Mobilization in Russia for May 5-7, 2026 CIT Volunteer Summary
Army Recruitment
In the first quarter of 2026, the number of Peruvian citizens entering Russia more than doubled compared to the same period last year, according to data from the Federal Security Service's Border Service analyzed by Vazhnyye Istorii [IStories, independent Russian investigative media outlet]. This trend may be related to the recruitment of Peruvian citizens for deployment to fight in the war against Ukraine, as previously reported. The number of Peruvians entering Russia during the first quarter grew to 728 this year, up from 337 in 2025. This growth primarily stemmed from trips recorded as tourist visits. The number of Peruvian citizens entering Russia began to rise sharply in the second quarter of 2025. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the figure reached its highest level since 2020 (745 people) and remained close to that mark in early 2026. In total, 3,058 Peruvian citizens entered Russia throughout 2025 and the first quarter of 2026.
Novosibirsk State Technical University has set a quota to recruit 140 students. According to a student, the university established new rules that impose stricter expulsion policies on students with incomplete coursework and make it significantly harder to obtain academic leave. Students can miss only two lectures per subject without a valid excuse. Further unexcused absences result in a formal reprimand, and two reprimands provide grounds for expulsion. Starting May 1, the university effectively suspended academic leave for most male students. The administration will deny medical academic leave to students with the service fitness categories "A" (fully fit for military service) or "B" (fit for military service with minor restrictions). A representative from the draft office will also sit on the commission that decides whether to grant such leave. While the commission will review applications based on family circumstances on a case-by-case basis, officials have made it clear that students should not expect approval on these grounds.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
In the city of Yekaterinburg, cases have been brought to court against Yevgeny Korolyov and Mikhail Taktaulov, who are accused of acting as intermediaries in bribery, as well as doctor Vladimir Sokolov, who is charged with accepting a bribe. According to investigators, a conscript seeking a draft deferment approached an acquaintance, who demanded 675,000 rubles [$9,020] for arranging it. Of that amount, the intermediary kept 505,000 rubles [$6,750] for himself and used 130,000 rubles [$1,740] to hire another intermediary, who then reached an arrangement with Sokolov, a trauma surgeon at one of the city’s hospitals. At the end of December 2025, Sokolov allegedly performed surgery on the conscript without any medical indication, applied stitches, and prepared fraudulent medical documentation intended to serve as grounds for exemption from military service. The doctor reportedly received the remaining 40,000 rubles [$530] for his role. The conscript himself has been charged with bribery on a large scale.
The Southern District Military Court has sentenced Ukrainian prisoner of war Roman Kliukin to 22 years in a penal colony on charges of espionage and participation in the activities of a terrorist organization. According to investigators, Kliukin signed a contract in 2024 with the 48th Separate Assault Battalion named for Noman Çelebicihan and served as a rifleman-medic. In 2025, he allegedly gathered information on Russian troops in the Donetsk region as part of an "espionage assignment," and in March 2025 he was captured in the Kursk region.
Captured 30-year-old Ukrainian serviceman Dmytro Selizar from the Azov Brigade has been sentenced to 18 years in a penal colony on charges of participating in a terrorist organization and undergoing terrorist training. Russian law enforcement authorities claim that Selizar joined Azov back in 2016 and served as a medic. He was captured in 2022.
Another captured Azov Brigade fighter, 28-year-old Mykola Kuzmenko, was convicted on charges of participating in a terrorist organization and undergoing terrorist training. In December 2023, the Russia-installed "Supreme Court of the DPR" sentenced Kuzmenko to 25 years in prison on charges related to attacks on civilian infrastructure that allegedly resulted in deaths. His sentence was later increased to 27 years.
In Moscow, an appellate court increased the sentence of 33-year-old British citizen Hayden William Davies, who fought on Ukraine’s side as part of the International Legion and was taken prisoner by Russian forces in December 2024. In December 2025, he was sentenced to 13 years in a penal colony on mercenarism charges, and the appeals court added another two years on charges of illegal weapons trafficking. The additional charge was based on witness testimony alleging that Davies was found with a weapon in the basement of a house in the town of Toretsk.
The Federal Security Service (FSB) reported a series of detentions involving charges of incitement to terrorism and preparation of terrorist acts, assistance to sabotage activities, involvement in a terrorist organization, illegal acquisition of explosives, and unlawful possession of information containing personal data. Law enforcement conducted searches in Izhevsk, Barnaul, Blagoveshchensk and Astrakhan, resulting in at least five detentions, including one foreign national. The suspects are accused of passing information about defense industry facilities and transportation infrastructure to Ukrainian intelligence services, as well as gathering information on Russian servicemen. Additionally, the FSB reported detentions in Kingisepp in the Leningrad region, Chita and Tomsk, related to the justification of terrorism via online comments supporting attacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and calling for acts of sabotage and terrorism within Russia.
