Russia blamed Ukraine for inciting a series of incendiary attacks targeting military recruitment centers, claiming that people in Ukraine are deceiving Russian citizens over the phone into committing such crimes.

The Russian allegations came without supporting evidence.

The Russian Attorney General's Office stated that Ukrainian agents impersonated police or representatives of creditors (such as banks) who called citizens and incited them to attack Russian recruitment centers in exchange for promises to settle debts.

There are allegations that the Ukrainian instigators promised Russians a restoration of their stolen savings.

Based on information regarding this alleged fraud, victims were told that there were gangs that managed to steal their financial savings and that they had to attack and burn a recruitment center if they wanted to recover their money.
The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs emphasized in its statement regarding the alleged fraud that the penalty for attacking military recruitment centers can reach up to 20 years in prison.

Alexander Shlyakhtar, a Europe specialist at the BBC, stated that if Russia's claims are true, this could be read as a significant compliment to the skill of Ukrainian intelligence agents.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, there have been many arson attacks in Russia.

However, these have increased in recent weeks, coinciding with a new massive recruitment campaign involving a huge official advertising campaign.

The Russian newspaper Vedomosti quoted hardline National Assembly member Sergey Mironov as saying these centers faced around 25 attacks on August 1 and 2.

Mironov wrote to Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, confirming that the Ukrainian call centers used in the fraud are now legitimate targets for the Russian army.

Last month, Russia raised the maximum age for conscription by three years, resulting in an increase in the number of males eligible for service.

Before this change, the conscription age for all healthy men in Russia ranged from 18 to 27 years to serve one year of compulsory military service. The maximum conscription age has now been raised to 30 years.

From January 1 to August 3, an additional 231,000 soldiers were recruited into the Russian army, according to former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, citing Defense Ministry figures.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a "partial" mobilization last September, a move that raised concerns among many Russians and led thousands of eligible men to leave the country.

Recent arson attacks on recruitment centers, reported by Russian media but not verified by the BBC, include the following:

On July 29, there was a fire in Severodvinsk, in northern Russia, when a 76-year-old retired man attempted to set fire to a military recruitment center, but his Molotov cocktail hit the wall and did not ignite anything.

On the same day in Kazan, one of the Volga River cities east of Moscow, a retired doctor paid a large sum to a con artist who deceived her into thinking he was a federal security officer. He then threatened her after extorting her into burning a recruitment center and threatened to kill her daughter if she did not comply.

In Feodosia, on the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula, a 51-year-old school teacher was arrested on July 30 after throwing a Molotov cocktail at a recruitment center. The teacher stated that she received instructions to do this from a contact on the Telegram messaging service.

On July 31 in Podolsk, a city located just south of Moscow, a recruitment center was attacked twice by rioters: first, by a 76-year-old man and his 50-year-old son, who claimed they were deceived by fraudsters during a phone call.

There was another attack by a 22-year-old supply manager, who was also deceived by phone fraudsters claiming they were offering to return stolen money.