Mobilization in Russia for Sept. 9-11, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary

Army Recruitment

In the Irkutsk region, a payment of 40,000 rubles [$470] has been introduced for helping to recruit volunteer fighters for the war. The money can be received "if you persuade a citizen who has doubts, if you help him make up his mind," according to the administration of one of the districts. Personal presence is not required—it is enough for the future contract soldier to list the recruiter’s name when signing the contract. It is also possible to list a relative. Contract soldiers in the region receive a 1 million ruble [$11,800] sign-up bonus. The bonus was increased 2.5-fold in March of this year.

Authorities in the Yamalo-Nenets autonomous region [Russia's federal subject] will increase payments for signing contracts with the Ministry of Defense from 1.9 to 2.2 million rubles [$26,000] for all categories of citizens, except convicts—their payments will be reduced five-fold to 400,000 rubles [$4,720]. Previously, convicts received the same payments as everyone else. In January, authorities in the region raised the payment to 3.1 million rubles [$36,600], making it one of the largest in the country. However, in April, the amount was reduced to 1.9 million.

A resident of the city of Magnitogorsk who assaulted his acquaintance in summer 2024, leading to the victim's death several days later, signed a contract and went to war—the court suspended his criminal case. The 17-year-old daughter of the murdered man reported that she filed complaints with the Military Prosecutor's Office against the accused, but this yielded no results.

According to the Belarusian Investigative Center, citing Ukrainian military intelligence, at least 1,031 Belarusian citizens have signed contracts with the Russian MoD since the start of the full-scale invasion. While only six Belarusians went to war in 2022, there was a sharp increase in 2023—235 people deployed to the frontline, and 517 in 2024. In the first five months of this year alone, 157 Belarusians signed contracts. Among those who signed, nearly half have criminal records. The main recruitment point for Belarusian citizens is reportedly a Moscow contract recruitment center. According to Ukrainian intelligence, of the more than thousand who signed contracts, 189 people have been killed or are missing in action.

Mobilized Soldiers, Contract Soldiers and Conscripts

Russian conscripts have complained about the lack of additional payments for their service in regions bordering Ukraine, which have been declared a counter-terrorism operation zone. This was reported to the Vyorstka media outlet by two conscripts who served in 2024-2025 and one currently serving in the army. They complain that they cannot find templates for appeals and complaints and generally struggle to understand what payments they are entitled to for service in the counter-terrorism operation zone, because no one explains anything to them.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

Vladimir Gudkov, a resident of the Tver region who returned from the war, was sent to a penal colony by a court only on the fifth attempt. After his return, Gudkov committed a series of crimes—death threats, theft, robbery and violent attacks, including beatings. Despite this, courts repeatedly issued lenient sentences, citing his participation in the "special military operation," his awards and remorse as mitigating factors. Eventually his sentence was increased to three and a half years, but in September 2025 he was again convicted of theft; details of the latest verdict are unknown.

In Russia's constituent Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), a member of the Storm-Z unit received a three-year suspended sentence for causing grievous bodily harm. A 35-year-old resident of the village of Verkhnevilyuysk had been consuming alcohol with his wife when an argument ensued. During the fight that followed, the war participant first struck his wife in the face, and then hit her on the head with a hammer. In the hospital, she was diagnosed with a cranial-cerebral injury and a depressed comminuted fracture of the parietal bone. During the court hearing, the man stated that he had no intention of killing his wife. In 2021, he was sentenced to seven years in a penal colony for beating a drinking companion to death. He was deployed to the frontline from the penal colony.

In the Ryazan region, a court has ruled the conscription of a man whose brother was mobilized and killed in combat to be illegal. When a district draft board conscripted the young man for statutory military service, the prosecutor's office demanded to cancel this decision, citing the Military Conscription and Military Service Act, according to which sons or brothers of servicemen who were killed while performing their duties are exempt from conscription. The court agreed with the prosecutor's office, thus confirming that service under mobilization is considered a form of military conscription.

The Supreme Court, at the request of the prosecutor, overturned the rulings of lower courts in the case of a resident of the Kamchatka region accused of draft evasion. Earlier, the courts had dismissed the case against the man due to his positive character references, donations to a fund for orphans, and his stated intention to perform statutory military service, imposing only a judicial fine of 30,000 rubles [$350]. However, the Supreme Court overturned this verdict, agreeing with the prosecutor’s argument that the mere intention to perform statutory military service is not grounds for exemption from liability, and that donations to an orphan fund do not contribute to strengthening the country’s defense capabilities.

