In mid-June, security forces comprising police, Rosgvardia troops and military enlistment officers conducted coordinated raids across the Penza region, stopping vehicles and public transport to detain men and press them into signing contracts with the Ministry of Defence for deployment to the war in Ukraine. Video verified by the exiled outlet Mediazona showed women outside a Penza enlistment office attempting to block a minibus carrying detained men, accusing uniformed personnel of physical assault and forced contract signing. Human rights groups and independent Russian-language media reported that at least 20 people were detained in Penza and the nearby towns of Kamenka and Kuznetsk, with some families alleging that relatives were tricked into signing under the guise of arrest paperwork.

Russian authorities offered a sharply different account. The Penza branch of Rosgvardia stated on 18 June that it had conducted a “interdepartmental raid to identify violators of military registration,” checking 80 drivers and issuing summonses to nine individuals who had failed to register after obtaining Russian citizenship. The regional interior ministry dismissed reports of mass forced mobilisation as “not corresponding to reality,” describing the operations as routine, planned sweeps targeting undocumented migrants and standard draft evaders. Pro-government local media, citing anonymous sources close to security structures, denied any large-scale round-ups and urged residents to remain calm and rely on official communications.

Exiled news organisations and anti-war initiatives, however, received a stream of contrary testimonies. The non-profit Idite Lesom, which assists men seeking to avoid military service, reported that men were being “rounded up indiscriminately” and forced into contracts, with one family filing a formal complaint. The Dvizhenie soznatelnykh otkazchikov (Movement of Conscious Objectors) and the Telegram channel Mobilizatsiya corroborated accounts of street abductions, beatings and pressure tactics. One woman told the outlet Agentstvo that her husband, detained over a credit-card debt, was told he could either “go as a convict to the SMO or go voluntarily.” Rights defenders interviewed by journalists suggested a new pattern of recruiting from vulnerable groups, including men with prior legal troubles or outstanding debts.

The events fit a broader pattern documented since President Vladimir Putin’s “partial” mobilisation of 300,000 reservists in September 2022. Despite no new official mobilisation decree, Russian media have regularly reported instances of forced recruitment as the military seeks to expand active personnel to 1.5 million by 2026. Viewed from Western capitals, such coercive practices are seen as a sign of persistent manpower strain on the Russian armed forces, while independent Russian analysts note that the Kremlin’s avoidance of a formal second mobilisation wave drives regional authorities and security agencies to resort to informal conscription methods that risk stoking public anger.

Rosgvardia has announced that similar raids will continue “on a systematic basis in all districts of the region.” The regional government has not issued an official statement beyond the anonymous denials, and the Kremlin has remained silent. Human rights groups say they continue to receive distress messages from families, and at least one formal complaint has been lodged. The dossier remains contested, with no independent verification of the full scale of the operations, but the episode underscores the tension between the state’s manpower needs and its reluctance to declare a politically costly new mobilisation.