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Trump imposes new sanctions on Russia, Iran via Lindsey Graham Act; Russia holds parliamentary elections in occupied territory; Flights suspended at Luxembourg airport after drones detected nearby.
Editor’s note:
Russia is holding State Duma elections this weekend. In almost any other country, a vote like this would carry at least some hope of change. In Russia, it doesn’t.
And judging by today’s story, Russians themselves don’t see the vote as a turning point either. That means the war will go on, and, sadly, we will have plenty more to write about.
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OUR LEAD STORY:
Serhii Kraianyn doesn’t talk much about his job, as almost every day feels pretty much the same. At dawn, he is already awake and having a quick breakfast before going to work. Then comes a shift at the lathe, draining his energy by half past two.
Evenings, on the other hand, always have something surprising in stock. After a brief rest, Serhii turns on his computer and goes live for thousands of subscribers, waiting for a Russian to join him in chat roulette. Every other stream brings a new face and a peek into the mind of another ‘ordinary Russian’ — proud to have started a war, eager to get the next ‘coffin payment,’ and totally unaware of how democracy works.
No wonder Russians are like this, because the life they live in is quite gloomy. From 18 to 20 September, Russia is choosing 450 State Duma members in the parliamentary elections. When voting ends, Russia’s ‘creeping’ mobilization may intensify, with plans to conscript 300,000 troops by the end of 2026 and another 300,000 the next year.
This might be the fastest way for Russia to compensate for increasing losses of its military personnel in Ukraine. According to Ukrainian intelligence, the number of men willing to sign military contracts fell in some Russian regions by 40 percent since 2025. More and more Russians are getting mobilization orders at military enlistment offices when they come to update their personal records.
Apart from outright coercion, Russia continues to bribe fighters into the army by writing off overdue loans and paying millions of rubles for signing military contracts. Some regions have increased such payments to over $51,000, despite local budget deficits. So-called ‘coffin money’ for the dead comprises 38 percent of all Russia’s military expenditures in 2026. Under federal law, families of Russian soldiers can have overdue loans below 10 million rubles written off, receive payment forbearance, and qualify for a wide array of subsidies, such as free professional or higher education.
As signing a contract becomes the only social lift for many Russians from economically depressed regions, this has made Russian economic inequality not just a domestic issue but a catalyst to continue its war efforts in Ukraine.
Serhii saw the absurdity of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as soon as it began. By then, he and his wife had spent over 5 years in Poland. They were safe, but February and March of 2022 were truly devastating to Serhii, with part of his family suffering from constant shelling in Ukraine and his spouse fighting cancer.
As a person who finds peace in taking action, Serhii found a way to help Ukraine from abroad. Inspired by another chat roulette channel, Ukraine, not Russia, and its well-educated author, also Serhii, he started posting snippets of his conversations with Russians on TikTok. To his surprise, they got tens of thousands of views and attracted subscribers, who asked for a YouTube channel with full videos. Now, Kraianyn has over 185,000 viewers who offer new topics for his content and raise money for the Ukrainian army.
On his streams, Serhii is trying to show who Ukrainians are dealing with. He remembers how quickly Russians went from panic in the first weeks of the war to repeating propagandist narratives about their “historic right” to Ukraine and, finally, felt total impunity for their war crimes, which Serhii keeps documenting.
“One of my tasks is to document their opinions on war and in Ukrainians. If their words breach our Criminal Code… I am sure that someone is dealing with such cases and gathering such data. Several times, I shared information with [law enforcement] agencies,” he said.
Video: To this man, committing war crimes in Popasna (Luhansk region) was “a genuine entertainment.”
Subtitles added using AI assistance
In Serhii’s opinion, Russians are willing to fight the war of attrition in a foreign state because they, unlike Ukrainians, have it much worse at home than on the battlefield. A man joining the chat in a worn-out T-shirt right from the barn, because his wife won’t let him in drunk; a former soldier from a small village, unable to name Earth’s continents; a woman who offered beer to her little child and borrowed money to buy home appliances; multiple apartments with Soviet furniture and peeled-off wallpaper — Serhii has seen it all.
