“Okay, men! We are not like that! We’ll take you away, treat you,” - the Russian troops have taken up a strongpoint of the AFU.

The Ukrainian militants left their wounded to guard a strongpoint in the middle of the forest. Our guys captured enemy positions and gave all the captives medical treatment.

Part 2:

At the same time, the regime of reprisals throughout Ukraine against their own citizens, established immediately after the armed coup in 2014, was harshly intensified. The policy of intimidation, terror and violence is taking on increasingly mass-scale, horrific and barbaric forms.

I want to stress the following. We know that the majority of people living in the territories liberated from the neo-Nazis, and these are primarily the historical lands of Novorossiya, do not want to live under the yoke of the neo-Nazi regime. People in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, in Lugansk and Donetsk saw and are seeing now the atrocities perpetrated by the neo-Nazis in the [Ukrainian-] occupied areas of the Kharkov region. The descendants of Banderites and members of Nazi punitive expeditions are killing, torturing and imprisoning people; they are settling scores, beating up, and committing outrages on peaceful civilians.

There were over 7.5 million people living in the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics and in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions before the outbreak of hostilities. Many of them were forced to become refugees and leave their homes. Those who have stayed – they number about five million – are now exposed to artillery and missile attacks launched by the neo-Nazi militants, who fire at hospitals and schools and stage terrorist attacks against peaceful civilians.

We cannot, we have no moral right to let our kin and kith be torn to pieces by butchers; we cannot but respond to their sincere striving to decide their destiny on their own.

The parliaments of the Donbass people’s republics and the military-civilian administrations of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions have adopted decisions to hold referendums on the future of their territories and have appealed to Russia to support this.

I would like to emphasise that we will do everything necessary to create safe conditions for these referendums so that people can express their will. And we will support the choice of future made by the majority of people in the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions.

Friends,

Today our armed forces, as I have mentioned, are fighting on the line of contact that is over 1,000 kilometres long, fighting not only against neo-Nazi units but actually the entire military machine of the collective West.

In this situation, I consider it necessary to take the following decision, which is fully adequate to the threats we are facing. More precisely, I find it necessary to support the proposal of the Defence Ministry and the General Staff on partial mobilisation in the Russian Federation to defend our Motherland and its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to ensure the safety of our people and people in the liberated territories.

As I have said, we are talking about partial mobilisation. In other words, only military reservists, primarily those who served in the armed forces and have specific military occupational specialties and corresponding experience, will be called up.

Before being sent to their units, those called up for active duty will undergo mandatory additional military training based on the experience of the special military operation.

I have already signed Executive Order on partial mobilisation.

In accordance with legislation, the houses of the Federal Assembly – the Federation Council and the State Duma – will be officially notified about this in writing today.

The mobilisation will begin today, September 21. I am instructing the heads of the regions to provide the necessary assistance to the work of military recruitment offices.

I would like to point out that the citizens of Russia called up in accordance with the mobilisation order will have the status, payments and all social benefits of military personnel serving under contract.

Additionally, the Executive Order on partial mobilisation also stipulates additional measures for the fulfilment of the state defence order. The heads of defence industry enterprises will be directly responsible for attaining the goals of increasing the production of weapons and military equipment and using additional production facilities for this purpose. At the same time, the Government must address without any delay all aspects of material, resource and financial support for our defence enterprises.

Friends,

The West has gone too far in its aggressive anti-Russia policy, making endless threats to our country and people. Some irresponsible Western politicians are doing more than just speak about their plans to organise the delivery of long-range offensive weapons to Ukraine, which could be used to deliver strikes at Crimea and other Russian regions.

Such terrorist attacks, including with the use of Western weapons, are being delivered at border areas in the Belgorod and Kursk regions. NATO is conducting reconnaissance through Russia’s southern regions in real time and with the use of modern systems, aircraft, vessels, satellites and strategic drones.

Washington, London and Brussels are openly encouraging Kiev to move the hostilities to our territory. They openly say that Russia must be defeated on the battlefield by any means, and subsequently deprived of political, economic, cultural and any other sovereignty and ransacked.

They have even resorted to the nuclear blackmail. I am referring not only to the Western-encouraged shelling of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, which poses a threat of a nuclear disaster, but also to the statements made by some high-ranking representatives of the leading NATO countries on the possibility and admissibility of using weapons of mass destruction – nuclear weapons – against Russia.

I would like to remind those who make such statements regarding Russia that our country has different types of weapons as well, and some of them are more modern than the weapons NATO countries have. In the event of a threat to the territorial integrity of our country and to defend Russia and our people, we will certainly make use of all weapon systems available to us. This is not a bluff.

