Comment by MegaDeKay
3 days ago
Russia has not formally declared they are at war. Some like Peskov have stated that they are in a state of war but that's different. In fact it is illegal in Russia to refer to it as a war. This law was introduced in 2022 and has not been repealed.
https://www.npr.org/2022/03/05/1084729579/russian-law-bans-j...
To add on that, the propaganda spinned it as:
1. Not a war
2. A defensive/protective operation.
The reason being the article 353 of Russian Criminal Code, under which planning or waging a war of aggression carries a prison sentence.
https://crimeofaggression.info/selected-documents/
Not that the law matters in Russia, but defence in depth I guess.