“They live in poverty... For Russians, life at home is worse than being at war. They’re trying to escape this life of theirs, where they’re completely insignificant, and they have to survive on payday loans. Russians want to fight because they’re offered great money for it,” he said.
Quite an illustrative example is Tuva, a region near the Russian border with Mongolia. In 2022, it was deemed the poorest. It has no railway; buses run irregularly; access to education, employment, and, in some districts, to basic utilities like water, sewage, and heating is a luxury.
In Tuva, one in 200 residents was killed on the battlefield in Ukraine. Other poor regions like Transbaikal, Chukotka, and Buryatia are also sending overwhelming numbers of their men to war to improve their economic condition.
The group that probably benefits from Russia’s war against Ukraine the most is the soldiers’ family members who receive millions of rubles for sending recruits to the army and even more for their death. Since 2023, the influx of contract payments and ‘coffin money’ into Russia’s poorest regions, which provide most of the recruits, has led to a sharp increase in household bank deposits. For instance, in Siberian regions, savings grew drastically, by about 19 percent in Altai, 33 percent in Buryatia, and the record-breaking 57 percent in Tuva.
According to The Wall Street Journal, locals can visit nail salons, eat out at cafes, and even afford cars and housing. For example, in Ulan-Ude, Buryatia, demand for real estate resale grew by 12 percent in 2025, compared to 2024, while supply also surged by 56 percent.
At the same time, recent data shows that these sudden riches are rather fleeting. Ukrainian intelligence reports that some regions started paying less for newly signed military contracts in 2025. Recently, at least six regions have cut ‘coffin money,’ too. Namely, soldiers from the Bashkortostan and Ulianovsk regions get 20 times less money than in 2025, while the Orenburg region canceled local bonuses and now provides only federal payments.
If this trend spreads across the country, it might further slow mobilization.
“I had a few conversations with [Russian soldiers] who fought [in Ukraine]. When I asked how many Russians would stay on the frontline if Russia stops paying money, they said, “About 10 percent.” “They won’t tell me that, but most of them are only going there for money,” Serhii said.
Not everyone is going bankrupt due to the war, though. For instance, a Russian wedding photographer told Serhii she is now making more money than ever by capturing weddings of Russian soldiers who receive millions of rubles for army service.
Video: This woman wants Russia to seize Odesa and thinks that Putin started the war to get more votes in the next election. She is glad when Russian women purposely marry men who fought in Ukraine, because she can earn more photographing their weddings.
Subtitles added using AI assistance.
Some industries openly thrive on death. Serhii once talked to a woman from Tomsk who designs gravestones. Having lost her friends on the Ukrainian battlefield, she admitted her job got more profitable during the war. In the past two years, this trend has been especially evident in Siberia and the Far East of Russia, with Buryatia in the lead. In December 2025, burial services in Buryatia cost about 190 million rubles in total. Irkutsk, Primorsk and Khabarovsk regions closely followed, indicating a surge in prices and hinting at a relatively higher number of dead there.
Video: A gravestone designer from Tomsk says she is getting more orders than before.
Subtitles added using AI assistance.
Serhii easily identifies Russian women who are receiving payments from relatives fighting in Ukraine. Many even look eager to receive ‘coffin money.’ According to his observations, from the southwestern city of Rostov to Siberia, they show off their riches in just the same way.
“It just immediately catches your eye. For example, some woman who looks like a wreck, living in a run-down apartment, has those long eyelashes and those full lips — and she’s definitely covered in tattoos. That’s a sign of her wealth. And she’s definitely smoking.”
Video: This woman looks modest but openly says that she’d rather see her husband dead and pay off the loan she took to buy a fridge.
Subtitles added using AI assistance.
Serhii, after more than four years of talking to Russians, believes they will take whatever the government does to them, to the point of forceful mass mobilization.
