A team of experts commissioned by the U.N. Human Rights Council has presented the results of their initial investigation conducted in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and Sumy oblasts, Associated Press reported on Sept. 23. "We were struck by the large number of executions in the areas that we visited," said Erik Mose, the commission's chairman. "The commission is currently investigating such deaths in 16 towns and settlements."
Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko said that his government doesn’t plan to mobilize Belarusians, state-controlled news agency Belta reported on Sept. 23. However, Belarus regularly holds military drills to be able to respond to "possible threats and terrorist attacks," Belta reported, citing Lukashenko.
Two military enlistment offices were set on fire in Khabarovsk and in Amur Oblast on the night of Sept. 22, Russian news outlet Meduza reported. Since Sept. 21, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced mobilization against Ukraine, Russians set fire to at least five recruitment offices in the country, including in Saint Petersburg; some local administration buildings have also been under attack, according to Meduza.
For several months, U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has been sending private messages to Moscow about "grave consequences" that would follow Russia's use of nuclear weapons, The Washington Post reported on Sept. 22, citing unnamed U.S. officials. The Biden administration decided to keep those warnings deliberately vague, "so the Kremlin worries about how Washington might respond," according to the U.S. media.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to the President's Office, has called pseudo-referendums Russia's proxies started on occupied Ukrainian territories on Sept. 23 a "propaganda show" to aid Russian conscription efforts. Ukraine's occupied territories "need an immediate release," Podolyak wrote on Twitter.
Russia's proxies in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts announced the start of pseudo-referendums on joining Russia on Sept. 23. For four days, "voting" will be held at people's homes "for security reasons," Russian state-controlled news agency RIA Novosti wrote. On the last day of the "referendums," on Sept. 27, locals will be asked to go to "polling stations."
Ukraine has secured bridgeheads on the east bank of the Oskil River, which Russian troops tried to integrate into "a consolidated defensive line" after their withdrawals from Kharkiv Oblast, the U.K. Defense Ministry reported on Sept. 23. In Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine's forces assault the town of Lyman. "Ukraine is now putting pressure on territory Russia considers essential to its war aims," wrote the ministry.
In the past 24 hours, Russian forces have fired 30 projectiles on Nikopol and Marhanets, killing two people and wounding nine, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Governor Valentyn Reznichenko reported on Sept. 23. Russia has also killed seven and injured 17 civilians in Donetsk Oblast over the past day, said Pavlo Kyrylenko, the oblast governor.
Ukraine’s General Staff reported on Sept. 23. that Russia had also lost 2,254 tanks, 4,796 armored fighting vehicles, 3,659 vehicles and fuel tanks, 1,355 artillery systems, 326 multiple launch rocket systems, 170 air defense systems, 254 airplanes, 219 helicopters, 950 drones, and 15 boats.
President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Russians to "protest, fight back, run away or surrender to Ukraine," in his daily address. "You are already complicit in all these crimes, murders, and torture of Ukrainians because you remain silent. It's time for you to choose, for men to choose to die or to live," Zelensky said.
Ukraine's Security Service has exposed the plan of Russia's proxies in Donetsk Oblast to involve children aged 13-17 in pseudo-referendums. Minors will be able to "vote" if accompanied to "polling stations" by their parents or guardians. This way, according to SBU, the occupiers are trying to artificially increase "the catastrophic lack of votes."
The G7 nations will not recognize the pseudo-referendums that Russia is preparing to hold in the occupied territories of Ukraine, said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Sept. 22. The G7 members will also "pursue further targeted sanctions" on Russia if the "referendums" take place, she said.
The seventh paragraph of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decree on mobilization, intended for internal use, states that up to one million people can be drafted into the army, Russian media Novaya Gazeta reported on Sept. 22, citing unnamed sources in the Kremlin. "They changed the figure several times and eventually settled on a million," the source said.
Asked if they would permanently move to the European Union or the U.S. if they were granted citizenship there without conditions, 91% of Ukrainians said "no," according to a recent poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. In October 2020, 69% said "no."
In total, Ukraine has exported 4.4 million metric tons of agricultural products since it signed the UN-backed grain deal with Russia in July, according to the Infrastructure Ministry.
Slovakia's Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad has called Vladimir Putin's address to the nation "pitiful" and said that mobilization "will end up in the overthrow of Putin as president of the Russian Federation," Euractiv reported on Sept. 22. Nad also reacted to Russia's plans to hold pseudo-referendums on occupied territories, saying they are "only a pretext for future Russian claims about Ukrainians attacking 'Russian soil,'" reported Euractiv, citing the official.
Russian forces have staged a "terrorist attack," setting off an explosion in central Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, to accuse Ukraine of launching terror attacks before a pseudo-referendum there, Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov reported on Sept. 22. Three Russian soldiers were killed as a result of the explosion; casualties among civilians are to be clarified, according to Fedorov.