In the occupied Zaporizhzhia region, the FSB detained four people whom investigators described as agents of Ukrainian intelligence services who had previously been involved in handling explosive devices “intended for high-profile crimes.” The nature of those crimes was not disclosed, nor were the names of those detained.
In Yekaterinburg, authorities ordered historian Oleg Novoselov, 37, held in custody on charges of aiding terrorist activities. Novoselov had previously worked in archives researching Stalinist repressions and collaborated with Memorial Human Rights Defense Center. The specific charges against him and the date of his detention have not been disclosed. He has been added to a list of extremists and terrorists maintained by Rosfinmonitoring, Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Russian Federation.
The Western District Military Court sentenced Aleksandra Zhitenko, a 53-year-old dishwasher at a cadet corps run by the Investigative Committee of Russia, to 19 years in a penal colony in a case involving participation in a terrorist organization, aiding terrorism, attempting to involve a minor in the commission of a crime, and organizing training in terrorist activity. This is the third-longest known sentence handed down in present-day Russia to a woman in a case with political or anti-war undertones. Prosecutors had sought 20 years. According to the prosecution, Zhitenko, who had previously worked for many years as an English teacher, took the job at the cadet corps in order to recruit its students into the Freedom of Russia Legion, which she herself had allegedly voluntarily joined "no later than April 9, 2023." Prosecutors maintain that she deliberately held conversations "justifying and rationalizing terrorist activity" with cadets "from disadvantaged families in need of money," in order to use them to gain the trust of Russian soldiers, obtain classified information from them, and pass it on to the Legion. Zhitenko was detained on July 25, 2024. She claims that investigators and officers of the FSB threatened her and entered into the official records statements she had not made. Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet] attempted to piece together Zhitenko's story.
The Second Western District Military Court delivered a verdict against eight defendants accused of attempting a terrorist attack against Gennady Devyatov, a top manager of the Mechanical Engineering Design Bureau in Kolomna, which produces, among other things, the 9K730 Iskander mobile short-range ballistic missile systems and 9K38 Igla MANPADS. Denis Kaiser, 24, and Shandro Shishkov, 22, from Nizhny Tagil; Vadim Panchukov; Aleksandr Ternovsky; and a minor from Kherson, Oleksandr G., as well as Kolomna residents Matvey Zakharov, 18, Dmitry D. and Anastasia Berestova, were sentenced to terms ranging from six to 15 years in a penal colony on charges of attempted terrorist attack, aiding and abetting it, and the illegal acquisition and manufacture of explosives. The court sentenced four of the defendants to 15, 13, nine, and eight years of imprisonment; two others received seven and 13 years in a penal colony. Two minors were sentenced to six years in a juvenile penal colony. The plan to blow up Devyatov was allegedly devised by "certain individuals" operating from abroad. According to investigators, the defendants—residents of Primorsky region [Russia's federal subject], Sverdlovsk and Moscow regions—assembled a powerful homemade bomb in November–December 2024, monitored Devyatov, and purchased a car to transport the explosives. They planted the bomb under Devyatov’s car in a parking lot in Kolomna in the early hours of Dec. 13. They were detained immediately afterward. Investigators claim the young people had been promised 1 million rubles [$13,400] for carrying out the attack.
A court in the Krasnodar region has sentenced a local resident Aleksey Zubarev to 18 years in a penal colony on charges of treason, as well as incitement to extremism and terrorism. Law enforcement officials say that in February 2023, Zubarev contacted Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence and agreed to cooperate with the agency. Prosecutors allege that he subsequently attended conferences where he obtained information about electronic warfare systems and counter-drone measures, which he then passed on to the Ukrainian side. Authorities also accused Zubarev of reposting a video depicting an explosion at the Kremlin and of posting comments online.
The Moscow Regional Court sentenced Izzet Khalilov, a 41-year-old native of Crimea, to 15 years in a maximum security penal colony on treason charges. According to prosecutors, Khalilov had "joined the side of the enemy," though authorities did not elaborate on what that accusation entailed. He was detained no later than December 2024.
Children and Militarization
Kindergartens in the Russian cities of Chita, Ulan-Ude, Orenburg, Krasnodar and Tyumen, among others, have staged miniature military parades ahead of Russia’s May 9 Victory Day celebrations. In occupied Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia region, Russian-installed authorities organized a "Children's Parade" involving students in grades one through four.
Longreads
The Vot Tak [Like This] media outlet published a report on a man from Vologda who repeatedly changed his first and last name, accumulated large debts and was later killed while fighting in the war.