half a million people have fled Russia since the start of the war; Germany ready to welcome Russian deserters

Cover image: A firefighter comforts a woman who just lost her child in a bus bombing in the Donetsk region on September 22, 2022. ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO / REUTERS

• Ukraine and Russia exchanged military prisonersthe largest since the start of the offensive on February 24. Two hundred and fifteen people were released in total on the Ukrainian sideof which 188 “hero” having defended the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol (including 108 members of the Azov regiment). Russia, meanwhile, has recovered 55 prisoners, including ex-MP Viktor Medvedchuk, a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, accused of high treason in Ukraine.
• Vladimir Putin decreed on Wednesday a “partial mobilization”measure judged “urgent and necessary”. Three hundred thousand reservists are concerned initially, in priority citizens with military experience, aged 65 for the oldest. The police arrested 1,332 people at protests following Mr Putin’s announcementaccording to OVD-Info, an organization specializing in counting arrests.
• In an address to the nation, Mr Putin said he was ready to use ” all means “ in his arsenal against the West, which he accused of wanting ” destroy “ Russia. He accused the West, particularly NATO, of being behind a “nuclear blackmail”overturning the charges against him. “It’s not a bluff”he assured. “A nuclear war is impossible to win and should not be waged”replied the American president, Joe Biden, at the rostrum of the UN.
• It’s necessary “hold our line” facing ” blackmail “ of the Russian President, said the French President, Emmanuel Macronin an interview with BFM-TV aired Thursday, September 22.
• G7 foreign ministers condemned “the last escalation” of Moscow in the conflict in Ukraine, “including partial mobilization of reservists and irresponsible nuclear rhetoric”in a communiqué published overnight from Wednesday to Thursday.
• Speaking on Wednesday by videoconference at the United Nations Annual General Assembly, Mr. Zelensky demanded a “just punishment” against Moscow – a word he said fifteen times – strongly denouncing the invasion of his country by Russian troops and calling for the establishment of a special court to try Moscow “for his crime of aggression against our State”. He also called on the UN to withdraw its right of veto from Russia.
• Six people were killed and six others were injured in the shelling of a covered market in Donetskannounced the pro-Russian mayor of the city, Oleksi Koulemzine, on Thursday on Telegram.
• Vitali Kim, the governor of Mykolaivdetailed on Telegram the damage caused by bombardments in the region.

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Read all our articles, analyzes and reports on the war in Ukraine

Chronic. Alain Franchon: “Presenting the Global South as an anti-Western opposition bloc is a caricature”

Narrative. “I prefer to go to jail rather than to Ukraine”: in Russia, the shock of military mobilization

Decryptions. Russia: “partial” mobilization, a military gamble far from won

Chat. Emmanuel Grynszpan “Fear of a very negative reaction from Russian society has so far convinced Putin not to carry out a general mobilization”

Factual. The announcement of a partial mobilization in Russia, “new sign of disarray” of Vladimir Putin, according to the international community

Synthesis. Between Russia and the West, Emmanuel Macron attacks the non-aligned

At the UN, Emmanuel Macron castigated the states which claim to be non-aligned in order to remain neutral in the face of the war in Ukraine.

Video. At the UN, Emmanuel Macron denounces “a return to the age of imperialism and colonies”

Tribune. Laura Petiot: “The use of military lexicon makes it possible to justify the diversion of certain legislative processes and tools”

Testimonials. “These images of the mass graves of Izioum, these exhumed bodies, this decomposed hand with a yellow and blue bracelet, never leave me”