Mobilization in Russia for Oct. 16-19, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
Lawmakers introduced amendments to the year-round conscription bill ahead of its second reading. The amendments stipulate that the appearance date on a draft notice posted in the digital Draft Register cannot exceed 30 days from its publication. Legal experts suggest this restriction would protect citizens from excessive constraints on freedom of movement while ensuring the draft's efficiency. Moreover, if the amendments pass, draft notices would become enforceable nationwide. Draft offices would also gain the authority to issue electronic excerpts from the Draft Register to any individual liable for military service, not only to conscripts. Furthermore, draft boards could make decisions regarding deferrals, exemptions and fitness categories in the conscript's absence. This provision would broaden the scope for in-absentia rulings, heightening the risk of violations if an individual remains unaware of the board's decision. Finally, legislators clarified the process for reviewing appeals against deployment decisions, limiting the consideration period for such applications to five days. The second reading is scheduled for Oct. 21.
The Ministry of Justice drafted a bill concerning the social integration of convicts recruited for the war with Ukraine. The document proposes providing a comprehensive set of social adaptation measures for convicts who returned from the war and are "in a difficult life situation." This assistance would be offered on a targeted basis after the servicemember or their legal representative submits an application to the penitentiary inspectorate at their place of residence or stay no later than six months after discharge from service.
Army Recruitment
According to Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council, 336,000 people signed contracts with the Ministry of Defense in 2025. Another 28,000 went to war as "volunteer fighters," participants in volunteer formations of the Russian Armed Forces. According to calculations by economist Janis Kluge (1, 2), around 290,000 people signed contracts over the first three quarters of 2025.
The press service of the government of the Zabaykalsky region declined to comment on an order from the regional Ministry of Culture requiring cultural workers to search for individuals willing to sign contracts with the MoD citing that the information is classified as "restricted access." In June, sources told the outlet Chita.ru that the ministry had instructed museums, theaters, libraries and other cultural institutions to assist draft offices in finding volunteer fighters to sign contracts. Now, a government source told the outlet that such an assignment was given not only to the Ministry of Culture but to all other ministries as well. It was specified that the order was issued on the governor’s instructions.
Fall Conscription Campaign
The Movement of Conscientious Objectors, a human rights organization supporting those who refuse to perform military service, has warned of the beginning of roundups of conscripts in Moscow. Human rights advocates have begun receiving reports from young men detained by the police and from their relatives. The detainees are being taken to the central military collection point on Ugreshskaya Street for dispatch to the army. Some of them have medical conditions that exempt them from conscription, but this fact is being ignored. Police officers and draft offices are paying particular attention to young men who had already received draft notices and failed to report earlier.
In addition, the public movement Civil Alliance of Russia reports that several young men in Moscow who had previously appealed conscription decisions have been detained. Law enforcement officers are apprehending them at metro stations using facial recognition technology and taking them to the central military collection point, where they are being ordered to undergo a medical evaluation board. Around 20 people are currently being held there.
The Idite Lesom! [Flee through the woods/Get lost you all] Telegram channel reports at least four cases of conscripts being detained in the Moscow metro.
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 136,286 Russian fighters killed in Ukraine, including 15,405 mobilized soldiers. Over the past week, the list has grown by 1,186 soldiers, 171 of whom were mobilized. According to journalists, Russian sources published an average of 6,200 obituaries per month between January and July. From August to October, the average number of obituaries published each month was 9,400. The data for the incomplete month of October, with 10,765 deaths, has already set a record high for the entire observation period.
Economist Janis Kluge has provided an independent assessment of Russian losses based on regional death gratuity payments, data on which are published by several regions. These payments were introduced at the very beginning of the full-scale war and have since remained largely unchanged in most regions. These payments do not apply to Wagner Group mercenaries or convicts recruited by the MoD as part of the Storm-Z unit project. Kluge's sample included nine Russian regions and the Russian-annexed city of Sevastopol. Despite relying on completely different sources of information, the economist's data aligns with the calculations of BBC News Russian and Mediazona. The combined population of the regions under consideration is 26.3 million, representing about 18% of Russia's total population. The estimated total number of residents of these regions killed in the war is 23,600 people. The number of deaths averages to approximately 0.1% of the total population in these regions. However, extrapolating from a limited sample size does not allow for a reliable assessment of losses across all of Russia.
