Free Republic

Natalia Kruglova last spoke to her husband, Pvt. Ivan Petrov, on Sept. 29. The Russian army conscript told Kruglova he had been ordered back to the front lines in southeastern Ukraine. Then he disappeared. Kruglova wrote to her husband’s commanding officers, the Defense Ministry and even military prosecutors in search of news, but to no avail. Weeks later, the army declared Petrov missing but offered no explanation of what had happened to him. “It’s as if no one owes you anything, no one cares,” Kruglova, 45, said in an interview from her home in the Russian far eastern city of...

MOSCOW—Close to 200,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded in the war in Ukraine, according to estimates from U.S. and European officials, a toll that is likely to continue to rise as the Kremlin readies a fresh offensive in the coming weeks. The U.S. military, which keeps rough estimates on Russian casualties in Ukraine, puts the figure for wounded and dead at roughly 180,000, though officials stressed such figures aren’t precise, a U.S. defense official said. The tally matched assessments by Norway’s defense chief Gen. Eirik Kristoffersen, who said last week that the number of Russian soldiers killed or...

MOSCOW—The Kremlin said that U.S. Patriot missile-defense systems would be a legitimate target if supplied to Ukraine, signaling that Russia doesn’t intend to cease its military offensive even in the face of superior weaponry. U.S. officials this week said Washington was finalizing plans to provide Ukraine with the highly advanced weaponry that would significantly boost its air-defense capabilities, following months of Russian missile and drone attacks on the country’s power grid, cities and civilian infrastructure. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday that the coveted missile- defense batteries would absolutely be fair game for a strike, but added that he...

Ads urge Russians to sign up for military service as authorities turn to prisoners and mercenaries to grow ranks. The Kremlin has embarked on a nationwide drive to recruit new military personnel as Russian President Vladimir Putin seeks to regain the offensive in Ukraine and replenish some of the estimated thousands of soldiers lost in Russia’s war effort. Six months after Russia invaded Ukraine, Moscow’s military has lost much of what momentum it had but has chosen not to take the politically risky decision to declare a national mobilization.