Home › Security › Russia's Duma writes mobilisation into criminal law
Russia's Duma writes mobilisation into criminal law
Summary
A retrospective on 20 September 2022, when Russian lawmakers added wartime concepts and a desertion penalty to the Criminal Code, as fighting continued in Donbas.
What did Russia's lawmakers change in the law on 20 September 2022? State Duma deputies approved the introduction into the Criminal Code of the concepts of mobilisation, martial law, wartime and armed conflict, along with punishment for desertion.
The vote came after several days of fighting and violence in the east of Ukraine and in areas held by Russian-backed authorities.
The battlefield before the vote
On 19 September 2022, 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 13 people and injured many others. The DPR leader, Denis Pushilin, accused Ukraine of being behind the attacks.
On 18 September 2022, Russian forces shelled a psychiatric hospital in Strelechya, Kharkiv Oblast, killing four medics and injuring two patients.
What the Duma vote covered
The amendments placed mobilisation, martial law, wartime and armed conflict into the Criminal Code as defined concepts, and they set out punishment for desertion. The Duma's approval on 20 September 2022 was part of what is described as the 2022 Russian mobilisation.
A separate withdrawal
On 18 September 2022, Ukraine also withdrew its 250 troops from the United Nations peacekeeping force MONUSCO in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A Ukrainian Air Force aviation unit pulled out its eight helicopters from the mission as well; they made up a third of the UN's fleet there.
Why the date matters
Taken together, the events of 18 to 20 September 2022 show a war being fought on several fronts: Ukrainian advances in Luhansk Oblast, civilian casualties reported by both sides, and a legislative step in Moscow that put wartime terms and a desertion penalty into criminal law.
