Mobilization in Russia for Sept. 6-13, 2026 CIT Volunteer Summary

Authorities and Legislation

The Ministry of Defense proposed requiring service members found guilty of crimes to return sign-up bonuses unless a court sends them to a penal colony. Under the draft resolution, if they remain in service after a sentence that does not involve imprisonment, they must return part of the sign-up bonus — in proportion to the number of months remaining until the contract ends. An explanatory note says such bonuses amount to 195,000 rubles [$2,310] or 400,000 rubles [$4,740], meaning the measure concerns only the federal component. The new rules would apply to service members of the MoD and the Russian National Guard. The MoD said the initiative was necessary to "increase service members’ motivation to comply with Russian law." Alexey Tabalov, head of Shkola Prizyvnika [Conscript School, a human rights organization], believes the authorities want to use this initiative to save money on those bonuses.

Army Recruitment

According to German economist Janis Kluge's estimate based on regional budget spending, the pace of contract soldier recruitment in August 2026, as in the second quarter, remained at about 1,000 people a day, or 30,000 people a month. However, that was about 20% lower than a year earlier. According to Kluge's tally, 234,000 people signed contracts from the start of the year through the end of August, compared with 260,000 in the same period of 2025. The decline comes amid increasingly widespread use of coercive recruitment methods and rising sign-up bonuses. Recruitment spending is putting increasing pressure on regional budgets: some regions are cutting other budget items — Bashkortostan [Russia's constituent republic] and the Kirov, Omsk, and Ulyanovsk regions reduced compensation for families of fallen service members, and the Orenburg region canceled it entirely as of July 1.

Authorities in the Moscow Military District plan to form special squads of reservists armed with interceptor drones to defend critical facilities against UAV attacks. Reports say the MoD is now training instructors for those squads.

Authorities in the Irkutsk region have increased payments to recruiters for attracting contract soldiers to the war. According to a decree by the region's governor, Igor Kobzev, starting Sept. 10, intermediaries will receive 1.5 million rubles [$17,800] for each foreign national recruited to sign a military contract. This is the highest payment in Russia for recruiting foreigners. By the same decree, the reward for attracting Russians registered in other regions has been increased to 800,000 rubles [$9,480]. Previously, the region paid a flat 400,000-ruble [$4,740] recruitment bonus regardless of the recruit’s category. A week ago, the Irkutsk region reduced payments for Russian citizens signing contracts with the MoD from 2.1 million rubles [$24,900] to 1.8 million rubles [$21,300] and introduced a payment of 900,000 rubles [$10,700] for foreigners and stateless persons.

The government of Russia's constituent republic of Sakha (Yakutia) has postponed salary indexation for some categories of public sector employees by two months due to expenses for sign-up bonuses to contract soldiers. The 5.4% increase, for which 1.5 billion rubles [$17.78 million] was allocated, was rescheduled from July 1 to Sept. 1, 2026, said Kirill Bychkov, chairman of the republic's government. He said that the indexation was postponed due to "unforeseen expenses" for payments to citizens who signed military contracts.

Novaya Gazeta Europe [European edition of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta] reported on the recruitment of women for the war using data from the Gosuslugi public services portal, resumes posted on HeadHunter, and information about outstanding debts. The publication cites the stories of three Russian women who received phone calls offering them contracts with the MoD after they had applied for state-funded educational courses or posted resumes, while those with debts were offered debt cancellation in exchange for a contract. Following the calls, two young women were invited to meetings with judicial bailiffs, who promised them relatively safe rear-area service or positions as UAV operators.

The Interior Ministry refused to issue a 25-year-old man an international passport, citing a restriction on leaving the country imposed by the draft office. The man is registered as a resident of Yakutia but resides permanently in another region. He submitted an application through Gosuslugi, but received a refusal stating that a travel ban was in effect for him. The man had not previously undergone any draft procedures, while his information does not appear from both the Draft Register and the Unified Military Register. Human rights advocates say this is the first known case of a passport being denied on these grounds and point out that if a person is not subject to conscription procedures and there is no decision by a draft board concerning them, such a refusal is unlawful.

