Free Republic

Ukraine urgently needs new soldiers, but some — left uneasy by brutal fighting and intensifying conscription efforts — are desperately trying to avoid being called up. “When you see people in uniform, you panic. You start thinking someone will mobilize you now against your will,” a lawyer based in Kyiv told NBC News. He did not want his identity known, fearful, like a growing number of men across the country, of being drafted into the army... “I love my country,” he said in a phone interview earlier this month. “I donate to the Ukrainian army. But unfortunately, I am not...

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has died in prison, the country's state media reported Friday, ending a yearslong fight against corruption and the Kremlin that saw him survive several poisoning attempts. He was 48.

In a rare challenge to the Kremlin, a growing number of Russian women are fighting to bring home their husbands, brothers and sons who were drafted to fight in Ukraine. They say the men have served their time on the front lines, 15 months after some 300,000 reservists were called up to bolster Russia’s struggling campaign. But with little sign of President Vladimir Putin scaling back his ambitions, the military is ignoring their pleas and propagandists have sought to villainize those speaking out. The women’s mounting frustration has bonded them together, providing common cause in their defiant public stand just...

All 27 European Union foreign ministers descended on Kyiv on Monday in a historic show of support after the passage of a U.S. funding bill that included no new aid for Ukraine and left future support for the war with Russia in the balance. The E.U.’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, sought to emphasize the importance of the first meeting of foreign ministers held outside the bloc. “This joint meeting of European Union foreign ministers with Ukraine in Kyiv should be understood as a clear commitment of the European Union to Ukraine and its continuous support in all dimensions — support...

Russian high school seniors will return to classrooms this week to find history rewritten in the image of President Vladimir Putin. A new textbook — churned out in just four months and touted as the first state effort to unify teaching of the subject since the Soviet era — echoes Kremlin propaganda justifying the war in Ukraine, the latest stage of a drive to shape the worldview of a new generation. The book will be used by history teachers across the country, including in Russian occupied Ukrainian territories, to teach students in their final year of high school about the...

Agunman opened fire at a draft office in Russia’s Siberian region of Irkutsk on Monday amid a growing backlash against President Vladimir Putin’s chaotic efforts to mobilize more people to boost his troops in Ukraine. The man, whom officials have not identified, opened fire in the far-eastern city of Ust-Ilimsk, seriously injuring a recruiting officer, according to the region’s governor, Igor Kobzev. A video circulating online, confirmed by NBC News to have been shot in the draft office, showed people inside running for cover and screaming as the gunman fired. The shooter has been taken into custody and an investigation...