Militarization of Occupied Areas

Russia is setting conditions to scale up the illegal mobilization of residents of occupied Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on November 4 that will allow Russian military conscription administrative processes to occur year-round, as opposed to the current system of semi-annual spring and autumn conscription cycles.[6] The new conscription law will also apply to occupied Ukraine, allowing Russia to scale up its illegal mobilization processes that have been occurring in occupied territories since 2022 or 2014.[7] The Ukrainian Resistance Center reported on October 31 that Russian occupation authorities have already begun year-round conscription processes in occupied areas and have instructed military enlistment offices to compile lists of 18 to 50-year-old men for conscription in occupied Melitopol.[8] Law enforcement services in occupied Melitopol have begun conducting door-to-door checks to verify residents’ addresses, especially targeting men working in manual labor professions, as they can be quickly mobilized into the Russian army and deployed to rear positions without formal military training.

Ukrainian outlet Suspilne reported on October 30 that Russia has long used occupied Crimea as a testing ground for forced mobilization mechanisms under occupation.[9] Crimean Human Rights Group Head Olha Skrypnyk reported that Russia’s previous bi-annual fall and spring conscription efforts mobilized around three thousand local Crimean residents each, and that Russian occupation authorities would also force some of the conscripts to sign “voluntary” contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) to obscure the scale of forced mobilization in Crimea. Skrypnyk noted that the pace of forced recruitment of Crimean men since 2022 has decreased as Russian authorities prefer to conduct broader-reaching mobilization campaigns in Zaporizhia, Kherson, Donetsk, and Luhansk oblasts in order to present the situation in occupied Crimea as somewhat normal. Human rights advocates estimate that Russia-appointed occupation authorities have drafted or mobilized over 45,000-50,000 Crimean residents since 2014, compared to an estimated 210,000 in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts since 2022 alone.[10]  

Russia’s illegal mobilization efforts likely serve a dual purpose. First, they allow Russia to address its manpower shortages without alarming its domestic population. Second, Russia instrumentalizes mobilization as a tool to suppress anti-occupation sentiment and resistance by incentivizing compliance with the occupation regime. These mobilization efforts also constitute a gross violation of international law. Russia continues to disregard Article 51 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the occupying power from forcibly conscripting civilians from occupied territories into its armed forces.[11]

Russia continues the construction of the Voin military patriotic training center for youth in occupied Mariupol. Voin’s occupied Donetsk Oblast branch director Alexander Kamyshov told Kremlin newswire TASS on November 1 that the Voin military-sports training and patriotic education center in occupied Mariupol will be open year-round after construction finishes in 2026.[12] The Mariupol Voin center will accommodate 300 children and include a tactical shelter, drone training area, indoor gym, a “shooting gallery”, sports training facilities, a helicopter training tower, onsite residences, and a dining hall.[13] Kamyshov told TASS on November 3 that the occupied Donetsk Oblast branch of Voin increased its audience tenfold in 2025, reaching 3,000 participants.[14] ISW previously reported that Voin training camps are primarily intended to teach Ukrainian children basic military skills, such as small arms fire, tactical first aid, and drone operation, under the supervision of Russian veterans and active military personnel.[15] ISW continues to assess that Voin is a critical component of Russia’s broader militarization and indoctrination efforts in occupied Ukraine that are geared towards preparing Ukrainian children for service in the Russian military.[16] There are currently three branches of Voin centers in occupied Ukraine aside from the one under construction in occupied Mariupol, located in Henichesk, Berdyansk, and Luhansk City.[17]

Russia is using a battalion comprised of former Ukrainian soldiers to train Ukrainian children in drone operation and other tactical and technical skills.  Occupied Donetsk Oblast-based outlet Donetsk News Agency (DAN) reported on November 1 that one of its correspondents visited the Rubikon training ground in occupied Donetsk Oblast and observed a five-day youth training course on firearm use, tactical medicine, and drone operation. Russian veterans, including those of the Pyatnashka International Volunteer Brigade, are instructors at the training ground. DAN claimed that members of the Maksim Krivonos Battalion, many of whom allegedly defected from the Ukrainian military, comprise a majority of the instructor core. The Mariupol Specialized Construction College reported on November 5 that it sent a student contingent to the Rubikon training ground to participate in the five-year course alongside Russian veterans and members of the Maksim Krivonos Battalion.[18] Ukrainian outlet Suspilne published an investigation into the Maksim Krivonos Battalion on August 21, which found that the unit is predominantly staffed by Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) who Russian forces captured between 2023-2024.[19] Suspilne noted that it is very difficult to determine which servicemembers are participating in combat operations against Ukraine voluntarily due to the inherently dangerous and coercive nature of being taken as a POW, but emphasized that the use of POWs to serve in the military of the aggressor state is a war crime. Russia is likely using the Maksim Krivonos Battalion to train Ukrainian youth in part for propagandic purposes, as many prominent members of the battalion publicly advocate their anti-Ukrainian and pro-Russian views.[20] The battalion also provides Ukrainian children with tangible military training, supporting Russian efforts to prepare Ukrainian children for future service in the Russian military.[21]