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What did Putin's partial mobilisation set in motion?
Summary
A look back at 21 September 2022, when Russia announced a partial mobilisation and NATO and Lithuania responded.
What happened on 21 September 2022, when Russia's president announced a partial mobilisation? In a major address to the nation, Vladimir Putin set out the call-up and said students and conscripts would be exempt.
The announcement drew a response within hours. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called Russia's military mobilisation dangerous and reckless. He also condemned what he described as Putin's use of nuclear rhetoric.
Lithuania reacted at the military level. Defence Minister Arvydas Anušauskas said the country had placed its rapid reaction force on high alert in response to the Russian move.
The legal groundwork
The address came a day after Russia's State Duma deputies, on 20 September 2022, approved changes to the Criminal Code. The amendments introduced the concepts of mobilisation, martial law, wartime and armed conflict, along with punishment for desertion.
The battlefield context
Fighting in eastern Ukraine continued in the days before the speech. On 19 September 2022, Ukrainian Ground Forces recaptured the village of Bilohorivka in Luhansk Oblast as they advanced on Lysychansk.
The same day, authorities of the Luhansk People's Republic said Ukrainian shelling had killed seven civilians, including three children, in the town of Krasnorichenske. In Donetsk, held by the Donetsk People's Republic, explosions killed 13 people and injured many others. DPR leader Denis Pushilin accused Ukraine of being behind the attacks.
What the day showed
The sequence from 19 to 21 September 2022 ran from front-line changes in Luhansk Oblast, through new wartime provisions in Russian criminal law, to the mobilisation address. The reactions from NATO and Lithuania were the first public signs of how Russia's neighbours and the alliance would treat the announcement.
