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In June 2026, residents of Penza Oblast faced the largest wave of concealed mobilization since the fall of 2022. A video showing women literally pulling men away from military enlistment officers quickly spread across social media. While officials remain silent and regional online groups ignore the issue, local residents are joining forces to protect one another and warn each other about the danger.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

How Military Enlistment Office Raids Are Carried Out in Penza 

The first reports that security forces were detaining men on the streets of Penza appeared on the night of June 18. One participant in the large Telegram channel Penza Novosti (Penza News) posted an emotional warning: "Don't let your husbands or brothers leave the house. Seven men are driving around in a white GAZelle, grabbing everyone they can. Penza Oblast is supposed to provide 700 men. Especially in the evenings."

Residents also identified vehicles allegedly used in the raids. Besides the white GAZelle, they reported seeing a white Hyundai Solaris and minivans with heavily tinted windows.

According to eyewitnesses, the raids covered nearly every major district of Penza, as well as Kuznetsk, the region's second-largest city. Military enlistment officers accompanied by traffic police were spotted near the Central Department Store, a movie theater, several monuments, and in the Shuist and Sputnik neighborhoods. On highways connecting cities across the region, security forces set up checkpoints, stopped intercity buses, and ordered military-age men get off before taking them to assembly points.

Penza Residents Broke Through the Information Blackout Imposed by Censored Media

Penza residents began referring to the people carrying out the raids as TCR, apparently borrowing the Ukrainian abbreviation. In Ukraine, it refers to the Territorial Centers of Recruitment and Social Support, the military authorities responsible for conscription, which are similar to Russia's military enlistment offices.

"That's the whole point: it's their term, but the reality is the same. Manhunters there, manhunters here," one user wrote in the Penza Novosti chat.

Despite what was happening, local media outlets did not report on the raids. That only made residents angrier. They began flooding the comment sections of unrelated posts by local media, from stories about the Unified State Exam to reports of stolen hydrangeas, demanding that journalists start covering what was actually happening.

"I think something a little more important is going on in our city right now." "Fuck, why don't you report on what's happening all over Penza instead, you geniuses?" residents wrote in the comments.

Such comments received anywhere from 50 to well over 100 likes. Explanations that these were merely "routine raids," along with calls for people to stay calm, received no fewer negative reactions from local residents.

Moderators of local chats quickly deleted messages in which residents shared information about the movements of military patrols to help men avoid detention.

Ordinary Taxi Drivers Become Part of the Raids 

The large-scale raids have been confirmed by major independent media outlets and human rights initiatives, including Get Lost and Stoparmy. Testimonies collected by journalists paint a disturbing picture. In Kuznetsk, taxi drivers have reportedly acted as informants or accomplices, driving unsuspecting passengers directly to police stations.

"Young men walking alone are grabbed off the streets by athletic-looking men with no identifying insignia, forced into minibuses, and taken to the military enlistment office. There, they are beaten and forced to sign military contracts... There's another scenario as well: men call a taxi, but the driver takes them straight to the Kuznetsk police station instead," a follower of blogger Ilya Varlamov said.

Local blogger Stanislav Morozov is making a documentary based on the stories of mothers and wives whose relatives were subjected to physical violence at local military assembly points. Morozov publicly described the military enlistment offices in Penza's Oktyabrsky and Zheleznodorozhny districts as "a torture camp," prompting police to draw up two administrative offense reports against him.

Raids Take Place in Other Russian Regions Besides Penza Oblast 

Human rights defenders say the events in Penza Oblast resemble the first weeks of the mobilization in the fall of 2022. Grigory Sverdlin, head of the Get Lost project, confirmed that similar concealed raids have resumed in several Russian regions. However, only in Penza has public anger spilled over into open civic protest.

Putin's decree on partial mobilization, issued in 2022, remains in force. This means that large-scale mobilization efforts can resume at any time.

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