Russia will likely face logistical and administrative troubles recruiting 300,000 people, and new formations won't be combat effective for months, the U.K. Defense Ministry wrote on Sept. 22. Vladimir Putin is taking a "considerable political risk" in his attempt to generate more combat power, as even this limited mobilization will be "highly unpopular" with the Russian population.
U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss, in her address to the U.N. General Assembly, called Vladimir Putin's threats to use nuclear weapons "saber-rattling" and said "this will not work," the Guardian reported on Sept. 22. Truss has encouraged the world leaders not to make any compromises in Russia's favor, despite concerns about soaring energy prices.
In the past day, Russian forces have launched nine missiles on Zaporizhzhia, damaging infrastructure objects and residential buildings, one person has been killed, Zaporizhzhia Oblast Governor Oleksandr Starukh reported on Sept. 22. Russia has also shelled Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, with a Grad multiple launch rocket system, damaging 17 houses and killing a man, according to Valentyn Reznichenko, the governor of this oblast.
Mobilization in Russia "will not generate significant usable Russian combat power for months" as it will take a long time to bring poorly trained Russian reservists to war readiness, the Institute for the Study of War reported on Sept. 21. It is not even clear if this conscription will manage to offset Russian casualties, according to the ISW. "Russia's partial mobilization will thus not deprive Ukraine of the opportunity to liberate more of its occupied territory into and through the winter," reads the report.
Over the past day, Russian troops have killed two civilians in Kurakhove, one in Bakhmut, one in Avdiivka, one in Karlivka, and wounded 12 people in Donetsk Oblast, said Pavlo Kyrylenko, the oblast governor. Since Feb. 24, Russia has killed 873 civilians in Donetsk Oblast, not including Mariupol and Volnovakha.
Ukraine’s General Staff reported on Sept. 22. that Russia had also lost 2,236 tanks, 4,776 armored fighting vehicles, 3,630 vehicles and fuel tanks, 1,341 artillery systems, 318 multiple launch rocket systems, 169 air defense systems, 253 airplanes, 218 helicopters, 941 drones, and 15 boats.
President Volodymyr Zelensky told Bild that he doesn’t believe Russia will use nuclear weapons in Ukraine; he doesn't completely rule out the possibility, though. In any case, Zelensky thinks the world shouldn’t give in to Vladimir Putin’s threats. “Tomorrow, Putin can say, 'In addition to Ukraine, we also want a part of Poland, otherwise we will use nuclear weapons.' We cannot agree on such compromises,” said Zelensky.
The U.K. is ready to send Ukraine $500 million through the World Bank to help it purchase more natural gas, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said after his meeting with British Prime Minister Liz Truss on Sept. 21. Ukraine currently has 13 billion cubic meters of gas in storage. In 2021, the country consumed roughly 27 billion cubic meters.
Russia's proxies conscript 200-500 steel plant workers in Donetsk Oblast, bringing the Yenakiieve Iron and Steel Works to a halt, Defense Ministry's Intelligence Directorate reported on Sept. 21. According to Ukrainian intelligence, the proxies have also set up a military training camp for prisoners brought from Russia to fight in Ukraine near occupied Torez.
Pseudo-referendums announced by Russia's proxies in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts can "neither be accepted nor recognized," said Marija Pejcinovic Buric, Council of Europe general secretary, on Sept. 21. "We reject this mockery of democracy and reaffirm our commitment to the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of our member state Ukraine..." Buric said.
Vietnam and Kazakhstan have suspended transactions through the Russian payment system Mir, according to Russian state-controlled media Izvestia. Armenian banks also stopped accepting Russia's Mir cards and suspended money withdrawals for their holders, Ukrainska Pravda reported on Sept. 20.
Europe must not give in to Russia's blackmail and support Ukraine as much as it can, tweeted Latvia's Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics, following Vladimir Putin's announcement of partial mobilization in Russia and annexation of parts of Ukraine. "Russia is as dangerous to Europe and the world's peace today as Nazi Germany was in the last century," said Rinkevics.
After Russian President Vladimir Putin's morning address on Sept. 21, in which he ordered the immediate call-up of 300,000 reservists, one-way flights out of Russia started to sell out quickly, Reuters reports. Direct flights from Moscow to Istanbul and Yerevan – destinations that allow Russians visa-free entry – were sold out, the media wrote, referring to Aviasales data.
President Vladimir Putin's breaking of his own promises not to mobilize parts of his population is an admission that his invasion is failing, said U.K. Defense Minister Ben Wallace. "(Putin) and his defense minister have sent tens of thousands of their own citizens to their deaths, ill-equipped and badly led," Wallace said on Sept. 21, following Putin's pre-recorded video address, where he announced partial mobilization in Russia.
The Pentagon signed a $2.2 million contract for the kamikaze drones Switchblade 600 that will be later delivered to Ukraine, according to a document published by the U.S. Department of Defense on Sept. 20. The Switchblade 600 drones have a flight range of 40 kilometers and can stay in the air for up to 40 minutes.
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