Mobilization in Russia for Nov. 20-23, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary
Army Recruitment
In the Kuedinsky district of the Perm region, the payment for recruiting a contract soldier was raised from the 200,000 rubles [$2,520] introduced on Nov. 1 of this year to 250,000 rubles [$3,150] for each person who signs a contract. The bonus applies if the contract is signed by a resident of another region, a foreign national or a stateless person at recruitment centers or draft offices in the Chernushinsky and Kuedinsky districts.
Ivan Alekseyev, the finance minister of Russia's constituent republic of Sakha (Yakutia), stated that payments to participants in the war with Ukraine had been suspended due to budgetary constraints. He said it is impossible to estimate in advance how many people will require compensation but promised all payments will be made "soon." It is unclear whether this refers to sign-up bonuses, disability compensation or death gratuity payments.
On Nov. 21, in the city of Irkutsk, personnel from the military investigative department of the Investigative Committee carried out another raid targeting migrants and naturalized citizens, during which more than 30 people were checked. Seventeen of them were taken to a draft office for military registration.
That same day in the city of Saratov, law enforcement officers conducted a similar raid aimed at identifying naturalized citizens avoiding registration for military service. They checked more than 300 people and identified over 20 former migrants who were avoiding registration. All of them were issued draft notices to report to the draft office.
Dmitry Naumov, the jailed mayor of Vladimir, accused of corruption, declared his intention to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense and go to war. Previously, former Vladimir region deputy governor Dmitry Khvostov, sentenced to 11 years in a penal colony in 2018 for bribery, was deployed from the colony to the frontline and became the commander of the AkulĐ° [Shark] convict storm unit.
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 149,241 Russian fighters killed in Ukraine, including 15,872 mobilized soldiers. Over the past week, the list has grown by 1,989 soldiers, 25 of whom were mobilized.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
In Belgorod, a 24-year-old serviceman detonated a grenade in an apartment. On Nov. 19, Maksim, a soldier from Kaluga, rented an apartment for a day and brought a 16-year-old girl with him. Later that night, while they were drinking, Maksim suddenly pulled out a grenade, which then detonated. The soldier sustained severe injuries, while the girl was hurt less seriously. Property damage was estimated at 1.5 million rubles [$18,900], as the explosion caused a fire in the room, damaged heating and gas supply systems throughout the building, broke windows and damaged parked cars nearby. The apartment owners claim that neither Maksim’s mother nor his unit’s command agreed to compensate them for the losses, and they intend to seek payments through insurance.
Contract soldier Ilya Sivov, recently returned from the war, fired a pneumatic rifle at a woman’s car in the city of Vladimir. His motives are unknown. A criminal case has been opened against him for the deliberate destruction or damage of property. Sivov has previously faced multiple penalties for drunk driving and was convicted in a DUI-related traffic accident. Sivov contacted the Astra Telegram channel and claimed that someone else had fired at the car. He was unable to explain why the case was opened against him.
A Ural military truck overturned and crushed four passenger cars. The accident occurred on Friday, Nov. 21, on a bypass road near Kursk. According to police, the truck’s driver lost control while making a turn, causing the vehicle to tip over onto the nearby cars. Four people were injured and taken to the hospital, while the driver appears to have escaped injury.
The Southern District Military Court has upheld the conviction of contract soldier Nikolay Zagorodnev, who was sentenced by a military court in Vladikavkaz to four years in a maximum-security penal colony on charges of failing to execute orders and resisting a superior officer. According to investigators, Zagorodnev refused to deploy to Ukraine in front of his fellow servicemembers and later, together with a soldier named Kolodyazhny, fought with duty officers at a checkpoint—pushing one of them and striking and knocking another to the ground. Zagorodnev maintained that his refusal was justified, saying that after suffering four wounds his vision had deteriorated and he needed medical treatment.
A court in Saint Petersburg has held a hearing to determine pretrial restrictions for Georgy Pogosov, Kirill Kislyakov and Vsevolod Beloshapko, who are accused of extortion. Investigators allege that in late October the defendants coerced a young man into signing a contract with Russia’s MoD and then demanded that he surrender his combat payments to them. They also allegedly forced him to issue a promissory note worth 1.4 million rubles [$17,600] to third parties, along with a notarized power of attorney granting his bank account. Authorities say the scheme was uncovered when the victim’s mother‑in‑law contacted police. Following the hearing, the court ordered Beloshapko placed under house arrest, while Pogosov and Kislyakov were remanded into custody.