Relatives of a conscript from Chuvashia [Russia’s constituent republic], Yevgeny Filimonov, say he was pressured into signing a military contract. Filimonov was drafted on Nov. 7, 2024, and in August was sent to a military unit near Chita. At the end of September, after a long silence, he got in touch and said he had signed a contract. His mother says he had been promised a position in a security company within the unit, but on Oct. 13 he was taken to Rostov and then to Mariupol, after which he again stopped communicating. His current whereabouts are unknown, while his parents are demanding that the military unit invalidate his contract.
Two other conscripts from the 3rd GRU Spetsnaz Brigade are also reportedly being forced to go to the war. Both were drafted in 2024 and, after a short training course, were transferred to the 15th Motorized Rifle Brigade. There, soldiers who refused to sign contracts were beaten, deprived of sleep, and even shot with air guns. Two conscripts were then put on a bus to Donetsk. In May 2025, their mothers learned that their sons had signed contracts, but the payment documents listed bank accounts belonging to strangers. The young men were spared deployment to the front only after the brigade commander intervened following phone calls from their mothers. They were removed from the bus, but their families say the military still intends to send them to the front lines.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
On Oct. 16 in the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a man who identified himself as a "participant in the special military operation" opened fire on a car carrying a family with a three-year-old child during a road dispute. It is unclear whether the shooter has been detained. Later, it emerged that he already had multiple convictions for threats, stalking and car theft. Police reportedly indicated that he might be released soon, as he is expected to return to the war.
The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel reported that over the past week, several incidents involving servicemen occurred in the Moscow region.
In Rostov, 15 Ukrainian POWs [prisoner of war] from the Aidar battalion have been sentenced to terms ranging from 15 to 21 years of imprisonment. They were convicted under articles on participation in the activities of a terrorist organization, violent seizure of power, and undergoing training for terrorist purposes. Dmytro Fedchenko was sentenced to 15 years in a maximum security penal colony; Andriy Sholik, Vitaliy Krokhalyov and Vyacheslav Baydyuk—to 16 years in a maximum security penal colony; Volodymyr Makarenko and Ihor Gayokha—to 18 years in a maximum security penal colony; Mykola Chupryna, Taras Radchenko, Semen Zabayrachny, Serhiy Nikityuk, Oleksandr Taranets and Vladyslav Yermolynskyi—to 20 years in a maximum security penal colony; and Vitaliy Gruzinov, Roman Nedostup and Serhiy Kalinchenko—to 21 years in a maximum security penal colony. Two women, Liliya Prutyan and Maryna Mishchenko, who have already returned to Ukraine as part of an exchange, were also accused in this case. The charges against each of the convicted were based solely on their service in the Aidar battalion; none of the defendants were accused of committing any specific war crimes. The defendants reported being subjected to torture during the process. Mediazona reported on what took place at the open court hearings, as well as how the servicemen were captured and what they went through.
The same court has also sentenced five more POWs the Azov Brigade and the Aidar battalion to various terms. Ihor Mulyar, 46, who served in the Azov Brigade, was sentenced to 18 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of undergoing terrorist training and participating in a terrorist community. The same sentence on similar charges was given to 27-year-old Dmytro Prokopets, also from the Azov Brigade. Members of the same unit, Kyrylo Belyaev and Denys Gura, were sentenced to 14 years in a maximum security penal colony each, charged with participation in a terrorist organization. Leonid Zinchenko, 69, a serviceman of the Aidar battalion, was sentenced to eight years in a penal colony, having been found guilty of participating in a terrorist community.
