Russian Military Registration and Enlistment Offices on Fire

Since Russia’s start of a full-scale war with Ukraine, more than 20 attempts to set military registration and enlistment offices on fire have been recorded. At the same time, the number of railroad derailment accidents have increased markedly.

Partisans in Russia massively set fire to military offices. According to the Rospartizan Telegram channel, after Putin announced mobilization, two military offices burned overnight in St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, and the state administration of the city of Tolyatti.

The partisan movement in Russia is slowly gaining momentum. The partisans managed to derail more than 80 freight trains in a few months. There are frequent fires at military registration and enlistment offices, police stations, and city administrations in different parts of Russia.

After Putin announced mobilization, there was a call to set fire to military registration and enlistment offices in the Rospartizan Telegram channel.

“From now on, military registration and enlistment offices, mobile campaign centers, and other buildings of the Ministry of War are the number one goal for the partisan movement. Prepare Molotov cocktails, stock up on combustible and dry alcohol, and prepare. Aim at the premises with archives, destroy documents: Let them look for fathers, husbands, and brothers to personally hand them their death receipts. From now on, hitting a military commissar earns respect in the movement.”

Other Topics of Interest

ISW Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, December, 20, 2024

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

From the end of February to the present, there are believed to have been at least 23 attacks on military registration and enlistment offices in different regions of Russia. Of these, 20 were arson, mostly with Molotov cocktails. Some of the attacks were filmed. There has also been an increase in train derailments.

Russian railway sabotage may have been inspired by sabotage activity in Belarus. At the end of February 2022, the first reports appeared in the media about sabotage on Belarusian railways to disable manpower, equipment, and military materiel transported by rail, which was intended for military operations in Ukraine. Signaling equipment was destroyed in three Belarusian regions and railway lines were blocked. As a result of these operations, the work of several branches of the Belarusian railway were disrupted. Since then, sabotage has been committed on many railway tracks in the southern regions of Belarus.