Forced military recruitment is spreading across Russia, with residents of at least 17 regions alleging they were detained, threatened, or coerced into signing Defense Ministry contracts over the past six weeks, independent Russian outlet Verstka reported on August 24.
Three separate rights organizations documented the complaints, which activists describe as an expanding form of covert mobilization as Russian authorities face growing difficulties finding men willing to voluntarily join the military and fight against Ukraine.
The School of the Conscript rights group recorded complaints in July and August from Udmurtia, Primorsky Krai, the Irkutsk, Ryazan, and Arkhangelsk regions, Buryatia, and Russian-occupied Donetsk. Another organization helping Russians avoid military service, Get Lost, received 18 similar requests for assistance from locations including Penza, Amur, Orenburg, and the Jewish Autonomous regions, as well as Krasnodar and Khabarovsk krais.
Abuses Range from Beatings to Framing
The accounts paint a picture of systematic coercion. In Novorossiysk, one man was reportedly taken to a police station, beaten, framed with drugs, and forced to sign a military contract. In the Arkhangelsk region, another man was detained for drinking in public and subsequently sent to the front.
In Omsk, activists said a man was taken directly from his workplace, held against his will, and eventually had a contract signed on his behalf. In Udmurtia, another man was reportedly removed from psychiatric registration before being sent to Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
Several reports indicate that the number of people willing to sign contracts with the Russian defense ministry has plummeted. The Kremlin is discussing a new wave of mobilization in the autumn of 2026.
A third organization, Call to Conscience, separately reported 18 complaints involving alleged forced enlistment during the same period. The surge in complaints comes as record numbers of Russians attempt to flee the country – at one point, 20,000 people crossed the Verkhny Lars checkpoint with Georgia in just 24 hours, forcing border guards to call in extra shifts.
The Kremlin has so far avoided a repeat of the chaotic mass mobilization of September 2022, which triggered an exodus of hundreds of thousands of Russian men. Instead, analysts say Moscow has relied on generous signing bonuses, prison recruitment, and now, increasingly, coercion to sustain troop levels in Ukraine.
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