Eugene Burdinsky

Yevgeny Vladimirovich Burdinsky (; born 25 August 1960) is a Russian colonel general and director of the Main Organizational-Mobilizational Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, who, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine was in charge of Russia's mobilization efforts.

Biography Burdinsky was born in Belogorsk, Amur Oblast, in the Soviet Far East, on 25 August 1960. before rising to deputy chief of a sub-directorate.

Burdinsky served as chief of the organizational and mobilization directorate and deputy chief of staff of the Western Military District for organizational and mobilization work from 2009. He rose to become deputy and then first deputy chief of the Main Organizational and Mobilization Directorate between 2010 and 2018, being promoted to lieutenant general in 2015. During the partial mobilization in 2022–2023, Burdinsky reported that 300,000 Russians had been drafted and as such two new military districts will need to be created, the restored Moscow and Leningrad military districts. This has been the largest draft in Russian history since WWII, with the last significant draft, for the Soviet–Afghan War, only calling up 55,000 conscripts.

From November 10, to December 2, 2022, Burdinsky led the effort to integrate the armies of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic into the Russian Armed Forces. Additionally, using the People's Republics pre-existing commissariat systems, implemented general mobilization of their populations, conscripting 79,800 men from the region, as well as requisitioning 2,000 vehicles. This draft would be expanded to included Russian occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts.

Burdinsky is also directly in charge of the Storm-Z penal military units consisting of volunteers drawn from Russian prisons on the promise of a reduced sentence. He was heavily criticized for his failure to directly control all the units during the Wagner Group rebellion, where several of the units proclaimed their loyalty to the Wagner group in their effort to topple the Russian military structure.

Due to his role in the war in Ukraine, Burdinsky was sanctioned by the European Union, and Switzerland.

Decorations Burdinsky is a recipient of the following decorations: