Mobilization in Russia for Oct. 2-5, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary
Fall Conscription Campaign
In Russia’s constituent Republic of Bashkortostan, parents of conscripts have complained that military unit commanders are coercing their sons into signing contracts with the Ministry of Defense. They appealed to Alfit Nigamatyanov, a member of the republic’s State Assembly from United Russia [Putin’s ruling party]. According to the relatives, commanders promised the conscripts 'privileges and high monetary allowances.' Upon refusal, however, the young men faced pressure, including restricted communication with family, reduced food rations, and psychological harassment from senior soldiers ordered by the unit's colonel. After Nigamatyanov petitioned the Investigative Committee, authorities transferred the officer to a new duty station, which ended the coercion. The lawmaker noted this was not an isolated incident, citing a similar previous case at the Totskoye garrison. Human rights activists report that the practice of forcing conscripts to sign contracts has become systemic and has been documented in various regions. This coercion happens especially during the early stages of service. Such complaints have increased noticeably over the last month.
Andrey Budanov, the military commissar for the Irkutsk region, announced plans to draft around 2,000 men in the regular fall conscription campaign. The region will also begin using digital draft notices disseminated through the Gosuslugi public services portal. These will supplement traditional paper notices, which remain in use.
Army Recruitment
In the Primorsky region [Russia's federal subject], a father and son who were convicted of fraud avoided punishment by joining the war, while the mother will serve a ten‑year term in a penal colony. According to investigators, Tatiana Zabolotnaya, her husband Timofey and their son Artyom staged 43 traffic accidents, illegally collecting more than 8.4 million rubles [$102,300] in payouts. The day before the verdict was announced, the husband and son signed contracts with the MoD and went off to fight.
In Russia's constituent Republic of Komi, a Russian Railways [state-owned railway company] engineer named Yegor Litus, against whom a criminal case for threatening a colleague with murder had been opened, avoided trial by agreeing to go to war in Ukraine.
A 26‑year‑old Uzbek citizen, Donierzhon Ergashov, was detained by police in the city of Tver on the evening of Oct. 2. According to The Insider [independent Russian investigative media outlet], police threatened him with imprisonment and forced him to sign a contract with the MoD. The man worked as a loader and was in Russia illegally. Ergashov was taken to a draft office and is being held there against his will.
The Española Battalion, formed from ultra‑right football fans and neo‑Nazis, announced its dissolution and integration into the MoD. Its Telegram channel stated that the unit will be transformed into new ones—a radio‑electronic detachment and an assault detachment—while the maritime detachment and the reconnaissance center will continue to operate autonomously. No reasons for the restructuring were given, and recruitment of volunteer fighters for the Española Battalion has been suspended. Previously, the unit—also known as the 88th Reconnaissance and Assault Brigade—had been part of the "Redut PMC" created by the Main Directorate of the General Staff.
In Saint Petersburg, Viktor Kaplan, reportedly the last witness to the deaths of soldiers Dmitry Lysakovsky and Sergey Gritsay, has been detained and is being prepared to be forcibly sent to war. According to lawyer Sergey Kalugin, Kaplan had previously served as a volunteer fighter, had not signed a contract with the Russian MoD, and was not mobilized. However, Kaplan has now been "illegally enlisted" in the 87th Regiment, commanded by Colonel Igor Puzik, who sent Lysakovsky and Gritsay on a suicidal mission after they criticized the unit. After his detention, Kaplan was held for six days at a facility for temporary detention of persons wanted for AWOL. During his detention, he was pressured to undergo a medical evaluation, fingerprinting, and to sign a contract with the MoD.
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 134,125 Russian fighters killed in Ukraine, including 15,196 mobilized soldiers. Over the past week, the list has grown by 1,511 soldiers, 96 of whom were mobilized.
In the summer and fall of 2024, during the Ukrainian offensive in the Kursk region, at least 60 Russian conscripts were killed, and at least 60 more were reported missing in action, according to Vazhnyye Istorii [IStories, independent Russian investigative media outlet], which analyzed posts by relatives, media reports, and the National Probate Registry. The average age of those killed was about 20, and they had been drafted from 34 regions of Russia. The heaviest losses occurred in the first days of the Ukrainian operation. However, conscripts continued to be killed throughout September 2024—at least 20 conscripts were killed then. According to relatives, some of those who were initially reported missing later managed to make it out of encirclement on their own. Before the Ukrainian offensive in the Kursk region, 159 conscripts had already been reported killed, thus bringing the total confirmed losses among statutory military service soldiers in the war against Ukraine to at least 219.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
War participant Oleg Adamov from the Bryansk region has been detained in the Moscow metro for aggressive begging. In court it was stated that on Sept. 30, the 36-year-old Adamov stood in the vestibule of a Moscow metro station with a sign reading "Please help, participant in the special military operation." The man approached passengers demanding money and behaved aggressively. The court found him guilty of petty hooliganism and sentenced him to five days of arrest.