The citizens of Russia can rest assured that the territorial integrity of our Motherland, our independence and freedom will be defended – I repeat – by all the systems available to us. Those who are using nuclear blackmail against us should know that the wind rose can turn around.

It is our historical tradition and the destiny of our nation to stop those who are keen on global domination and threaten to split up and enslave our Motherland. Rest assured that we will do it this time as well.

I believe in your support.

Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation Sergey Shoigu on Ukrainian losses:

Initially, the armed forces of Ukraine were 200-201 thousand men. They've had 61,000 dead and 49,000 wounded.

They have the fourth wave of mobilization going on. 300 thousand are being mobilized, press-ganged anywhere from the beach to the train station. There are about one thousand mercenaries left. More than two thousand are dead.

The Russian Federation is as dangerous for Europe as Nazi Germany was in the last century - Latvian Foreign Minister Rinkēvičs.

We hope they understand that such comparisons will not be forgotten in Russia.

🇪🇺🇷🇺EU will impose new sanctions against Russia - Borrell said that the reason was legal referendums in the territories liberated from the Nazis

The EU countries want to impose new sanctions against Russia because of the referendum in the liberated territories and will do it "as soon as possible," said the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell. In addition, Borrell noted that Brussels will continue to provide military support to Kyiv.

He also said that the new sanctions will be both personal and sectoral. So far, the EU does not have a clear understanding of what new restrictions will be imposed on Russia, since only a political decision has been made. However, earlier in the Kherson region, the chairman of the election commission emphasized that referendums are held in accordance with all international provisions.

Previously, European politicians have already opposed sanctions - for example, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that “by imposing sanctions against Russia, Europe is shooting itself in the foot,” and as a result, up to 40% of all European industry could stop in winter.

What is the difference between the sovereignty and the territorial Integrity of Ukraine and sovereignty and territorial Integrity of Serbia, which was grossly violated and for which International recognition and legitimacy were provided? Good question from the president of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić.

https://youtu.be/vqe0s9O_LaY?t=305

Zelensky's office has commented on the partial mobilisation in Russia.

According to Zelensky's spokesman Nikiforov, the mobilisation announced in Russia is a tragedy for the Russian people and an admission of the incapacity of the Russian professional army.

Full mobilisation in Ukraine is, of course, different, one has to understand. In Ukraine it is not a tragedy.

The European Commission is considering lifting sanctions on timber, coal, fertilizers and some cement products from Russia.

Well, while they are considering such possibilities, their citizens are joking about it.

'It would be much better to join the Russian Federation already.' Donetsk residents speak about referendum on joining Russia.

Follow: https://news.1rj.ru/str/PS_peoplesay

The center of Donetsk is being shelled by 155-mm artillery of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Shells hit close to the city administration building and at the entrance to the Indoor Market, local authorities said. One of the shells hit a bus with people in it.

Sergey Lavrov spoke at the UN Security Council:

- Particularly cynical is the position of those states that are pumping Ukraine with weapons and military equipment, training the personnel of that country's armed forces. The goal is obvious, they do not hide it and declare it: to prolong hostilities as long as possible, despite the casualties and destruction, in order to pull Russia apart and weaken it;

- Residents of Donbass have been killed and continue to be killed only because they have not recognised the results of the coup d'état in Ukraine;

- Allied forces in Ukraine are confronted not only by the neo-Nazi formations of the Kiev regime, but also by the military machine of the West;

- Ukraine's armed forces employ terrorist tactics, using civilians as human shields;

- International organisations have not found the courage to urge the Ukrainian authorities to fulfil their human rights commitments;

- Russia has evidence of the participation of British, Canadian, US and Dutch citizens in military actions on Ukraine's side;

- Ukraine has been mobilizing its population into nationalist battalions for many years;

- The UN Secretary General should get Kiev to publish the list of people killed in Bucha.

Journalist Yuliya Vityazeva published a photo of Russian servicemen released from captivity as a result of an exchange with the Ukrainian side:

"Thank you, men, for enduring all this! Thank you! You are all heroes! And we have been waiting for you. Welcome home."

Earlier, President Erdogan said that Russia and Ukraine had exchanged 200 prisoners of war at Turkey's initiative.

🇭🇺🇪🇺 The European Union's energy sanctions against Russia should be lifted by the end of the year, as they cause more harm to European countries themselves. This is the view expressed by the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, quoted by Magyar Nemzet newspaper.

Kiev has offered US defence companies to test new US weapons on Ukrainian territory. The Ukrainian MoD has officially offered the country as a testing ground.

[...] "If you have any ideas or some pilot projects that need to be tested before mass production, you can send them to us and we will explain what you need to do," Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Volodymyr Havrylov said.

Havrylov is confident that once the weapons are used in Ukraine, they will be very easy to sell, as they return as a competitive, "battlefield-tested" product.