A court in Kazan has sentenced 30-year-old local resident Arseniy Glebov to eight and a half years in a penal colony. He was convicted of two primary charges: spreading fake information about the Russian army and attempting to join an armed formation in a foreign state. Investigators say Glebov recorded a message addressed to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, expressing his willingness to support Ukraine. He also left a similar comment under a video posted by Oleksii Arestovych, a former advisor to the head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office. In early 2022, just weeks after the full-scale invasion began, Glebov was in Armenia and asked the military attaché at the Ukrainian embassy for help joining the International Legion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The attaché declined. In April, Glebov returned to Russia to obtain a passport and planned to apply for a Ukrainian visa in another country. In May 2022, he was detained at a Moscow airport while trying to fly to Georgia. Authorities later searched his home, and in June, he was detained again at Kazan airport while attempting to fly to Armenia. Glebov has been held in pre-trial detention for over three years, since June 2022. In his final statement, he expressed remorse and asked for forgiveness.
The Supreme Court of Karelia [Russia’s constituent republic] has sentenced Vera Ignatenko, a 20-year-old from Saint Petersburg, to 12 and a half years in a penal colony on charges of treason. Additionally, she faced separate charges for attempted murder and calls for terrorism related to her role in managing a group on a messaging app. Taking all charges into account, her total sentence amounts to 14 years.
A "court" in Russian-occupied Crimea has sentenced a young man born in 2006 to seven years in a penal colony on charges of treason. According to law-enforcement officials, the Crimean resident collected information about Russian soldiers and passed it to Ukraine. It remains unclear when exactly he was detained. Authorities say he made contact with the Ukrainian military while still a minor.
In Saint Petersburg, authorities have opened a treason case against Andrey Matushkin, president of the International Association of Detectives. The private investigator was placed in a pretrial detention center for two months in September. Investigators allege that Matushkin transmitted classified information abroad. Law-enforcement officials also suspect him of collaborating with a foreign intelligence service and "helping to carry out its objectives on Russian territory." A source said the case involves Matushkin’s contacts with representatives of the Baltic states. Fellow investigator Mikhail Loktionov said two other detectives were detained along with Matushkin, but one was later released.
In Moscow, Ukrainian citizen Viktor Arnautov has been arrested on treason charges. As Mediazona reported, his detention followed a series of "carousel arrests" over nearly five months on petty-hooliganism charges. In all publicly available court rulings, Arnautov was described as a Russian citizen without official registration in the country. Yet records from the Zyuzinsky District Court indicate that officials reviewed data from the Federal Migration Service’s central database of foreign nationals and stateless persons. Leaked databases list two men named Viktor Arnautov, born in 1960 and 1969, both from Ukraine.
Complaints filed with Russia’s Commissioner for Human Rights and obtained by Echo news outlet confirm reports that the Federal Security Service [FSB] has been abducting residents of Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine, holding them for months without charges or contact with their families. Since the start of the invasion, Russian law enforcement officers have carried out so-called "mop-ups" in occupied territories. In annexed Crimea, abductions have continued since 2014, with human rights groups documenting dozens of such cases. Officials often either deny that the person was detained at all or claim that the individual is being held as someone who "opposed the special military operation." Lawyers note that these practices directly violate the U.N. International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
Children and Militarization
At a first-aid training course called Formula for Success, held for high school students in Belgorod region, soldiers allegedly beat children, showed them photographs of corpses, and forced teenagers to tighten tourniquets on their arms using their teeth. In one case, a student reportedly had his carotid artery compressed and later "could not be revived." The soldiers banned students from filming or calling their parents during the session. The director of Formula for Success confirmed that the training had taken place, saying it was conducted by members of the territorial defense forces. Following the incident, the district education department and the Ministry of Internal Affairs launched an investigation.
Longreads
Novaya-Europa tells the story of Serhiy Petryk, a Ukrainian pediatrician who delivered his statement in Ukrainian before a "court" in Donetsk and was sentenced to 15 years in prison for treason.