Mobilization in Russia for May 14-17, 2026 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
Vladimir Putin signed a decree introducing uniform basic support measures for participants in the full-scale war against Ukraine, fighters who have served in "DPR" and "LPR" formations since 2014, and their family members. The document recommends that regions provide these groups with a uniform set of benefits and guarantees, including discounted access to cultural and sports facilities, subsidies of at least 100,000 rubles [$1,370] for residential gas connections, priority for employment and additional vocational training, and assistance in starting a business. Additional benefits include free legal, psychological and medical assistance, priority access to social services, preferential school admissions for children, free meals for schoolchildren and college students, reimbursement for kindergarten and after-school program fees, and vouchers for children's camps. For disabled veterans and the families of those killed, the support measures must remain in place indefinitely, while for all others, they must stay in effect at least until the end of the year following the end of the war. The decree also recommends that regions create special discount programs and conduct information campaigns to foster a "respectful attitude" toward war participants.
Army Recruitment
Vazhnyye Istorii [IStories, independent Russian investigative media outlet] calculated that in 2026 the average monthly spending by Russian regions on payments to military recruiters more than doubled compared to 2025—from 358 million rubles [$4.92 million] to 802 million rubles [$11 million]. Altogether, since the launch of these programs, Russia’s federal subjects have spent at least 7.7 billion rubles [$106 million] on recruiters. The real figure is likely higher, since only some regions publicly disclose such spending. By May 2026, roughly half of Russia’s regions had officially introduced payments for recruiting contract soldiers: 27 regions at the regional level and another 15 in individual municipalities. Payments are made not only to ordinary citizens, but also to employees of draft offices, local administrations, the Federal Penitentiary Service, police, the Federal Bailiff Service, the Investigative Committee and the Federal Security Service (FSB).
In some regions, even remotely informing people about military service or helping them prepare documents qualifies as "assistance," provided the recruit lists the "assistant" by name in the paperwork submitted to the authorities. The largest payments are reportedly offered in the Ryazan region, where recruiters can receive up to 575,000 rubles [$7,900] for attracting a foreign citizen from outside the CIS, and in the city of Ufa, where the municipal bonus reaches 600,000 rubles [$8,250]. In the first four months of 2026 alone, regions paid recruiters 3.2 billion rubles [$44 million]—around 75% of all spending during the record-setting year of 2025. On average, regions are now spending more than 800 million rubles [$11 million] per month on recruiters, 2.2 times more than a year earlier. The biggest spender was the Ivanovo region, which allocated nearly 1.2 billion rubles [$16.5 million]. More than 1 billion rubles [$13.7 million] was also spent by the Saratov region, which used reserve fund money for the payments. The Tver and Ryazan regions were also among the leaders in spending. At the same time, the authorities are continuing to expand the recruitment system. In addition to state institutions and state-owned enterprises, regions are now officially involving private businesses as well.
Authorities in the Vladimir region increased the regional sign-up bonus for signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense from 2.3 million rubles [$31,600] to 2.6 million rubles [$35,700] starting on May 15. This is already the seventh increase in the region over the past two years. Including the national component of 400,000 rubles [$5,500], the total sign-up bonus will now amount to 3 million rubles [$41,200].
Konstantin Korpusov, head of the Investigative Committee's Main Military Investigative Directorate, stated that since 2023, authorities have registered more than 112,000 recent recipients of Russian citizenship for military service. Of those, over 39,000 have enlisted and deployed to fight in Ukraine. According to Korpusov, this number is enough "to actually staff about nine ground forces brigades." Since November 2023, law enforcement officers, together with the Ministry of Defense, have been conducting a campaign to register new citizens for military service. In Saratov, for example, they conducted a raid to identify naturalized Russians who had not registered. While checking more than 150 drivers, law enforcement officers identified over 25 draft evaders and served them with draft notices.
The Idite Lesom! [Flee through the woods/Get lost you all] project reported that on May 13, border guards prevented a conscript from traveling to China because the Ministry of Defense had imposed a travel ban after he ignored a draft notice. Human rights advocates said that while authorities have begun enforcing travel bans on conscripts, the system currently operates inconsistently: in some cases, young men still manage to leave Russia even after border guards initially turn them away, while other attempts fail.
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 219,356 Russian fighters killed in Ukraine. Over the past week, the list has grown by 1,548 soldiers. Russia's constituent republic of Bashkortostan has become the first region to exceed 10,000 confirmed deaths. The largest share of losses consists of volunteer fighters who signed contracts with the MoD after the outset of the full-scale war against Ukraine, accounting for at least 37 percent.
