Home › Security › What 26 September 2022 showed about Russia's mobilisation
What 26 September 2022 showed about Russia's mobilisation
Summary
A look back at a day when protests, border queues and a public admission by Yevgeny Prigozhin marked the pressures around the war.
What did the security picture look like on 26 September 2022, after several days of Russian mobilisation? The reports from that day and the days before it point to strain inside Russia, and to shifts in Ukraine's external relationships.
Protests in the North Caucasus
On 26 September 2022, spontaneous protests against the mobilisation continued in Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria. The day before, mass protests had taken place in Dagestan, where demonstrators clashed with police. Those events belonged to a wider pattern of anti-war demonstrations across Russia. On 24 September, at least 700 people had been detained, and by 25 September the number detained across the country had risen to more than 2,000.
Leaving the country
The protests were not the only response to the call-up. On 24 September, reports described thousands of fighting-age men continuing to leave Russia because of the mobilisation, with massive lines at the borders with Georgia and Finland. Taken together, the detentions, the clashes in Dagestan and the border queues show that the mobilisation produced both open protest and departures.
Prigozhin's admission
On 26 September 2022, Yevgeny Prigozhin, an oligarch and close ally of Vladimir Putin, publicly admitted for the first time that he had founded the Wagner Group. The private military company is accused of war crimes in places where it has been deployed. Prigozhin had previously denied any involvement with the organisation.
Air defence and a diplomatic step
On the Ukrainian side, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed on 25 September that Ukraine had received NASAMS air defence systems from the United States. On 24 September, Ukraine announced a reduction in the staff of Iran's diplomatic mission in Kyiv in response to the delivery of drones to Russia as part of the war.
A payments footnote
On 25 September, Uzbekistan suspended the use of Russia's Mir card payment system. The stated reason was the need to carry out necessary technical procedures, and the move was said not to be related to sanctions.
Why the day matters
The reports from 24 to 26 September 2022 show several developments at once: public resistance and flight inside Russia, a notable public admission about a paramilitary force, new Western-supplied air defence for Ukraine and a diplomatic response to drone deliveries. None of these items alone settled anything, but together they describe the pressures on both sides in the final days of that September.
