The 2025–26 Russian Cup was the 34th season of the Russian football knockout tournament since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The competition started on 29 July 2025 and concluded on 24 May 2026.
The winner of the cup would normally gain entry into the 2026–27 UEFA Europa League; however, on 28 February 2022, Russian football clubs were suspended from FIFA & UEFA international competitions until further notice due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Representation of clubs by league Russian Premier League (1): 16 clubs Russian First League (2): 18 clubs Division A of Russian Second League (3): 16 clubs (without 2 farm teams) Division B of Russian Second League (4): 39 clubs (without 17 farm teams and 2 Crimean teams) Amateur leagues: Third division (5): 12 clubs Fourth division (regional leagues) (6): 0 clubs Media amateur clubs (7): 3 clubs Total: 104 clubs.
Distribution The teams of Premier League and the other teams will qualify to knockout phase in two different paths. Premier league teams will play in the RPL path group stage with a double round-robin tournament, divided into 4 groups with 4 teams in each group, while the other teams will play in the regions path qualification, starting with 1/256 round until 1/8 round with 1 match in each stage.
Schedule The schedule of the competition is as follows:
PhaseRoundMatch dateQualifying rounds (regions path)Round 15–7 August 2025Round 219–21 August 2025Round 39–11 September 2025Round 423–25 September 2025Round 514–16 October 2025Round 628–30 October 2025Group stage (RPL path)Matchday 129–31 July 2025Matchday 212–14 August 2025Matchday 326–28 August 2025Matchday 416–18 September 2025Matchday 530 September – 2 October 2025Matchday 621–23 October 2025Knockout stageQuarter-finalsRPL pathMatch 14–6 November 2025Match 225–27 November 2025Regions pathStage 125–27 November 2025Stage 23–5 March 2026Semi-finalsRPL pathMatch 13–5 March 2026Match 217–19 March 2026Regions pathStage 117–19 March 2026Stage 27–9 April 2026Path finalsRPL pathMatch 18 April 2026Match 27 May 2026Regions path6 May 2026Final24 May 2026
Qualifying round (regions path) The draw for all rounds in regions path was held on 29 June 2025.
Round 1
Entered clubs: 15 clubs from Amateur leagues 13 lowest clubs from Russian Second League Division B Date of matches was determined on 5–7 August 2025.
Times are MSK (UTC+3), as listed by RFU (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
Round 2 Entered clubs: 14 winners of Round 1 26 highest clubs from Russian Second League Division B 16 clubs from Russian Second League Division A
Date of matches was determined on 19–21 August 2025.
Times are MSK (UTC+3), as listed by RFU (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
Round 3
Entered clubs: 28 winners of Round 2
Date of matches was determined on 9–11 September 2025.
Times are MSK (UTC+3), as listed by RFU (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
Round 4 Entered clubs: 14 winners of Round 3 18 clubs from Russian First League
The draw was consisted of 2 phases. On the first phase, 2 random balls with First League team from pot 2 was relocated to pot 1, then on the second phase usual draw procedure started. Pot 1 Pot 2 Amkal Moscow (7) Astrakhan (4) Broke Boys Moscow (7) Cherepovets (4) Fankom Kirov (5) Irkutsk (4) KAMAZ Naberezhnye Chelny (2) Kristall-MEZT Borisoglebsk (5) Kuban-Holding Pavlovskaya (4) PSK Dinskaya (5) SKA-Khabarovsk (2) Tekstilshchik Ivanovo (3) Veles Moscow (3) Volgar Astrakhan (3) Volna Nizhny Novgorod Oblast (4) Znamya Truda Orekhovo-Zuyevo (4) Arsenal Tula (2) Chayka Peschanokopskoye (2) Chelyabinsk (2) Chernomorets Novorossiysk (2) Fakel Voronezh (2) KAMAZ Naberezhnye Chelny (2) → Pot 1 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk (2) Rodina Moscow (2) Rotor Volgograd (2) Shinnik Yaroslavl (2) SKA-Khabarovsk (2) → Pot 1 Sokol Saratov (2) Spartak Kostroma (2) Torpedo Moscow (2) Ufa (2) Ural Yekaterinburg (2) Volga Ulyanovsk (2) Yenisey Krasnoyarsk (2) The team from pot 2 that was relocated to pot 1 is written in italics. The team was unknown until it will be drawn from pot 1.
Times are MSK (UTC+3), as listed by RFU (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
Round 5 Entered clubs: 16 winners of Round 4
Round 6 Entered clubs: 8 winners of Round 5
Group stage (RPL path) The draw for group stage was held on 29 June 2025.
16 teams of the Russian Premier League (RPL) will start the tournament from the group stage (4 teams in each group). The teams will play 6 matches in the group stage: 1st day — 29–31 July; 2nd day — 12–14 August; 3rd day — 26–28 August; 4th day — 16–18 September; 5th day — 30 September – 2 October; 6th day — 21–23 October.
Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4 Krasnodar Zenit Saint Petersburg CSKA Moscow Spartak Moscow Dynamo Moscow Lokomotiv Moscow Rubin Kazan Rostov Akron Tolyatti Krylia Sovetov Samara Dynamo Makhachkala Akhmat Grozny Baltika Kaliningrad Orenburg Sochi Pari Nizhny Novgorod
Composition of the pots is based on results of the 2024–25 Russian Premier League and 2024–25 Russian First League. In the same group there can't be more than 2 teams from Moscow, also FC Krasnodar and FC Rostov can't be in the same group due to logistics restrictions in this cities.
On 10 July 2025, as a result of the decisions made at the meeting of the Russian Football Union's Control and Disciplinary Committee, Torpedo Moscow was excluded from the 2025-26 season, and was replaced by Orenburg.
Times are MSK (UTC+3), as listed by RFU (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Quarter-finals RPL Path
Regions Path Stage 1
Stage 2
Semi-finals RPL Path
Regions Path Stage 1
Stage 2
Finals RPL Path
Regions Path
Superfinal
Notes
References
External links
2025–26 Russian Cup at globalsportsarchive.com