Russia and Ukraine have conducted a 205-for-205 POW exchange. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, this is the first stage of a previously announced 1,000-for-1,000 exchange. Among the freed Ukrainian servicemen are fighters from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard and the State Border Service, including defenders of the city of Mariupol and the Azovstal Steel Factory, many of whom have been in captivity since 2022. The United Arab Emirates played the role of mediator in the process. Russian soldiers were brought to Belarus after the exchange. The Nash Vykhod [Our Way Out] Telegram channel published a complete list of the exchanged Russian soldiers. The Khochu Nayti [I Want to Find] project has reported that 90 percent of the exchanged Russians are contract soldiers. The remaining 10 percent were initially mobilized and signed contracts later. 16 percent of the exchanged servicemen went to war from prisons or while under investigation. Approximately 70 percent of the exchanged spent no more than a year in captivity, and 20 percent spent less than six months.
Ivan Azarenko, a former deputy of the Krasnoyarsk city council, and Yevgeny Kozin, a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Krasnoyarsk region, have been returned from the combat zone in Ukraine due to a criminal case involving bribery. Both men signed contracts with "volunteer formations" after the case was opened against them, and were deployed to the city of Luhansk in the Russian-annexed part of Ukraine without consulting the investigation or court. After the law enforcement demanded they return, Kozin voluntarily came back and was put under a recognizance bond. Azarenko was forcibly transported and sent to a pre-trial detention center. Their alleged accomplice, former Krasnoyarsk City Hall official Irina Tyurina, was previously sentenced to 13 years in a penal colony in a bribery case involving 6.3 million rubles [$86,500].
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
The Veliky Novgorod Garrison Military Court sentenced contract soldier Ilya Yakovlev to two years of probation in a case involving death threats and violence against police officers. According to the case materials, in November 2025, Yakovlev, while on rehabilitation leave, had been drinking alcohol and, after being reprimanded by his wife, threatened to stab her while holding a kitchen knife. Later, when police officers arrived at the apartment after being called by Yakovlev’s father, he refused to comply with their demands, said that he would "cut off their heads," and again grabbed a knife. The officers then disarmed him and took him to the police station. Yakovlev had previously been convicted of repeat drunk driving, and less than two months after serving his sentence, he signed a contract with the MoD.
The Yakutsk City Court suspended criminal proceedings against war participant Aleksandr Stepanov and ordered his arrest in absentia after he fled and failed to appear in court. Since 2022, Stepanov has been implicated in at least five criminal cases involving illegal possession of firearms, grievous bodily harm, hooliganism and car theft. During the investigation, Stepanov enlisted to fight in the war, and after being demobilized due to injury, he was placed under house arrest. Over the past year, however, at least two additional assaults involving him have reportedly come to light.
In the town of Bolshoy Kamen, authorities opened a criminal case against war participant Aleksandr Borovik, 41, for attempted destruction of property after he allegedly tried to set fire to a café following a conflict with staff and guests on April 19. According to police, Borovik returned to the café carrying a flammable liquid and began dousing the walls and employees, but the arson attempt was prevented, and Borovik was detained before police arrived. As Mediazona discovered, Borovik is a repeat offender with an extensive criminal record: over the past 15 years, he has faced criminal prosecution at least ten times. In 2021, he was sentenced to five and a half years in a maximum security penal colony on three counts of theft, after which he is believed to have joined the Wagner Group. In January 2026, another criminal case was opened against him for illegal possession of firearms, making the attempted arson case his eleventh criminal case overall.
A court in Makhachkala sentenced three Ministry of Internal Affairs officers to six years in prison in a case involving intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm resulting in death and exceeding official authority with the use of violence. A fourth defendant went to the frontline and was killed last summer. Ahmed Dzhabrailov, 48, was detained on July 9, 2024, after complaints about his erratic behavior. At the police station, the man felt unwell and fell from a bench onto the floor. With his hands restrained, he resisted an Interior Ministry officer. The officer pinned him to the floor with his knees, while four other policemen used stun guns on him. Dzhabrailov died of asphyxiation.
The Kursk Garrison Military Court sentenced Andrey Golenshin, 38, commander of an air defense battalion of a military unit in the Belgorod region, to seven years in a maximum security penal colony in a case involving large-scale fraud and bribery. He was also stripped of his military rank and awards. According to investigators, the lieutenant colonel promised one serviceman, in exchange for 1 million rubles [$13,700], that he would keep him in a rear unit and not send him to a combat zone, despite lacking the authority to do so. The officer was also accused of accepting a 400,000-ruble [$5,500] bribe from another serviceman.
The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against a 17-year-old resident of the Stavropol region on charges of attempted sabotage. According to investigators, the teenager attempted to set fire to a freight railcar at the Inskaya station in the Novosibirsk region on May 14. Law enforcement officers claim the teenager acted on instructions from fraudsters who first hacked his account on the Gosuslugi public services portal and then, posing as Russian intelligence officers, persuaded him to travel to the Novosibirsk region to carry out the arson attack. He was detained by police after the attempted arson.
On April 30, Moscow’s Lefortovsky District Court ordered the detention of Denis Panchuk, 46, a Kyiv-born resident, on charges of high treason. Panchuk had initially been fined 60,000 rubles [$824] on March 20 under misdemeanor charges of discrediting the Armed Forces for writing two anti-Putin slogans on a tram. He was arrested for 15 days on charges of resisting police that same day, for another 13 days on charges of displaying Nazi symbols on April 3, and for another 15 days on charges of petty hooliganism on April 16. He was then detained on criminal charges. The basis for the treason charges has not been disclosed.
