At the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the West was trying to introduce "dividing lines" of bloc confrontation, leading a reckless course of expanding NATO to the East. According to Lavrov, Washington was trying to turn the entire globe into “its own backyard”.

Meanwhile, pseudo-referendums on joining Russia continue in Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. They started on the 23rd and will continue until the 27th of September. However, shelling also continues in the regions. The renewed attacks near the Zaporizhzhia NPP fuel fears of a potential accident, Euronews Bulgaria reports. The Kremlin has released videos purporting to show citizens voluntarily signing up to fight. The growing queues at the borders of Russia with Georgia, Finland and others, however, refute the official Russian propaganda. According to a law signed on September 24 by President Putin, who will mark his 70th birthday next month, those who refuse to participate in military operations face prison.

"The entire territory of the Russian Federation, including that which may be additionally included in the Russian constitution in the future, is under the full protection of the state," Lavrov said.

More than 740 people were detained during anti-war protests in 32 cities in Russia, the non-governmental organization OVD-info has reported, quoted by BNR "Horizont".

"Bulgaria is seriously alarmed by the current escalation of the conflict and the partial mobilization announced in the Russian Federation. We condemn the referendums that are being held in the occupied Ukrainian territories. We believe that they are not free and fair and that they have no legal force". This is how caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikolay Milkov expressed the Bulgarian position on the war in Ukraine and on the referendums in the occupied territories during the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.