Home › Security › Referendums, mobilisation and a swap: 23 September 2022
Referendums, mobilisation and a swap: 23 September 2022
Summary
A look back at the day voting began in Russian-held areas of Ukraine, after two days of mobilisation fallout and a prisoner exchange.
What did the start of voting in occupied Ukraine look like against the events of the preceding days? On 23 September 2022, referendums began in the Russian-occupied oblasts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia and in the separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, on whether to join Russia. Ukraine and other countries considered them "sham" referendums.
A vote on annexation
The ballots were organised by Russian-installed officials, and commentators widely described them as sham votes. Various countries denounced them. Later, the validity of the results was accepted only by North Korea.
The mobilisation shock
The voting opened two days after Russian president Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilisation in a major address to the nation on 21 September 2022. Students and conscripts were exempt. Reaction followed quickly. On 21 September, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called the mobilisation dangerous and reckless and condemned what he described as Putin's nuclear rhetoric. Lithuania's Defence Minister, Arvydas Anušauskas, said the country had placed its rapid reaction force on high alert in response.
Inside Russia, the effect was visible by 22 September 2022. Large numbers of fighting-age men left the country, long traffic jams formed at international border crossings, and the price of tickets for international flights rose sharply.
An exchange of prisoners
The same day brought a different kind of news. On 22 September 2022, Ukraine and Russia released 55 Russian prisoners of war and 215 fighters from the siege of Mariupol, in an exchange mediated by Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Those freed included the pro-Russian Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, Azov Regiment commander Denys Prokopenko, British volunteers Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, and Moroccan volunteer Saadun Brahim.
Violence continued alongside the diplomacy. On 22 September 2022, authorities of the Donetsk People's Republic accused Ukraine of shelling a market in Donetsk, saying six civilians were killed.
The picture on 23 September
Taken together, the days around 23 September 2022 combined several strands: a mobilisation order that sent men towards the borders, alarm among neighbours and in NATO, an exchange that returned prominent captives, and the opening of votes in four occupied areas that Ukraine and other countries rejected.