34-year-old Ukrainian serviceman Sergey Dzyuba has been sentenced to 20 years in a penal colony on charges of participation in a terrorist organization and receiving terrorist training. Investigators claim that in May 2024 Dzyuba joined the Ukrainian Aidar Battalion, completed training in the town of Druzhkivka in the Donetsk region, and was assigned the position of rifleman-medic. Later, he allegedly "took part in combat operations against the civilian population of the DPR and servicemen of the Russian Federation." Dzyuba was captured in the spring of this year.

A resident of Buryatia [Russia's constituent republic] identified only by the last name Dokuchaev has been arrested on charges of sabotage. Authorities have not released his full name or age. According to prosecutors, in September 2025 he allegedly set fire to a cellular base station in the Kabansky district of the republic.

Also, on Sept. 9, authorities detained two residents of Novosibirsk, Denis Gogolev and Aleksandr Ovchinnikov, on charges of sabotage. According to investigators, the men set fire to a relay cabinet in Novosibirsk’s Leninsky district "with the aim of undermining economic security and defense capabilities" on Sept. 6-7. A court ordered both held in a pre-trial detention center.

A former employee of a defense plant in Perm was sentenced to 13 years in a penal colony on treason charges. According to investigators, while working at the plant the man compiled all known information about it and transmitted it to foreign intelligence services. Neither the name of the defendant, nor the identity of the plant, nor other details of the case were disclosed.

In Izhevsk, security services detained a man accused of plotting the murder of a senior employee at a defense industry enterprise. The charges and the man’s name were not made public. In a video released by the Federal Security Service (FSB), the suspect says he had been contacted by scammers who told him there was an unpaid loan in his name and coerced him into taking part in the alleged plot.

The Insider calculated that in August this year, at least 236 people were convicted in Russia in 219 politically motivated cases—28 of them under charges of terrorism, sabotage and treason. That same month, 39 Ukrainian prisoners of war were also sentenced, accused under various terrorism-related articles.

Children and Militarization

In Russian kindergartens, children will be given sets of figurines depicting real and fictional participants in the war in Ukraine, as well as medics and volunteers, created by the Little Heroes Belgorod project. The project was one of the winners of the Native Toy competition, whose products Vladimir Putin previously promised to put into production and distribute to kindergartens.

In Mordovia, a war participant was invited to speak with middle school students about the war against Ukraine. For the meeting, he wore a World War II–era military uniform and displayed borrowed medals from that period, including For Courage and For Victory over Germany.

Assistance

Authorities in the Perm region [Russia’s federal subject] wrote off the debts of 2,200 local servicemen, amounting to 525 million rubles [$6.2 million]. By law, participants in the war can have up to 10 million rubles [$118,100] of debt forgiven if they have served for more than a year.

Lawmakers in the State Assembly of Bashkortostan [Russia's constituent republic] are preparing amendments to the republic’s law "On Municipal Service in the Republic of Bashkortostan." The changes would ease requirements on education, professional background, and work experience for war participants applying for certain municipal government positions.

Miscellaneous

Novaya Gazeta Europe [European edition of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta] analysed the lists of candidates running in Russia’s Sept. 14 elections and found that, despite propaganda claims, veterans and other war participants still make up only about 1.5 percent of those seeking elected office. Reporters identified nearly 1,500 servicemen or people with military-adjacent backgrounds among candidates at all levels.

In the city of Minusinsk, Krasnoyarsk region, the mayor introduced a special post of "gorodnichy" [an old-fashioned title once used for a city’s chief of police] for Yevgeny Protas, a local native and former Wagner Group mercenary. According to reports, Protas’s duties will include overseeing road conditions, building facades, the upkeep of vacant lots, and communication with residents. Before going to war, he had been convicted twice for fraud.

Longreads

The Sibir.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media told the story of a father of 12 who signed a contract with the MoD and was killed under unclear circumstances in the Kursk region. His family is trying to obtain death benefits and compensation for funeral expenses, but authorities maintain they are not entitled to such payments and instead offered only benefits for visits to "sports facilities and museums."