In Perm, Dmitry Yermakov, an employee of a local oil company, was ordered held in a pre-trial detention center on charges of high treason. The case stems from a 3,000-ruble [$41] transfer to Ukraine that investigators say was intended for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The Chelyabinsk Regional Court found five residents of the Chelyabinsk region guilty on charges of sabotage and attempted sabotage. The alleged organizer of the crime was sentenced to 20 years in prison, while four others received sentences ranging from five to eight years in a penal colony. According to investigators, the convicted individuals, acting on instructions from foreign handlers, set fire to transportation infrastructure on the South Ural Railway in December 2022. They subsequently attempted a second act of sabotage.
The First Western District Military Court sentenced Yaroslava Chumakova, 48, a Saint Petersburg resident, to 16 years in a penal colony on charges of high treason and aiding terrorism. According to investigators, Chumakova, acting on instructions from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), planned a terrorist attack against an unnamed Ministry of Defense general, surveilling his home, vehicle and relatives before passing the information to Ukrainian intelligence. She was detained in June 2025, and initially she faced only the charge of aiding terrorism.
The same court sentenced Saint Petersburg resident Ruslan Izhersky, 42, to 20 years in a penal colony on charges of treason, undergoing training for terrorist activities, aiding terrorism, and participation in a terrorist organization. He was also ordered to pay more than 4.5 billion rubles [$62.37 million] to Gazprom Pererabotka as compensation for damages. According to investigators, in March 2024, Izhersky joined the Freedom of Russia Legion and was preparing sabotage and terrorist attacks on energy infrastructure facilities in Saint Petersburg and the Leningrad and Astrakhan regions. The man was detained on Dec. 25, 2024, and sent to a pre-trial detention center. Initially, he was charged only with participation in a terrorist organization.
The Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court sentenced a Kyiv native born in 1976 to 21 years in a penal colony on charges of treason and illegal acquisition of explosives. According to the Federal Security Service (FSB), the man was recruited by SBU officers on Ukrainian territory in 2024 and was instructed to organize UAV attacks in the Nizhny Novgorod region. He was detained while organizing a "dead drop," during which explosive devices, explosives, drones, documents and communication equipment were seized.
The First Western District Military Court sentenced Nikita Krasilnikov, 22, to 16 years in a maximum security penal colony, and Rinat Ilyin, 20, to 15 years, in a case involving participation in a terrorist organization, attempted act of terror and treason. Prosecutors had requested sentences of 18 and 17 years respectively. According to investigators, in January 2024, the young men agreed, at the suggestion of their acquaintance Artyom Shcherbakov, to carry out assignments for the Russian Volunteer Corps in exchange for money. On Shcherbakov’s instructions, they surveilled a collection point of the Nevsky Front foundation and a store associated with the Sabotage Assault Reconnaissance Group Rusich [an openly neo-Nazi Russian volunteer unit], and also participated in preparations to send poisoned food products prepared by Shcherbakov to fighters of the Española Battalion and residents of the "DPR." All three were detained in March 2024. During searches, law enforcement officers discovered cadmium nitrate. Another person was detained together with them, but nothing is known about his subsequent fate. According to prosecutors, the young men also carried out assignments to assist the targeting of Ukrainian UAVs by filming transport, fuel and energy infrastructure facilities, and defense industry sites in Saint Petersburg and the Leningrad region. Shcherbakov’s case was considered separately. He reached a plea agreement with investigators, testified against Ilyin and Krasilnikov, and received 15 years in a penal colony. Ilyin stated that he was tortured by the FSB after his detention. Krasilnikov said that, at Shcherbakov’s request, he had been transporting "fertilizers" for a vegetable garden and did not know that the substance was poison. Mediazona reports what is known about each of the defendants in the case.
The Southern District Military Court sentenced Kherson region resident Oleksandr Skrabunov, 38, to life imprisonment in a maximum security penal colony for high treason, four acts of terror, one attempted terrorist attack, illegal storage of explosives, and the manufacture of explosive devices. According to investigators, in 2023, Skrabunov began cooperating with the Special Operations Forces of the AFU and, under their direction, set fire to several cars belonging to Russian soldiers. He was also accused of orchestrating the murder of Volodymyr Malov, the executive secretary of the United Russia [Putin’s ruling party] branch in occupied Nova Kakhovka. According to the court, Skrabunov assembled an improvised explosive device and detonated it remotely on Oct. 7, 2023, as Malov was driving by, killing the United Russia official. In addition, law enforcement claims that Skrabunov attempted to blow up the head of the civil defense service of the Nova Kakhovka occupation administration, but the attempt failed.
Longreads
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty compared Russian military casualty estimates compiled by Mediazona and Meduza [international Russian-language online media outlet] with figures released by Ukraine’s General Staff.