War in Ukraine: Putin toughens legislation against deserters

This Saturday, September 24, the Russian President signed amendments providing for up to ten years in prison for soldiers who desert, refuse to fight during mobilization, as is currently the case, or surrender to the enemy " without authorization". At the same time, Putin signed a law facilitating access to Russian nationality for foreigners committing at least one year in the army. In lack of men, Moscow seeks at all costs to recruit new fighters while avoiding, for the moment, recourse to general mobilization.

On Ukrainian soil, Russia has begun to organize "referendums" for the annexation of Ukrainian regions that it wholly or partly controls. These polls were immediately condemned by kyiv and Washington. In his daily address to the nation Friday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the rest of the world to condemn what he called "pseudo-referendums". US President Joe Biden has promised a "rapid and severe" response in the event of annexation of Ukrainian territories by Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday urged the rest of the world to condemn Russia's "pseudo-referendums" underway in four Ukrainian territories under its control. In his daily address to the nation, Volodymyr Zelensky said he was convinced that "the world will react with the greatest justice to the pseudo-referendums", and that these "will be unequivocally condemned".

In the "referendum" in the Donetsk region, turnout on Friday was 23.6%, Russian state news agency Tass said, citing a local official. More than 20.5% of eligible voters in Zaporizhia region and 15% of those in Kherson region voted on the same day, Russian news agency Interfax reported, again citing local election officials. .

The United States “will work with (their) allies and partners to inflict rapid and severe additional economic measures on Russia” if it annexes territories in Ukraine, Joe Biden warned in a press release on Friday.

"Russia's referendums are a sham, a spurious motive to try to annex parts of Ukraine by force," denounced the American president, who has already taken several sets of economic and financial sanctions against the regime of Vladimir Poutine. The leaders of the G7 have also "strongly condemned" these "fictitious referendums" of annexation, adding that they will "never" recognize these "illegitimate" polls.

The President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, will travel next week to Poland and Ukraine, accompanied by a delegation of deputies with, on the program, women's rights and field visits, said her entourage. this Saturday. She announced this trip a few weeks ago to "show the unwavering support of France", while the parliamentary session will resume on October 3 at the Palais Bourbon with a debate on the war in Ukraine and its consequences in France.

Russia announced on Saturday the replacement of its highest ranking officer in charge of logistics, at the dawn of a vast mobilization campaign and while the offensive in Ukraine showed difficulties in terms of organization. "Army General Dmitry Bulgakov was relieved of his duties as Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation due to his transfer to another post," the Defense Ministry said in a statement, without giving details. details.

He was replaced by Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, who until then headed the National Defense Control Center, and will now be the Deputy Minister of Defense "responsible for the material and technical supply of the armed forces", according to the same source. Aged 60, Mikhail Mizintsev has held many positions of responsibility within the general staff during his long military career.

From British pop star Ed Sheeran to basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal, celebrities have agreed to offer some of their personal items online to raise money in support of WHO in Ukraine.

Seven months after the start of the Russian invasion, the WHO Foundation, an organization that supports the organization's efforts to address the world's most pressing health challenges, on Saturday launched the online store "Human Kind ", where fans can enter to win the personal items of these celebrities. The funds raised will support the work of the WHO in Ukraine and neighboring countries, said in a statement the foundation, which hopes to raise 53.7 million dollars (55.3 million euros).

Ukraine to "significantly reduce" Iran's diplomatic presence in the country, in retaliation for arms deliveries from Tehran to Moscow, the day a Russian strike with Iranian drones left one dead in the port of Odessa .

"In response to such a hostile act, the Ukrainian side has decided to deprive the Iranian Ambassador to Ukraine of his accreditation and to significantly reduce the number of diplomatic staff at the Iranian Embassy in Kyiv," he said. the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. This decision was notified to the Iranian charge d'affaires in Ukraine who was summoned to the ministry, according to the same source.

The Ukrainian authorities announced on Friday that they had exhumed 447 corpses which were buried in a forest near the town of Izium taken back from the Russians. 30 of them show "signs of torture", even being emasculated.

"In Izioum, the exhumation of all the bodies on the mass burial site is finished (...) 447 bodies have been exhumed", indicated the regional prosecutor's office on Facebook, specifying that it is about 425 civilians, including 5 children, and 22 Ukrainian soldiers. The governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleg Sinegoubov, told him on Telegram that "most show signs of violent death and 30 show signs of torture".

Russian forces are reportedly attempting to attack checkpoints in Ukraine in order to flood Ukrainian military crossings, according to British intelligence. The Defense Ministry said Russian forces struck the Penchenihy Dam on the Siverskyy Donets River with ballistic missiles or similar weapons on Wednesday and Thursday after hitting a dam near Krivyy Rih in central from Ukraine the previous week.