In Sochi, a 48-year-old man accused of desecrating a monument to those killed in the Great Patriotic War has signed a contract with the MoD and gone to war against Ukraine. According to investigators, in late August, the man and a 46-year-old female acquaintance, both intoxicated, relieved themselves near a monument to fallen tank crews. They were detained and subsequently pleaded guilty. The woman will stand trial, while the man’s case was severed and placed in a separate proceeding and suspended after he signed the contract.

In the Volgograd region, a man accused of intentionally destroying property by arson, making death threats, and leaving a person in danger was released from a pretrial detention center after signing a contract with the MoD, pending trial. Proceedings in his case have been suspended. According to investigators, in the early hours of June 16, following an argument with his grandmother, he set bedding on fire in her home and, when she tried to escape the burning house, tried to prevent her from leaving. During the struggle, the man pushed his grandmother, causing her to fall and lose consciousness. Police officers who arrived at the scene rescued her from the burning building. The man was detained several days later in a tree line, after which he was placed in a pretrial detention center.

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 248,844 Russian fighters killed in Ukraine, including 20,350 mobilized soldiers. Over the past week, the list has grown by 5,170 soldiers. Journalists have noted that this sharp increase does not reflect current frontline losses. Of the names added over the past two weeks, 3,613 were of those killed in 2025, 1,692 in 2024, and only 631 in 2026. Most of these additions were servicemen who were declared missing in action and have since had their deaths confirmed through the National Probate Registry and other sources.

Two more cases of conscripts serving in Boguchar, Voronezh region, being forced to sign up for contract-based military service have been reported. We have previously reported on multiple cases of such coercion in Boguchar.

Vladislav Ivantsov, 19, was drafted in May 2026 from Oryol and sent to a training unit in Kovrov, Vladimir region. While in the training unit, he told his mother that he had no intention of signing a contract with the MoD. From the training unit, Ivantsov was transferred to the 252nd Motorized Rifle Regiment in Boguchar. His mother says that her son arrived at the unit on July 27, but the contract bearing his name is dated July 16, when he was still in Kovrov. According to her, in Boguchar, he was actively pressured to sign with promises of admission to the Federal Security Service (FSB) Academy and a posting away from the frontline. On Aug. 26, Ivantsov submitted a request to terminate his contract at the checkpoint in the presence of his mother. However, the situation has remained unchanged since then.

Roman Pashayev, 19, was drafted in May 2026 from the Saratov region and sent to the 245th Motorized Rifle Regiment in Boguchar. In August, he was forced to sign a contract with the MoD, the conscript's mother says. According to her, her son was pressured, and in July a sergeant assaulted him at a training range. After signing the contract, Pashayev received two payments: 195,000 rubles [$2,310] and 2 million rubles [$23,700]. The family returned the first payment immediately. Pashayev also filed two requests to terminate the contract, but both were denied. According to his mother, the serviceman was told to persuade other conscripts to sign contracts and was threatened with being sent to frontline positions if he refused.

A 20-year-old conscript from Omsk was registered as a contract soldier without his knowledge while he was in a hospital, after which commanders repeatedly tried to send him to the war. The conscript had been in the hospital since Dec. 28. On March 5, while still there, he learned from an acquaintance who works at headquarters that he was listed as a contract soldier; the acquaintance had seen his name in a new extract from the MoD database. In April, the command of the 27th Motorized Rifle Division, stationed in Totskoye-2, acknowledged in writing that the contract had been drawn up "because of an error made by officials” and submitted a request to rescind the order, but five months later, no decision has been made, and the command has not responded to a single appeal. Meanwhile, the conscript was ordered to return the federal and regional payments he had received under the contract: 400,000 [$4,730] and 1.8 million rubles [$21,300]. The serviceman himself says he never signed the contract and is seeking a forensic handwriting examination, but officials refuse to give him a copy of the contract. On June 26, commanders tried to send him to the war even though his name was not on the lists; they added his name by hand, but the deployment was stopped. After that, the conscript was again hospitalized and remained there until August. He is now undergoing training ahead of an expected deployment to Ukraine.