In Russia’s Ulyanovsk region, Gazinur Timushev, a deputy from United Russia [Putin’s ruling party], Ildar Kurmakaev, coordinator of the local branch of the Defenders of the Fatherland Fund, and their acquaintance Alsu Abdullina have been charged with stealing money from a war participant’s account and attempting to collect his death gratuity payments. Prosecutors say all three face charges of organized group fraud and attempted organized group fraud. According to investigators, in the summer of 2024 Timushev and Kurmakaev persuaded their acquaintance to sign a contract and obtained his duplicate bank card, from which they withdrew 580,000 rubles [$7,310]. They also paid their acquaintance 10,000 rubles [$130] to enter into a fictitious marriage with the serviceman, enabling them to claim his death gratuity in the event of his death. In April 2025, when the serviceman was reported missing in action, the group attempted to collect 13.6 million rubles [$171,400] in death gratuity payments but were detained.
In Saint Petersburg, a 22-year-old student from the Pskov region, Arina Lykova, was arrested on charges of sabotage. She is suspected of setting fire to four communication towers in Kolpino and Shushary on Nov. 18. The Federal Security Service (FSB) stated that she acted "under coercion" after receiving threats of "criminal prosecution for financing the Armed Forces of Ukraine."
The FSB also announced the detention of a Ukrainian national accused of preparing an act of terror on a railway line in Krasnodar. According to the intelligence services, an officer of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) recruited the man on a "banned social network" and planned to use an improvised explosive device to damage railway tracks in order to disrupt the transport of military vehicles. A criminal case was opened against him for preparing an act of terror and the unlawful acquisition of an explosive device. A court ordered him held in custody for two months.
A Russian Railways [Russian fully state-owned railway company] technician was arrested on charges of attempting to join an unnamed terrorist organization. The man was first detained on the evening of Sept. 18 directly on the platform of Moscow’s Yaroslavsky railway station. He was initially accused of disobeying police and given 15 days of administrative arrest. After his release, he was detained again; in total, he spent two months in so-called "carousel arrests." On Nov. 17, when he was due to be released once more from a detention center, he was charged under a criminal article and transferred to a pre-trial detention center.
The Second Western District Military Court in Moscow has sentenced 42-year-old Ukrainian powerlifting champion Yulia Lemeshchenko to 19 years in a penal colony on charges that include treason, sabotage, terrorist training, preparing an act of terror, organizing a terrorist community and the illegal possession of weapons and explosives. Prosecutors asked for a 23-year sentence. Lemeshchenko, a native of Stary Oskol who lived in Voronezh before moving to Kharkiv, won Ukraine’s national powerlifting championship in 2021. After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she left for Germany but later returned to Ukraine, where she received training in handling firearms, drones and explosives. She was allegedly promised Ukrainian citizenship as compensation. According to investigators, Lemeshchenko manufactured roughly 10 kilograms of explosives, received funding from individuals linked to the Freedom of Russia Legion, and blew up a section of a power line near St. Petersburg, for which she allegedly received 300,000 rubles [$3,780]. She then conducted surveillance on Colonel Aleksey Loboda. In January 2025, while continuing to track Loboda’s movements, Lemeshchenko allegedly assembled two explosive devices. She was detained shortly afterward. While held in a pre-trial detention center, she asked to be included in prisoner-exchange lists and told her lawyer that FSB officers threatened to kill her during the investigation. Mediazona has published her final statement to the court ahead of the verdict.
The "Zaporizhzhia regional court," created by the Russian occupation authorities, has sentenced Volodymyr Yatsun, a 50-year-old resident of the city of Berdiansk, to 12 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of espionage. Yatsun was kidnapped in March 2023 and held in a penal colony, after which he was released at the end of August, but was then detained again under the pretext of fingerprinting. He was held for more than a year in secret detention facilities in Melitopol and, after being formally charged, in a pre-trial detention center in Donetsk. Investigators claim that in February-March 2023 Yatsun used a "pro-Ukrainian" Telegram chatbot to send the Ukrainian side the coordinates of Russian military units, as well as photos and videos of equipment. The court also cited his statutory military service in the air defense forces of the AFU in the 1990s as evidence that he understood the nature of his actions.
Assistance
The Prosecutor General's Office reported that over two and a half years, out of more than 33,000 vehicles seized from citizens for traffic violations, about 5,500 were sent to the war, and another 146 were transferred "for the development" of the occupied regions.
Longreads
The Vyorstka media outlet tells the story of 45-year-old Russian deserter Vladimir Berngardt, who, after his escape, hid in forests for nine months before being detained and sent to a military unit, from which he escaped again.