No. 26, a classroom linked to training for service in UAV units was set up about two months ago. According to one student, although there is no direct campaigning to sign contracts at the institution, the room contains flyers and information boards, and drone training sessions are held there. At the Kirov branch of Kutafin Moscow State Law University, meetings are being held where students are informed about the option of signing a "special contract" for one year of service in unmanned systems troops. At Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, an event titled "Dialogue on Equal Terms" featured offers for students to sign contracts to serve in UAV units. Similar events have been recorded at at least seven educational institutions in Saint Petersburg, including Saint Petersburg State University, ITMO University, Admiral Makarov State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping, Petrovsky College, Voenmekh, and the St. Petersburg College of Fashion, as well as several other colleges. At Chuvash State University, a meeting dedicated to Unmanned Systems Forces was held. According to eyewitnesses, male students with academic debts were specifically summoned. At the meeting, they were encouraged to sign contracts and were promised payments, the clearing of their academic debts and a "secure future" for themselves and their families. Attendance was mandatory.

The Novosibirsk regional government has increased the one-time payment for signing a contract with the MoD from 1.6 million rubles [$19,900], set in July 2025, to 2.5 million rubles [$31,100]. The new rate will remain in effect until June 30 of this year. Including the federal payment of 400,000 rubles [$4,970], new recruits will receive a total of 2.9 million rubles [$36,100].

Authorities in the Leningrad region have raised the regional bonus for signing a contract to 3.15 million rubles[$39,200]. In early February, the payment had already been increased from 2 million rubles [$24,900] to 2.15 million rubles [$26,700]. Including the federal component, the total payout will reach 3.55 million rubles [$44,100]. In addition, recruits in the region are issued a land certificate, which entitles them, upon completing service, to a plot of land or a cash payment of 450,000 rubles [$5,600]. Several municipalities in the region have also introduced their own bonuses. For example, in the Gatchina district, contract soldiers are promised 300,000 rubles [$3,730].

In the Magadan region, the sign-up bonus has increased by one million rubles, rising from 2.6 million rubles [$32,300] in May 2025 to 3.6 million rubles [$44,800]. This applies to individuals signing a contract with the MoD between 1 March and 30 June 2026.

In the Volgograd region, the sign-up bonus has increased from 1.7 million rubles [$21,100] in April 2025 to 2.6 million rubles [$32,300]. This increase applies to individuals signing a contract between 1 March and 31 May 2026.

In the Astrakhan region, the regional payment for signing a contract has increased by 500,000 rubles [$6,220], rising from 2.1 million rubles [$26,100] in February this year to 2.6 million rubles [$32,300].

The authorities in Karachay-Cherkessia [Russia’s constituent republic] increased the regional sign-up bonus from 1.9 million rubles [$23,600] in August 2025 to 2.4 million rubles [$29,800].

In the Khabarovsk region, the regional sign-up bonus has increased to 2.1 million rubles [$26,100]. This payment was previously increased on April 30, 2025, rising from 805,000 rubles [$10,000] to 1 million rubles [$12,400].

Radyi Khabirov, the head of Bashkortostan [Russia’s constituent republic], has extended the 1 million ruble [$12,400] sign-up bonus, which was introduced earlier this year, through April 30.

According to a report by the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Vladimir region, the number of convicts in the region’s penal colonies decreased by 27.8%. While 6,848 convicts were recorded at the beginning of 2022, that number dropped to 4,943 by early 2026. This sharp decline is likely linked to their mass recruitment for the war in Ukraine, first by the Wagner Group and later by the MoD.

The Idite Lesom! [Flee through the woods/Get lost you all] Telegram channel reports that, currently, 40% of all requests are from conscripts who were forced to sign contracts, compared to 10–15% a year earlier. These cases involve servicemen who are prepared to desert the army.

In Moscow, a young man has been charged with a misdemeanor under the article on failure to fulfill military registration obligations for his failure to report to a draft office upon being summoned for a data check-up. The young man filed a complaint, stating that the notice summoning him to a draft office was not properly sent or delivered to him personally, but rather came in digital form via the mos.ru portal [official web portal of the Moscow government] to an account that he does not use. However, the court did not accept these arguments, deeming that the fact of viewing the draft notice was recorded, and upheld the military commissar's decision to hold the young man accountable.

