Executive Summary:
- Moscow is stepping up mobilization pressure in occupied Ukraine to compensate for manpower losses in the war against Ukraine. Since April, Russian authorities in Ukraine’s occupied Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts have widely canceled mobilization deferrals for full-time students.
- Russian occupation authorities are using forced passportization, mandatory military registration, raids, and threats of legal punishment to force Ukrainian males of mobilization age into the Russian army.
- Forced mobilization is worsening shortages of qualified workers in the occupied territories of Ukraine, which is disrupting critical services and helping the Kremlin remove Ukrainian men from the occupied territories.
Since April, Russian authorities in Ukraine’s occupied Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts have widely canceled mobilization deferrals for full-time students (TSN, April 5). Male students of mobilization age are increasingly being asked to visit regional military offices to update information and check documents. In some cases, officials have ignored their full-time student status and sent them directly to military training (Glavkom, April 11).
The current mobilization process in occupied Ukraine follows the Kremlin’s forced passportization there. The Kremlin closed its expedited passport system in the occupied territories of Ukraine in September 2025 (RBC, September 9, 2025). This January, more Russian laws came into effect that make access to pensions, employment, healthcare, education, mobile communications, property registration, and freedom of movement contingent on Russian citizenship in occupied Ukraine (see EDM, January 22). Russia forced many Ukrainians to obtain Russian passports as a survival mechanism under occupation and is now using their imposed citizenship to force mobilization on them. Once classified as Russian citizens, Ukrainian men have become subject to military registration, summons, and punishment for non-compliance.
Under Russian law, newly naturalized individuals must register with the regional military and enlistment offices within two weeks of becoming citizens (ArmyHelp, January 20). This requirement gives the Kremlin a coercive mechanism to force Ukrainians into mobilization. Many Ukrainians in occupied territories have avoided registering with the Russian military, but failure to do so risks punitive measures, such as the possible revocation of their Russian passport, denial of access to basic services, and even administrative expulsion (Zaporizhzhia Center of Investigations, April 13).
The Kremlin’s mobilization strategy in the occupied territories aims to fill the personnel gap caused by catastrophic Russian military losses and reshape the demographic balance by removing some Ukrainian residents. By the end of 2025, the Russian army had mobilized approximately 50,000 Ukrainians into its forces since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The majority of them (35,272) were mobilized from Crimea, followed by Donetsk (5,368) and Luhansk (4,650) oblasts (Suspilne, November 18, 2025).
In November 2025, Russia formally included the occupied territories of Ukraine in its Southern Military District and reportedly prepared to mobilize between 50,000 and 100,000 men aged 18 to 55 from these areas (Espresso, November 2, 2025). This decision followed Moscow’s adoption of legislation allowing military conscription year-round, beginning in 2026 (NV.ua, December 29, 2025).
Since January, the Kremlin has intensified mobilization pressure in occupied Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson to fill mobilization quotas caused by mounting Russian casualties in Ukraine (Fakty, April 11). That same month, Russian occupation officials reportedly launched preparations for a mobilization campaign targeting Ukrainian males born between 1996 and 2008 in the occupied territories of Ukraine’s Donetsk oblast (ArmyInform, January 18). As part of this campaign, Russians have allegedly mobilized people with disabilities or serious illnesses to the frontline, often without prior medical checks or sufficient training (Suspilne, January 18).
Russian police officers and representatives of military territorial centers are searching for Ukrainians forced into Russian citizenship who have not completed military registration. These officers receive detailed quotas for the number of people they must get to sign contracts with the Russian army and send them to the war against Ukraine. They receive bonuses for meeting those quotas (24th Channel, March 24).
Russian occupation officials often disguise coercive mobilization as “voluntary” contract service (Espresso, April 10). In practice, they force residents in occupied Ukraine to sign contracts with the Russian army through detention, intimidation, unpaid wages, debt, and economic desperation (Tribun, June 26, 2025; Zaporizhzhia Center of Investigations, April 13). Russian propaganda presents military service as a path to stable and potentially high income with safer roles away from the front, including in drone units (Ria-M, January 29). Russian occupation authorities, however, often break those promises, and recruits are increasingly sent to combat positions after limited training and with no ability to leave service (FREEDOM, January 18).
Since April, Russian occupation officials have increased the intensity of raids in occupied territories to search for those who have not registered for military service, who have not shown up to the regional military office after getting a summons, and who fled military training centers (Obozrevatel, April 30). Russian military police check drivers’ and local residents’ documents on the street, visit residences, and search public places such as coffee shops and restaurants (24th Channel, March 24). In cases where documents related to exemption from mobilization are in dispute, representatives of the military police forcibly take individuals to regional military centers.
Since this spring, Russian occupation authorities have increasingly conducted mobilization activities at critical infrastructure enterprises, including coal mines in the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts (Focus, April 10). This situation has created shortages of qualified workers, disrupting critical social services and degrading water, electricity, and other utilities (Espresso, January 20; see EDM, May 5). The shortage has become particularly acute at coal-mining enterprises, where occupation officials are recruiting women for jobs traditionally performed by men. This points to the growing lack of qualified male workers in Ukraine’s occupied territories (Fakty, January 22).
The Kremlin has acted in direct violation of international humanitarian law by conducting forced mobilization in occupied Ukraine (Red Cross Ukraine, January 15, 2025). Article 51 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits an occupying power from compelling residents of occupied territory to serve in its armed or auxiliary forces and forbids pressure or propaganda to secure voluntary enlistment into the occupying power’s military (International Committee of the Red Cross, August 12, 1949).
Forced mobilization in the occupied territories of Ukraine is part of the Kremlin’s broader coercive occupation policy against the population it claims to protect. Through forced passportization, military registration, economic pressure, and raids, Moscow has used Ukrainians in occupied territories to replenish battlefield losses. At the same time, such practices have weakened the local communities most likely to resist Russian rule. Forced mobilization in Ukraine’s occupied territories is a mechanism for the Kremlin to consolidate its occupation and accelerate Russification while addressing the Russian army’s manpower shortage.
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