Russian lawmaker accuses Putin of breaking his own law with reference to Ukraine 'war,' asks prosecutors to investigate

Russian President Vladimir Putin described the conflict in Ukraine as a war for the first time on Thursday, previously only referring to the unprovoked invasion he launched in February as a special military operation. A Russian lawmaker is calling for Putin to face legal action over the comment and wants prosecutors to look into the matter.

Putin said during the press conference that the goal was to end the war. We are trying for this.

Nikita Yuferev, a lawmaker in Putin's hometown, said that this comment is not in line with the law Putin signed that criminalized referring to Russia's assault on Ukraine as a "war" or "invasion." The law made it a crime to spread false information about the Russian military, making it a crime to criticize the war.

According to the Moscow Times, Yuferev said on social media that there was no decree to end the special military operation and no war was declared.

Critics of Putin often end up in jail or dead in violent ways. In 2020 Navalny was almost killed by the Soviet era nerve agent Novichok. After receiving treatment in Germany, Navalny returned to Moscow and was promptly arrested and sentenced to prison on charges widely decried as politicallymotivated. Navalny is still in jail, where he continues to criticize Putin.

A Moscow court sentenced an opposition politician to eight and a half years in prison for spreading false information about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. An ally of Navalny spoke about atrocities committed against Ukrainian civilians in a suburb of the city.

The former mayor of the Russian city of Ekaterinburg was arrested in August on charges of defaming the Russian military. Roizman said he was arrested after he referred to Russia's war in Ukraine as an invasion.

The war in Ukraine and criticism of the Russian government have been muzzled by Putin.

Despite the risks of publicly opposing the Russian leader and the ongoing invasion, Yuferev said it was important for him to draw attention to the injustice of the laws that he himself doesn't observe.

The more we talk about this, the more people will doubt his honesty, his infallibility, and the less support he will have.

The phrase "special operation" was used by Putin and other Russian officials in order to diminish the scale of the invasion to the Russian public. Since World War II, the largest military conflict in Europe has been the Russian offensive in Ukraine.