Mobilized Soldiers, Contract Soldiers and Conscripts

In the Primorsky region [Russia's federal subject], Sergey Vakulenko, a mobilized soldier who attempted suicide and was subjected to pressure from his command, has gone missing. According to his family, Vakulenko served in the 114th Motorized Rifle Regiment and refused to return to the frontline after his brother was killed in the war in the summer of 2024. In April 2025, Vakulenko and his wife were assaulted by military police, after which the man was sentenced to six years of probation for going AWOL and was left to serve in the military unit where, according to him, he was forced to sign a contract, beaten and extorted. After attempting suicide in January 2026, Vakulenko was taken from a medical unit in an unconscious state, after which communication with the man ceased. His wife and mother have reported threats from the military police and have not ruled out the possibility that Vakulenko may have been killed.

The Chair of the Central Election Commission Ella Pamfilova has stated that of the 1,197 employees of electoral commissions who went to war across Russia, 109 were killed—almost one in ten.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

In the Samara region, a special police station has been established to investigate crimes against participants in the war and their family members. According to Igor Ivanov, the head of the regional headquarters, this police unit was created to address the rising number of such crimes in the region.

A military court in the Murmansk region has sentenced a serviceman to 17 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of desertion, failure to report for duty and two counts of theft. According to investigators, the serviceman, identified only as L. and previously convicted, twice left his unit without authorization in 2024-2025, went into hiding, committed thefts from shops and was ultimately detained.

The Northern Fleet Military Court has sentenced a 20-year-old contract soldier to 15 years in prison for two acts of terror committed at military units in the Murmansk Region. According to investigators, in May 2025 he transferred 350,000 rubles [$4,350] to fraudsters, after which they convinced him that he had been "financing terrorism" and coerced him into setting fire to military vehicles and an aircraft.

Proceedings are currently underway at the Second Western District Military Court against Aleksey Marushchenko, the founder of the so-called PMC Yastreb, and his alleged accomplices. They are accused of fraud in connection with wartime recruitment. According to investigators, they deceived 95 people by promising service in PMC Yastreb under better conditions than those offered by MoD units, and then misappropriated money allegedly collected for paperwork, equipment, and support for servicemen’s families.

The defendants also face charges of extortion, murder and theft of weapons. One of the counts concerns a serviceman who was allegedly taken into a forest at gunpoint and held there for three days, handcuffed to a tree. The circumstances surrounding the other charges have not been disclosed. Among those arrested is Artur Velisevich, the former founder of the Yaguar private security company in the Bryansk region. A separate defendant in the case is Igor Dushkin, a lieutenant colonel of police and head of police in the Rylsky district, the Kursk region. He is charged with unlawful possession of weapons, ammunition, explosives, improvised explosive devices and large-caliber firearms. Marushchenko, Velisevich, and the other defendants were detained last year in the Kursk region.

Law enforcement officers have detained a 15-year-old teenager from the Moscow region who, after being threatened by unknown individuals, set fire to cellular communications equipment in the hope of protecting his parents from criminal prosecution.

In Saint Petersburg, authorities have opened a criminal case against a 62‑year‑old woman on charges of committing an act of terror. According to investigators, she threw a bottle containing an incendiary mixture toward fuel pumps at a gas station on the evening of April 1. No one was injured. Preliminary findings suggest that the woman was manipulated into the attack by phone scammers.

The Second Western District Military Court has sentenced 18‑year‑old Yaroslav Shcherbatyuk to six years in a penal colony and an underage schoolboy to six and a half years in a penal colony for minors in a terrorism case. The charges stemmed from the arson of a battery cabinet at the Govardovo station of the Moscow Railway, carried out at the request of an unidentified individual via Telegram. Authorities estimated the damage at more than 68,000 rubles [$850].

The First Western District Military Court has sentenced 20‑year‑old Anna Belokopytova from Komi [Russia’s constituent republic] to 10 years in a penal colony in a terrorism case. Investigators said that she set fire to the door of a mosque in Usinsk after receiving instructions from scammers on a messenger app. The attack caused damage estimated at 75,000 rubles [$930], and one person sustained minor injuries. The prosecutor’s office had requested an 11‑year sentence.

The Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court sentenced 21-year-old Aleksandr Esipov and 20-year-old Maksim Nureev to 23 years in prison on charges of treason, sabotage and money laundering, according to Russian authorities. Prosecutors said the young men set fire to three cellular towers, planned additional arson attacks on a locomotive and a traction substation, and attempted to recruit another individual to carry out similar acts, receiving payment in cryptocurrency. Esipov and Nureev were detained in May 2024. The two men told investigators they had been motivated by money, and said they were led to believe the arson was intended to help a railway repair company secure new contracts. Initially, the defendant was charged only with sabotage. However, the case was later reclassified to include more serious offenses after an officer of the Federal Security Service (FSB) testified and cited correspondence with accounts allegedly linked to Ukrainian intelligence services. The new charges included treason.

In the Zabaykalsky region [Russia's federal subject], officers from the FSB detained a 65-year-old journalist from Chita, Aleksandr Andreyev, on suspicion of treason. Andreyev is a correspondent for Kasparov.ru and a contributor to MBKh Media, and previously headed the regional branch of the political party Western Choice. The specific charges against the journalist remain unclear. Searches related to the case were carried out at the homes of at least two of his acquaintances, including Dmitry Plyukhin, a former head of the Mogochinsky region.

The Central District Military Court sentenced two residents of the Leningrad region, born in 2001, while the Southern District Military Court sentenced a resident of Udmurtia [Russia's constituent republic], born in 1984, to prison terms ranging from 17 to 20 years on charges of treason, preparing an act of terrorism, preparing for sabotage, aiding sabotage and illegally possessing and manufacturing explosive devices. According to investigators, they independently established contact with representatives of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) via Telegram, offering to participate in intelligence activities in exchange for payment and asylum in Ukraine or a European Union country. The defendants are accused of planning terrorist attacks against MoD officers and a representative of the occupation authorities of the so-called LPR, as well as sabotaging enterprises of the military-industrial complex and railway infrastructure.

A resident of Syzran was sentenced to six years in a penal colony by the Samara Regional Court in a treason case. According to investigators, he collected photographs of administrative buildings and passed them to a "representative of a Ukrainian military movement" while still a minor in September 2024. Since the court sent the young man to a penal colony, he must now be at least 19 years old.

A 23-year-old resident of the Leningrad region was sentenced to 14 years in a penal colony for treason and participating in a terrorist organization. According to law enforcement authorities, in 2024, the man provided the Ukrainian government with information about the Kaliningrad region's border and customs services, as well as the locations of military units in the region.

The Kursk Regional Court sentenced Irkutsk region resident Svetlana Savelyeva to 15 years in a penal colony in a case involving attempted treason and an attempted illegal crossing of the state border. According to investigators, Savelyeva underwent military training in Kazakhstan and intended to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine, attempting to enter Ukrainian-controlled territory in the Kursk region in October 2024, but was detained.

The Southern District Military Court sentenced Miloslav Oleynik, a resident of the Krasnodar region, to 20 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of treason, participation in a terrorist organization and illegal possession of explosives. According to investigators, from April 2022 to Dec. 27, 2024, while outside Russia, Oleynik communicated via a messaging app with representatives of the Russian Volunteer Corps. In January 2025, while in Novorossiysk, he contacted an unidentified member of the group and, acting on instructions, picked up a package containing an explosive device before being detained by the FSB.

A military court of the Baltic Fleet sentenced Aleksey Filippov, a resident of the Kaliningrad region, to 21 years in a penal colony on charges of treason, preparing a terrorist attack, illegal acquisition of an explosive device and possession of munitions. Authorities say he planned to blow up an administration building in the Chernyakhovsk district of the Kaliningrad region and cooperated with foreign intelligence services by passing them information about military personnel from one of the units. He was detained in June 2024.

Children and Militarization of Education

Residents of Nakhodka have called for Albert Mokaev, a serviceman and participant in the Heroes of Primorye program, to be barred from school events. On March 18, 2026, a man with the same name was convicted of theft, but this did not prevent him from taking part in official events alongside local officials and lawmakers.

Longreads

The T-invariant media outlet explains how students are recruited for the war.

The Sibir.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet published a report detailing how fraudulent schemes targeting service members and their relatives have spread across Russia during the war.

The Idel.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet shares four stories of well-known convicts from Tatarstan who signed contracts with the MoD and went to the front.