Ukraine live briefing: Nearly 900 protesting partial military mobilization detained across Russia, group says
Protests continue to sweep across Russia, including in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other big cities, in a defiant turnout against President Vladimir Putin's mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reservists to fight in Ukraine. At least 796 demonstrators were detained by Russian authorities as of Saturday night, according to the human rights group OVD-Info.
From our correspondents
Protests continue to sweep across Russia, including in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other big cities, in a defiant turnout against President Vladimir Putin’s mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reservists to fight in Ukraine. At least 796 demonstrators were detained by Russian authorities as of Saturday night, according to the human rights group OVD-Info.
Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Voting continues through Tuesday in purported referendums being carried out by Kremlin-backed authorities in Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. The staged referendums are illegal and widely condemned by Western leaders as a ploy by Moscow to annex swaths of the country. Some residents called it a vote “under a gun barrel,” with the outcome predetermined by the Kremlin.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
Key developments
Return to menu
Amid anti-mobilization protests across Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed Russian citizens, in Russian, during his nightly address: “Russian commanders do not care about the lives of Russians — they just need to replenish the empty spaces left by the dead, wounded , those who fled or the Russian soldiers that were captured.”
Videos have emerged of those called to service staggering around drunk, throwing punches, shouting at military officers, cursing when told to form lines and swearing at the rusted-out automatic rifles they were given.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba denounced recent threats by Putin and Kremlin counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the possible use of nuclear weapons in the conflict as “absolutely unacceptable.” He called on all nuclear powers to “speak out now and make it clear to Russia that such [rhetoric puts] the world at risk and will not be tolerated.”
Battleground updates
Return to menu
Russia renewed missile strikes across Ukraine on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said, killing three people and injuring 19 in strikes across the country’s south and east.
Russia’s Defense Ministry announced that it had replaced Gen. Dmitry Bulgakov, the deputy minister in charge of logistics, with Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev — the Russian general dubbed “butcher of Mariupol” — in a sign of Moscow’s frustration with its deteriorating position in Ukraine. “The replacement of individual senior leaders is very unlikely to fix fundamental structural problems in the Russian military,” said the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S.-based think tank that closely tracks the war in Ukraine.
Russian forces may be preparing to forcibly mobilize Ukrainian prisoners of war to fight for Moscow, state media reported, which ISW analysts said would constitute a violation of the Geneva Conventions.
Global impact
Return to menu
Traffic at the border between Russia and Finland — one of the last European Union member states with a land border open to Russians — was “high” on Saturday, according
to Finnish border officials, amid reports of Russians fleeing the country to avoid being called up . Finland on Saturday announced it would restrict entry and visas for Russian citizens.
China and India — traditionally allied with Russia — have called for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. “China supports all efforts conducive to the peaceful resolution of the Ukraine crisis. The pressing priority is to facilitate talks for peace,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in New York during the U.N. General Assembly. India’s foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, said: “India is on the side of peace and will remain firmly there.”
From our correspondents
Return to menu
Long before his war in Ukraine, Putin waged war on Russian journalists. For more than two decades, the Russian president has clamped down on editors and reporters who have questioned his tactics, reports Robyn Dixon.
“Putin is a control fanatic, and he believed he should control the media. We can see that now,” said Alexei Venediktov, who was editor in chief of the radio station Echo of Moscow when it was shut down in March. He escaped to Latvia.
Key developments
Return to menu
Amid anti-mobilization protests across Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed Russian citizens, in Russian, during his nightly address: “Russian commanders do not care about the lives of Russians — they just need to replenish the empty spaces left by the dead, wounded , those who fled or the Russian soldiers that were captured.”
Videos have emerged of those called to service staggering around drunk, throwing punches, shouting at military officers, cursing when told to form lines and swearing at the rusted-out automatic rifles they were given.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba denounced recent threats by Putin and Kremlin counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the possible use of nuclear weapons in the conflict as “absolutely unacceptable.” He called on all nuclear powers to “speak out now and make it clear to Russia that such [rhetoric puts] the world at risk and will not be tolerated.”
Battleground updates
Return to menu
Russia renewed missile strikes across Ukraine on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said, killing three people and injuring 19 in strikes across the country’s south and east.
Russia’s Defense Ministry announced that it had replaced Gen. Dmitry Bulgakov, the deputy minister in charge of logistics, with Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev — the Russian general dubbed “butcher of Mariupol” — in a sign of Moscow’s frustration with its deteriorating position in Ukraine. “The replacement of individual senior leaders is very unlikely to fix fundamental structural problems in the Russian military,” said the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S.-based think tank that closely tracks the war in Ukraine.
Russian forces may be preparing to forcibly mobilize Ukrainian prisoners of war to fight for Moscow, state media reported, which ISW analysts said would constitute a violation of the Geneva Conventions.
Global impact
Return to menu
Traffic at the border between Russia and Finland — one of the last European Union member states with a land border open to Russians — was “high” on Saturday, according to Finnish border officials, amid reports of Russians fleeing the country to avoid being called up . Finland on Saturday announced it would restrict entry and visas for Russian citizens.
China and India — traditionally allied with Russia — have called for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. “China supports all efforts conducive to the peaceful resolution of the Ukraine crisis. The pressing priority is to facilitate talks for peace,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in New York during the U.N. General Assembly. India’s foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, said: “India is on the side of peace and will remain firmly there.”
From our correspondents
Return to menu
Long before his war in Ukraine, Putin waged war on Russian journalists. For more than two decades, the Russian president has clamped down on editors and reporters who have questioned his tactics, reports Robyn Dixon.
“Putin is a control fanatic, and he believed he should control the media. We can see that now,” said Alexei Venediktov, who was editor in chief of the radio station Echo of Moscow when it was shut down in March. He escaped to Latvia.
