UKRAINE: THE SITUATION 219 – SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

The Kremlin is trying to gloss over the major problems with the implementation of its "partial mobilization" with messages, but it is unlikely that its narratives will appease Russians who can perceive the real shortcomings around them.

The Kremlin blames the failing bureaucratic institutions responsible for mobilization for the Russian government not adhering to its own criteria for mobilization and exemptions. The Kremlin downplays the widespread violations of the mobilization law as individual errors of local authorities and claims to correct these errors when citizens point them out. However, the violations are clearly too frequent to be just individual errors, and Russian citizens can see them all too clearly. Unlike Russian shortcomings in Ukraine, which the Kremlin could downplay or distract from because citizens cannot see them directly, violations of the mobilization decree are obvious to many Russians. To learn about these violations, one does not even need access to the media or social media, as they occur in so many places and the families of the victims can spread their pain through word of mouth.

Ukrainian forces have advanced further north of Lyman and on the eastern bank of the Oskil River.

Ukrainian forces continue their attacks on Russian Ground Lines of Communication (GLOCs) as part of the southern counteroffensive to disrupt them.

Russian forces continue their offensive operations around Bakhmut and west of the city of Donetsk.

The full Russian Offensive Update 219 is available directly from UNDERSTANDING WAR.

UNDERSTANDING WAR online