Free Republic

Russia has ordered the largest increase in conscription since the Ukraine war began as a further 160,000 servicemen are called up to the frontline. The planned draft size has increased from 150,000 in 2024 and 134,500 in 2022, when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. It comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russia to boost the size of its army to 1.5 million active servicemen - an increase of some 180,000 troops over three years.

Donald Trump is losing patience with Vladimir Putin’s stalling tactics over the Ukraine ceasefire, the Finnish president, Alexander Stubb, said after spending nine hours with the US president – including winning a golf competition with him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Saturday. Stubb, who also spent two days with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, last week in Helsinki suggested in a Guardian interview a plan for a deadline of 20 April, by which time Putin should be required to comply with a full ceasefire. Stubb pointed out that a third golf partner on Saturday, the Republican senator Lindsey...