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The commander of Russian forces in Ukraine says the situation in the southern city of Kherson is "difficult" and residents are to be evacuated. General Sergei Surovikin said Ukrainian troops using Himars rockets were hitting the city's infrastructure and housing. He spoke on Russian state TV. "The Russian army will above all ensure the safe evacuation of the population" of Kherson, he said. His rare admission of big problems was echoed by a top local official. Russian-installed regional official Kirill Stremousov warned Kherson residents that "in the very near future" Ukrainian troops would launch an assault on the city. "Please...

You see, this is why I prefer Catholicism. All we need is confession. Russia’s establishment has grown desperate enough in Ukraine to reach for the martyrdom argument. Patriarch Kirill, a Vladimir Putin crony, declared that Russian men who die for “Holy Russia” by participating in its genocide in Ukraine will have their sins “washed away”: (snip) If that sounds positively medieval, it is, literally. It’s the same indulgence granted during the Crusades. This is the kind of martyrdom teachings one no longer finds in Christianity but still find in radical forms of Islam and extremist political ideologies. In those ideologies,...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is promising three protections to Russian soldiers who willingly surrender. Zelensky’s offer comes as Vladimir Putin announced plans to call up 300,000 reservists to replenish the troops who have died in battle. Zelensky delivered his offer directly to Russians as he made his nightly video address.Zelensky addressed them in Russian. He said every Russian soldier who surrenders is guaranteed three protections.1. You will be treated in a civilised manner, in accordance with all conventions; 2. No one will know the circumstances of your surrender, no one in Russia will know that your surrender was voluntary; 3....

Henry Kissinger, the 99-year old former secretary of state, suggested that Ukraine would likely have to give up some territory in a negotiated settlement, though he added that “ideally the dividing line should be a return to the status quo” before the invasion, which included the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the seizure of parts of the Donbas. “Pursuing the war beyond that point would not be about the freedom of Ukraine, but a new war against Russia itself,’’ Mr. Kissinger concluded. Almost immediately, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine accused Mr. Kissinger of appeasement, retorting angrily that “I...