“I think they’ll try to implement forced mobilization in certain regions to gauge the reaction… And I’m sure… the Russians will put up with it. They have absolutely no desire to resist,” he said. “If we break it down by category, about 40–50 percent are Ruscists, Putinoids (strong supporters of Vladimir Putin and the war against Ukraine). About 40 percent... couldn’t care less. Many, let’s say 10 percent, don’t like what’s happening, but they’re scared.”
For them, even the ongoing election, with Vladimir Putin’s United Russia bloc expectedly topping the polls, will not make a difference. When a viewer suggested Serhii ask Russians about their hopes after the vote, they didn’t understand the question.
“You just have to see the look on their faces. When I ask them, “Will anything change for the better in your country?” They say, “What exactly should change?” “For them, it’s some kind of unfathomable question. On a subconscious level, they understand no changes will happen at all. They look at me like I’m an idiot,” he shared.
For Serhii, the best (and secretly desirable for many Ukrainians) way to force Russia out of the war is to respond to its massive attacks with tenfold damage — force is the only language criminals understand. Still, the only feasible option for a nation that respects international law is to move step by step, day by day, to defeat the enemy like water wearing away stone.
Interested in reading more stories about life and mood inside Russia? Take a look at these:
This is my mom’s brain on Russian propaganda by Tim Mak and William Glover Weiss
Ukrainian sabotage groups operating behind Russian lines by Mariana Lastovyria
“When will war end” searches peak in Russia by Mariana Lastovyria
Editor’s Note:
Russia is holding State Duma elections this weekend. In almost any other country, a vote like this would carry at least some hope of change. In Russia, it doesn’t.
And judging by today’s story, Russians themselves don’t see the vote as a turning point either. That means the war will go on, and, sadly, we will have plenty more to write about.
Thank you for your support. It allows us to keep telling the world the truth.
THE LATEST NEWS AT THIS HOUR:
By Myroslava Tanska-Vikulova
Good morning to readers, Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.
TRUMP IMPOSES NEW SANCTIONS ON RUSSIA, IRAN VIA LINDSEY GRAHAM ACT: Donald Trump signed the Lindsey Graham Act, which imposes new sanctions on Russia and Iran. The bill imposes new restrictions on Russian officials, banks, oligarchs, and Russia’s shadow fleet.
The Act also gives the U.S. president authority to impose tariffs of up to 100% on the 5 largest consumers of Russian oil and gas, and extends sanctions against Iran for another 5 years.
RUSSIA HOLDS PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN OCCUPIED TERRITORY: Russia is currently holding its first parliamentary elections which include votes from Russian-held Ukrainian territory occupied since the start of the full-scale invasion. In this territory, Ukrainian human rights activists have reported that public sector employees are being forced to vote under threat of dismissal, and Russian authorities have threatened to withhold pensions or other social benefits if local residents refuse to vote. Armed military personnel were spotted at some polling stations, monitoring the voting process.
On the second day of voting, Russia reported malfunctions in the electronic voting system due to alleged external cyberattacks.
Moscow hopes to use the elections to demonstrate what it claims is the public’s full support for the aggression against Ukraine.
FLIGHTS SUSPENDED AT LUXEMBOURG AIRPORT AFTER DRONES DETECTED NEARBY: On September 18, authorities at Luxembourg Airport reported that flights were suspended after an unidentified drone was detected. Flights from the airport have now resumed.
This comes as instances of unauthorised drones in European airspace have increased. Earlier this summer, Russian drones were detected at Leipzig Airport in Germany. It was not reported who was operating the drones detected at Luxembourg Airport or where their course started.
CAT OF CONFLICT:
This is Yukon, a cat Myroslava’s godmother took in. In 2022, the cat was evacuated from the occupied city of Energodar in the Zaporizhzhia region. Now he lives amid constant explosions and attacks in Zaporizhzhia, but with a wonderful, loving family.
Stay safe out there!
Best,
Oleksandra
Thank you, Oleksandra, for what must have been a depressing article to write. The statistics about what percentage of Russians support Putin or Russia is not what we want to believe. And the conclusion you reach on the way forward also is not what we want to believe. But truth must be our baseline and we are grateful for your work to tell us the truth.
This is a very informative post. Thank you!