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Britain said on Monday that initial tranches of men called up for Russia's partial mobilization have started arriving at military bases. "Russia will now face an administrative and logistical challenge to provide training for the troops," the British Defense Ministry said in an intelligence update. Many of the drafted troops will not have had any military experience for some years, the intelligence update added.

It’s Election Day in parts of Ukraine — but only because Russia imposed it. Vladimir Putin ordered referenda on annexation held in the parts of the Donbas that Russia still controls — and some areas it no longer does — in order to justify the seizure of those areas. That seizure will allow Putin to claim that any further Ukrainian advances in those areas are an invasion of Russia, which will unlock his ability to order full mobilization … and potentially other options.We’ll get to the full-mobilization issue in a moment, but let’s stick to the referenda first. Ukrainian authorities...

Google searches for ‘how to break an arm at home,’ (как сломать руку в домашних условиях) have spiked since Putin made a decree for a ‘partial mobilization’ at 2 a.m. ET on Wednesday, giving rise to speculation that Russians are taking drastic measures to avoid conscription. Similarly, how to break a leg (как сломать ногу) have also risen according to Google Trends data.... Reports of panic spreading among Russians have also flooded social networks. Anti-war groups said the limited airplane tickets out of Russia reached enormous prices due to high demand — and swiftly became unavailable. Some postings alleged people...

The Russians find themselves out of options in their collapsing effort to overrun Ukraine. Not only did they fail to keep territory they seized in the invasion over the late winter and spring, Russia has begun to lose ground it held before the war. They’re running out of resources, and more importantly, running out of troops as Ukraine’s counteroffensive threatens to collapse their lines. What better time than now to hold a plebiscite, eh? Unfortunately, Russia may see that as their only recruitment option in Luhansk and Donetsk:(snip) Er … keep dreaming. Vladimir Putin has no concerns over even the...

Can the Ukrainians sustain two simultaneous counteroffensives against the vaunted Russian military? A few months ago, that may have seemed impossible. Just a couple of weeks ago, most observers considered either the Kharkiv or Kherson offensives a feint to distract from the other. Now that Ukraine’s Kharkiv campaign has achieved so much success, however, it’s clear that their Kherson campaign was no feint. Their forces, apparently using US-supplied HIMARS artillery, took aim at a meeting of occupation leadership in the heart of the city, and apparently hit a bulls-eye. Even Russian state-run news outlet RIA Novosti reported on the success,...

Asked about the potential impact of Europe's unfolding cost of living and energy crises on support for Ukraine, Von der Leyen said supporting Ukraine "comes at a high cost, but our freedom, the international peace order, and democracy, is priceless."Supporting Ukraine comes at a high cost, but freedom is "priceless," European Commission chief Urszula Von der Leyen said on Thursday amid soaring inflation and high energy prices in Europe.The EU's sanctions on Russia are having a deep and visible impact, European Commission President Urszula Von der Leyen told Reuters at an interview in Kyiv, shortly after she met Ukraine's President...

Russian leader seems keen to curry favour with Chinese president as battlefield setbacks and sanctions bite Vladimir Putin has told Xi Jinping that he understands China’s “questions and concerns” about the war in Ukraine, in a rare nod to tensions between the two states caused by the Russian invasion. The remarks came as Xi and Putin met on Thursday for the first time since the war began, at a summit in Uzbekistan where the Russian president was expected to court the Chinese leader personally as an ally in his conflict with the west. invasion that drew the most attention. In...