One other effect on Russia not being officially at war is that enlistees - during peacetime - have the option to refuse service in Ukraine if they are in Russia. This has been the main reason why Russian commanders are not rotating their forces and not allowing troopers to set foot onto Russian soil, even briefly. This also partly explains why Russian troops made a beeline to retreat into Russia as fast as they could when they abandoned Kharkiv. Large numbers of enlisted are showing up at police stations and other government offices in towns across the border, telling officials they got ‘lost or separated from their units’ and now applying to refuse service in Ukraine. They can’t legally be released from service and must be sent elsewhere in Russia for duty for the remainder of their contract, but the bottom line is that those soldiers are from an operational perspective as good as KIA as they aren’t returning to the front.