“Ukraine’s Response to the Russian Invasion: Martial Law, Mobilization, and Labeling of Ruscism”

Martial law and mobilization were declared for 30 days immediately after the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022 – and have been extended again and again since then. Men between the ages of eighteen and sixty who have to do military service are therefore only allowed to leave the Eastern European country in exceptional cases.

Ukraine’s parliament also passed a resolution labeling the ideology of Russia’s current political regime as “Ruscism.” The term is a shorthand for “Russian Fascism.” The Ukrainian parliament condemns the “ideological foundations and social practices” as “totalitarian and contrary to humanity.” Rada deputy Oleksiy Honcharenko reported that 281 deputies voted in favor of the resolution.

An explanatory note to the resolution says that invading Ukraine has “exposed” Putin’s political regime as “a neo-imperialist totalitarian dictatorship that inherits the worst practices of the past and embodies the ideas of fascism and National Socialism in the current version of Russian fascism (Ruscism).”