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Ukraine thinks Russia is planning ​to draft an additional 300,000 troops for its war effort after Russian parliamentary elections in mid-September, Ukrainian President ‌Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. Moscow's forces are pressing ahead with an effort to capture the rest of eastern Ukraine's industrialised Donbas region, where its troops have ground forward at what Kyiv says is a great cost. In comments to reporters released on Sunday, Zelenskiy said Russia could draft more ​troops in 2027 to reach an overall goal of 500,000, part of what he described as a "peripheral mobilisation" ​targeting Russia's far-flung regions. "We believe it will not take...

Videos on social media have shown angry drivers in Russia in bitter fights over gasoline as shortages caused by Ukraine’s strikes against oil facilities present an increasing headache for the Kremlin.Kremlin-backed media are reporting the extent of growing queues at the pump, including the newspaper Izvestia, which said gasoline was available at only 28 percent of gas stations, compared with 41 percent a week earlier. Reuters reported August 17 that fuel sales were restricted in at least 10 regions of Russia, that "Rosneft" set a limit of 30 liters per vehicle, "Tatneft" set a limit of 50 liters, and "Gazprom...

Russia is shipping parts for drones, missiles and explosives to Iran to replenish its weapons stockpiles decimated by US and Israeli airstrikes during the war, according to a new report. More than two dozen Russian ships, many of them under US and European sanctions, traveled across the Caspian Sea to deliver the arms to Iran’s port in Amirabad, NBC News reported, citing documents and a Western official. While the development demonstrates Moscow and Tehran’s deepening alliance, it also proves that the US-Israeli strikes against Iran’s production plants have been largely successful, Jim Lamson, a former CIA analyst, told the outlet....

The Russian foreign minister said he feels sorry for the UK if it stays with Ukraine until the very endMOSCOW, August 18. /TASS/. Moscow is entitled to consider British missile forces' involvement in strikes on Russia as direct participation in the conflict in Ukraine, with all ensuing consequences, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. "You know, I feel sorry for the UK if it stays with Ukraine until the very end," Lavrov told Vesti journalist Pavel Zarubin. "President [Vladimir Putin] warned of our right to act in any part of the world's oceans if anyone encroaches on our interests or...

Ukraine on Sunday launched one of its largest aerial attacks on Russia since the start of the war, firing hundreds of drones and killing at least six people. A separate attack sparked a fire at a warehouse owned by the Russian online retail giant Wildberries in the town of Podolsk.

Every August, the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Georgia is accompanied by familiar reflections about missed warning signs, intelligence failures, and a supposedly unexpected turning point in European security. The language has become so standardized that it obscures a far more uncomfortable reality. Georgia did not reveal a new Russia. It exposed a Russia that had been behaving consistently for nearly two decades while much of the West continued searching for evidence that Moscow had fundamentally changed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Describing the failure to recognize this trajectory as a collection of mistakes understates what actually occurred....

State-owned VEB.RF (Vnesheconombank) has stated that Russia cannot win the economic confrontation with the West as long as Western countries continue to support Ukraine. According to him, the Russian economy is facing rising costs, falling investment, and technological lag, reports The Moscow Times. The bank's chief economist, Andrei Klepach, said during a session of the Nikitsky Club that sanctions and the Western blockade are increasing the costs of the Russian economy, and that Ukrainian strikes on ports, infrastructure, chemical plants, and oil refineries are causing ever-greater damage to Russia. Klepach stated that Russia is losing the technological and economic competition...

U.S. Vice President JD Vance personally asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 31 to halt attacks on oil tankers serving the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s Black Sea terminal near Novorossiysk, the Financial Times reported on August 12. Citing Ukrainian officials and others familiar with the call, the newspaper said Kyiv had agreed not to target CPC infrastructure or non-Russian vessels unless they were under Ukrainian sanctions or carrying Russian oil or other Russian cargo. Ukraine has not struck tankers near the CPC terminal since the July 31 call. Vance’s intervention came after repeated July attacks had disrupted Kazakhstan’s main oil-export...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine has just a tenth of interceptor missiles it needs from the US to defend itself from Russia’s increased ballistic missile attacks. CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh reports from Kyiv.