A 28-year-old conscript from Krasnoyarsk, Emil Zhenishbekov, who has been suing the MoD for more than a year over a forged contract, was told on Sept. 8 that he would be transferred to another military unit. Instead of discharge papers, the unit received an order transferring him elsewhere, but Zhenishbekov was not told the name of the new unit. He was not given any documents. According to the head of the personnel department, the head of the Central Military District had verbally refused to discharge Zhenishbekov. As a result, two escorts from the MoD took him from the military unit in Abakan and transported him to a unit in the city of Yurga in the Kemerovo region. There, they confiscated his phone and told him that if he refused to write a report stating that he would remain in his position and to acknowledge and sign the transfer order, they would do it for him. They then threatened to report him as AWOL and transfer him to an assault unit. Earlier, at the unit in Abakan, Zhenishbekov was threatened that if he did not go to the frontline, he could be "taken into the woods blindfolded and simply gotten rid of." Zhenishbekov later managed to make contact and said that he had been placed on a list of serious disciplinary offenders and processed under a special procedure for carrying out combat missions as a "problematic serviceman." He was assigned to the 1308th Regiment and is being held in a "punishment company with criminals and drug addicts" and is being prepared for deployment. According to Zhenishbekov, the unit in Yurga has a separate "ward with a cage" where, among others, servicemen who have gone AWOL and ex-convicts are held. His commanders say Zhenishbekov is being trained as a motorized rifleman, after which he will be sent to the Rostov region and from there to the war.

A 20-year-old conscript from the Perm region, Maksim Noskov, who serves in the 37th Motorized Rifle Brigade in Kyakhta, was allegedly forced to sign a contract with the MoD. Noskov was drafted in June. In the early hours of Aug. 15, while he was on duty at a checkpoint, a warrant officer allegedly threatened him with criminal charges over a phone that had been found and forced him to sign a military contract. The conscript twice submitted reports requesting that the contract be terminated. According to his mother, the first document "got lost," while the fate of the second is unknown. The military command claims that the contract was signed voluntarily, that the order has already been issued and that nothing can be done. Noskov is now being prepared to be sent to the war.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

A Moscow court sentenced Nurali K., 48, a war participant, to eight years in a penal colony on charges of murder. The man had been demobilized from the military earlier this year due to a severe combat injury and traveled to Moscow, where he met Rustam Kh. In April, the two men were drinking with a large group when an argument broke out, after which Nurali stabbed Rustam dozens of times and went to sleep. He was detained when police arrived. The court cited the defendant's participation in the war as a mitigating factor and his severe alcohol dependence as an aggravating one.

Another war participant, identified as Sergey T., was sentenced to six years in prison by a Moscow court. He had been sent to the war from a penal colony and received a pardon before moving to Moscow, where he found work. He later encountered a woman on the street who had allegedly been thrown out of her home by her husband and offered her a place to stay at a hostel. After the two caused a disturbance by drinking and making noise, the administrator demanded that the woman leave. Sergey offered to walk her out, but an argument broke out on the way, and he assaulted her and threw her out of the building, after which he was detained. The woman was taken to the hospital. The defendant later pleaded guilty, and the court cited his participation in combat as a mitigating factor.

The Baltic Garrison Military Court sentenced serviceman Ilya Uvarov to one year in a penal settlement on charges of causing minor bodily harm. According to investigators, on the morning of Aug. 23, 2025, Uvarov, who was intoxicated, pulled out a knife at a nightclub in Baltiysk, slashed a patron's neck and struck him in the shoulder. The cause of the fight was not disclosed. Prosecutors had charged the serviceman with attempted murder, but the judge, citing the nature of the victim's injuries, reclassified the offense as causing minor bodily harm.