Mediazona has uncovered that Russian courts, along with those set up by Russia in occupied Ukrainian territories, often subject Ukrainian prisoners of war to repeated trials. Journalists documented 51 instances: 39 POWs faced prosecution twice, and six were tried three times, with most already receiving new sentences. The charges typically include murder or attempted murder, destruction of property, mistreatment of civilians, and violations of the laws and customs of war. In most cases, the second trial involves nearly identical charges under the same legal articles, violating fundamental legal norms. This pattern is especially prevalent in the so called DPR Supreme Court, where POWs are retried for the same shelling incidents, and in the Southern District Military Court in Rostov, where Azov Brigade members are labeled terrorists solely for their service in the unit. The aggregate sentencing often adds only a few months or years to the sentence. Yet in at least eight cases, the "DPR Supreme Court" issued life sentences upon retrial. Additionally, trials in absentia target POWs who were previously exchanged, assigning them new sentences post-release. Lawyers argue these prosecutions serve political aims: legitimizing the invasion, shifting blame for destruction onto Ukrainian forces, and boosting law enforcement performance metrics. Journalists emphasize that the true extent of this practice likely surpasses what has been reported.
The Security Service of Ukraine has accused two officers at Penal Colony No. 7 in Pakino, Vladimir region—35-year-old Aleksey Khavetsky and 27-year-old Grigory Shvetsov—of organizing systematic torture of Ukrainian prisoners, including physical and sexual abuse. According to the SBU, other unidentified staff members also took part in the mistreatment.
In Perm, a court has ordered a 15-year-old boy held in a pre-trial detention center for two months on suspicion of attempting a terrorist act. Investigators say he set fire to an electrical cabinet along a railway line. The cabinet was empty at the time, and the teenager reportedly fled after noticing other people nearby. He had earlier faced similar charges but was then placed under house arrest.
The Southern District Military Court has sentenced Igor Yakovenko of Krasnodar to five years in prison for allegedly preparing to join a terrorist organization. According to investigators, on May 28 he corresponded with a recruiter for the Freedom of Russia Legion and filled out an application to join before being detained by the FSB. Authorities did not disclose how the security service learned of his communications.
In the Sverdlovsk region, a court sentenced 24-year-old Konstantin Markov to 13 years in a maximum-security penal colony on charges of treason for allegedly selling personal data of Russian citizens to Ukrainian intelligence services. The verdict was combined with a previous case in which Markov received a seven-year sentence in March 2024 for kidnapping and extortion. He was initially arrested in November 2022.
A 47-year-old emergency physician from the Volodarsk Central District Hospital in the Donetsk region, Aleksandr Petrik, has been sentenced to 15 years in a high-security prison on charges of state treason. According to prosecutors, in 2024 he contacted the SBU and, acting on its instructions, passed along information about the location of a MoD unit that he had allegedly learned from a patient. Petrik did not plead guilty in court and asked to be acquitted.
The FSB said it had detained another man suspected of passing intelligence about the positions of S-300 SAM systems in Russia-annexed Crimea to Ukrainian intelligence. According to the intelligence services, he had also been preparing a "sabotage and terrorist attack" against military facilities. Authorities claim they seized over a kilogram of explosives, two triggering devices, and an electric detonator. The man has been charged with state treason.
Assistance
Chechnya [Russia's constituent republic] has reportedly spent 42.3 billion rubles [$515 million] on the war in Ukraine. The funds are said to have been channeled through the Akhmat Kadyrov Public Foundation, although the organization has never officially reported possessing such a large sum. The source of the money, if the authorities’ statement is accurate, remains unclear. In early July, Chechen Prime Minister Magomed Daudov reported total war expenditures of 40.5 billion rubles [$493 million].
In the Sverdlovsk region, Governor Denis Pasler announced a new measure to support employers: they will receive monthly subsidies of 50,000 rubles [$610] from the regional budget for each employee returning from the war, to partially cover their salaries for up to six months. The region will also expand its free retraining program for "special military operation veterans" and their families.