Russia Declares Partial Mobilization and Annexes Four Ukrainian Regions, Marking War Escalation

Following setbacks on the battlefield, Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow announced a "partial mobilization" order in September 2022, the country's first military mobilization since World War II, aimed at conscripting approximately 300,000 reservists to reinforce military efforts in Ukraine. The move immediately sparked widespread protests and an exodus of draft-eligible men domestically.

Immediately after, Russia conducted referendums—widely condemned as "sham" by the West—in the four Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia, and formally announced their annexation in Moscow at the end of September. For conservatives, the mobilization and annexation proved the Putin regime's willingness to pursue imperial goals at any cost, further trampling on national sovereignty and international law, while also exposing the structural weaknesses of the Russian military in conventional warfare.