Russia has stepped back from becoming the first great power since the end of the second world war to mobilize, with their president Vladimir Putin ordering what they say is a partial-mobilization, but sounds instead very much like a surge.
300,000 reservists, out of a claimed 25 million, are ‘mobilizing,’ presumably for the front. There is no talk of recruiting students “under any circumstances,” said Russia’s defense minister Sergei Shoigu, but the brothers of some of those students may well be affected.
President Jo Biden’s response has been to raise the law, expected to state that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine violates U.N.’s 1945 charter.
That’s another way of stating that there is no basis in the law to state that the planned annexed territories are Russian territories, implying presumably that the referendums will change nothing on the ground.
Russia made no attempts whatever to make a case for the invasion of Ukraine on recognized bodies, like the UN council. The United States in contrast did have a UN resolution against Iraq which authorized the use of force and for which Russia voted in favor. It just happened to be an older resolution, but still there was some legal basis, while Russia has none whatever.
Gain access.