The U.S. reacted to threats Russian president’s warning that he could use all weapons systems available to him if he considered Russia’s territorial integrity under threat. White House issued an ominous public caution to Putin on Sunday, 25 September, by saying that if Russia crosses this line, there will be catastrophic consequences for Russia, as reported by the news agency CNN.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that U.S. will respond decisively. He added that in private channels, the US warning had been starker but declined to draw red lines to keep such contacts open and to avoid «a rhetorical tit–for–tat.»
However, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky believes Putin isn’t bluffing about nuclear threats. He said that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s threats to use nuclear weapons «could be a reality» and added that Putin «wants to scare the whole world» with nuclear blackmail.
«I don’t think he’s bluffing. I think the world is deterring it and containing this threat,» Zelensky said in an interview with CBS.
«We need to keep putting pressure on him and not allow him to continue.» and urged Western allies to exclude Russian banks from the global banking system SWIFT.
Meanwhile, Russian mobilisation in Crimea aims to cleanse the disloyal population. Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to the President’s Office, said that the forced mass conscription of Crimean Tatars in Crimea is «a real ethnic genocide and an enormous tragedy for the entire nation,» as reported by news media The Kyiv Independent.
It is also reported that conscripts do not undergo any military training before being sent to the war against Ukraine, Ukraine’s General Staff said. With this step, Russian military commanders aim to replenish units that have suffered colossal losses.
Russia plans to ban men of conscription age from leaving the country starting on Wednesday, 28 September. Independent Russian media outlet Meduza cited two sources in the Kremlin saying that the ban will come into effect after the end of sham referenda in the four occupied regions of Ukraine.
protests against mobilisation were held in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan in the North Caucasus, and other locations.
About 100 people early in the morning on Sunday, 25 September came out to protest against mobilisation and they chanted «No to war! No to mobilization!»
In the city of Kirovsk, Leningrad Oblast, a military enlistment office was set on fire with a fuel canister attached to a window. In Kaliningrad Oblast and the republic of Mordovia, two other enlistment offices were set on fire with Molotov cocktails.
Meanwhile, Russia claims high turnout at the sham referendum in destroyed, depopulated Luhansk Oblast. According to Serhiy Haidai, Russians claim turnout in destroyed Sievierodonetsk, Lysychansk, and Rubizhne at 41–46%, despite most people leaving the region amid the fighting, informs the Kyiv Independent.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has vowed to liberate the entire country as Russia pressed on with its supposed referendum in occupied areas of Ukraine. He also urged Russian soldiers to surrender to Ukrainian captivity.
Meanwhile, 447 were bodies found at mass burial site in liberated Izium. Ukrainian State Emergency Service reported that bodies of men, women, and children were found in a forest on the outskirts of Izium. Earlier, Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov said that most of the bodies had signs of violent death, including 30 bodies with signs of torture. Out of all the bodies found, 21 people were soldiers.
lha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for European integration, said that about 1.5 million Ukrainian citizens, mostly women, and children, are currently in Russia without the possibility of returning home, and their relatives can’t contact them.