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Russia's Duma writes mobilisation into criminal law
Summary
A look back at 20 September 2022, when Russian lawmakers added wartime concepts and a desertion penalty to the Criminal Code while fighting continued in Donbas and Kharkiv Oblast.
What did Russia's lawmakers signal on 20 September 2022? On that day, State Duma deputies approved the introduction into the Criminal Code of the concepts of mobilisation, martial law, wartime and armed conflict, together with punishment for desertion. It was part of the 2022 Russian mobilization, and it came as the war in Ukraine continued on several fronts.
Fighting in Donbas
The preceding days brought a series of reports from the east. On 19 September, the 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 on 19 September killed thirteen people and injured many others. The DPR leader, Denis Pushilin, accused Ukraine of being behind the attacks.
Civilian targets in Kharkiv Oblast
On 18 September, Russian forces shelled a psychiatric hospital in Strelechya, Kharkiv Oblast. Four medics were killed and two patients were injured.
A peacekeeping withdrawal
Also on 18 September, Ukraine withdrew its 250 troops from the UN peacekeeping force MONUSCO in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A Ukrainian Air Force aviation unit pulled out its eight helicopters as well, which made up a third of the UN's fleet in the mission.
What the day showed
Taken together, these reports show a war in which legal and military steps moved in parallel. In Moscow, the Duma's amendments gave formal criminal-law definitions to terms associated with a wartime footing and set a penalty for desertion. On the ground, Ukrainian forces were reporting gains in Luhansk Oblast, while each side's authorities reported civilian casualties and the DPR and LPR leaders and officials blamed Ukraine for them.