The 1st Eastern District Military Court delivered its verdict in the case of war veteran Dmitry Mazur and Vladimir Kabakov, who were accused of murder and robbery. Kabakov was sentenced to 19 years in a penal colony, while Mazur was acquitted by a jury. Two other defendants, Aleksey Bortnikov and Nikolay Barkovsky, returned to the frontline before verdicts were reached in their cases — the proceedings against them were suspended. According to the court, in the summer of 2025, the four men decided to rob a fellow soldier, 34-year-old Viktor Vasilyev, who had also taken part in the war and had received 3 million rubles [$35,600] for an injury. Vasilyev was invited to spend time at a country house, where the men slipped a drug into his drink. However, the dose was too large, and he died. Afterward, the men cut off Vasilyev’s finger and used it to unlock his phone, attempting to transfer money from his bank account. They managed to transfer only 350,000 rubles [$4,150]; Vasilyev’s wife transferred the remaining money to herself after noticing the suspicious transactions.

In Novosibirsk region, a court sentenced 26-year-old war veteran Vladislav Pershin to eight years and nine months in a penal colony for murder. In 2023, Pershin was recruited by the Wagner Group from a penal colony to fight in the war. Since 2018, he had been serving time for the murder of two people, one of whom was his maternal uncle. In March 2024, he was pardoned, and after returning from the frontline later that year, he was sentenced to 180 hours of community service for intentionally causing minor bodily harm. In January 2026, Pershin was drinking with relatives, including the father of a man Pershin had previously killed, who was Pershin’s great-uncle. While they were discussing the man Pershin had previously killed, a fight broke out between the men. During the altercation, the serviceman struck his relative 21 times, causing his death. In determining the sentence, the court considered Pershin’s positive character reference from his service with the Wagner Group as a mitigating factor.

The Yaroslavl Regional Court sentenced 48-year-old Nikolay Shcherbakov to 14 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of high treason. According to prosecutors, beginning in October 2024, Shcherbakov "systematically" visited cemeteries to photograph the graves of military personnel. He then sent the information he collected via a messaging app to representatives of Ukraine’s intelligence services. It is not known when or where Shcherbakov was arrested. The case is the first known instance in which providing the Ukrainian side with information about the burial sites of military personnel was classified as high treason. In late June, several residents of the Tomsk region were detained in a similar case involving the photographing of soldiers’ graves.

Children and Militarization

From Sept. 9 to 18, servicemen from the 39th Brigade of the Unmanned Systems Forces will conduct a series of classes for students at the State University of Management. They will demonstrate how to operate military drones, explain how the drones are built and encourage students to sign contracts with the MoD. During the same period, female students will attend first-aid classes and learn to make camouflage nets and trench candles, which the university plans to send to the frontline.

Miscellaneous

In the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Region–Yugra [Russia’s federal subject], a war participant held in a pre-trial detention center was presented with a state award—the Suvorov Medal. The report did not identify the serviceman or specify the criminal charge under which he is being held in the pre-trial detention center.

Authorities in Saint Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad region will spend at least 874.4 million rubles [$10.4 million] on prosthetics in 2026—more than tripling last year's expenditures. According to public procurement records, the regional branch of Russia's Social Fund announced a record contract in mid-August for lower-limb prostheses valued at 495 million rubles [$5.87 million], followed in early September by an additional contract for upper-limb prostheses worth 287,000 rubles [$3,400]. Prior to these tenders, regional authorities had already signed 38 separate supply contracts for prosthetic devices totaling 378.7 million rubles [$4.49 million].

Longreads

The Vyorstka media outlet details how Russian draft offices across the country are routinely denying conscription exemptions to young men whose fathers or brothers were killed in Ukraine, despite explicit statutory protections and favorable court rulings.

The Vot Tak [Like This] media outlet has published a report on how civilian medical facilities, including maternity wards, are being converted into military hospitals.

The Veter [Wind] independent media project has published the story of a 22-year-old conscript from the Moscow region who was sent to the war despite a suicide attempt during his service—where he died.