More than 730 people were detained across Russia at the latest protests against the mobilization decree. the rights group said three days after the president Vladimir Putin ordered the first conscription into the country’s army after the Second World War. Independent protest monitoring group OVD-Info said it was aware of detentions in 32 cities, from St. Petersburg to Siberia. Unsanctioned rallies are illegal under Russian law, which also prohibits any activity deemed defamatory of the armed forces.
A new law has been signed Insert says Russian troops who refuse to fight, desert, disobey or surrender to the enemy can now face up to 10 years in prison, Russian media reports. The law was approved by parliament last week.
Russian Deputy Minister of Defense Dmitry Bulgakov has been relieved of his post. Bulgakov, who managed military equipment from the beginning of the century Ukraine invasion, has was replaced by Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, the head of the National Defense Management Center, who was in charge of the Russian siege of Mariupol.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergei Lavrov spoke at the UN General Assembly on Saturday, opposing Russia’s attack on its neighbor, limited by Washington and the countries under its rule. “Official Russophobia in the West is unprecedented. Now the scale is grotesque,” Lavrov told the General Assembly. He criticized the West for not engaging with Russia, saying: “We have never shied away from maintaining contact.”
At a press conference after his speech before the assembly in New York, Lavrov said about the regions of Ukraine where the votes are held. would be under Moscow’s “full protection” if they were annexed by Russia, including with nuclear weapons.
There are so-called referendums in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporozhye provinces, areas of Ukraine occupied by Russian troops, where residents were ordered to vote on proposals to declare independence and then join Russia. Elections will continue until Tuesday.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of China declares that he supports all efforts aimed at a peaceful settlement of the “crisis” in Ukraine. Wang Yi told the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday that promoting peace talks was an urgent priority, Reuters reported.
Iran regrets Ukraine’s decision to worsen diplomatic relations, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said. The statement said Iran’s ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani “advised” Ukraine “refrain from the influence of third parties who seek to destroy relations between the two countries.” It comes after Ukraine stripped Iran’s ambassador of accreditation over what it called Tehran’s “unfriendly” decision to supply Russian forces with drones.
The line at the border between Russia and Georgia is about 10 km (six miles)., where people reportedly waited more than 20 hours to cross. The number of border crossings from Russia to Finland in recent days has doubled compared to last week.
Kyiv and Moscow exchanged blame for the shelling of Ukraine’s Zaporozhye region on Saturday. The governor of the region Alexander Starukh reported about this in Telegram that Russian forces launched a “massive missile strike” from about 10 aircraft in the region, injuring at least three people. The Russian state news agency RIA, citing unnamed sources, reported that Ukrainian forces fired at grain storage and fertilizer warehouses in the region. Reuters was unable to verify the statements of either party.
Two civilians were killed as a result of shelling in the Donetsk region of Ukraine According to the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kirilenko, three people were injured on Friday. Russian soldiers also shelled settlements near the Russian border. Five people, including two children aged 10 and 17, were injured in the Kupyan district.
The Russian authorities in the occupied Zaporizhzhia and Kherson region allegedly started issuing summonses and mobilizing men Of draft age, who “relinquished Ukrainian citizenship and received passports of the Russian Federation,” reports the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
President Vladimir Zelensky called on Ukrainians in the occupied territory to hide from Russian mobilization, avoid draft letters and get to the territory controlled by Ukraine. However, when they ended up in the hands of the Russian military, Zelensky asked the people to save their lives and help in their liberation. Ukraine.
Russian troops are probably trying to attack the dams in Ukraine to flood Ukrainian military checkpoints against the background of Russia’s concern about failures on the battlefield, according to the latest briefing of the Ministry of Defense of Great Britain. “It is unlikely that the strikes caused significant disruptions to Ukraine’s operations due to the distance between the damaged dams and the combat areas,” the report said.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
