Russia said on Friday it had drafted 300,000 people in a month and is ending its call-up of reservists to fight in Ukraine, a divisive move that led to tens of thousands of Russian men fleeing and brought the first sustained public protest against the war.
Russian conscripts are so poorly prepared and equipped that Moscow will soon need more men to send to the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday.Russia said the accelerated deployment of modernised US B61 tactical nuclear weapons at Nato bases in Europe would lower the"nuclear threshold" and that Russia would take the move into account in its military planning.
Russian naval forces repelled a drone attack in the Bay of Sevastopol, where the Black Sea Fleet in headquartered, on the annexed Crimean peninsular, the Russian-installed leader of the area said. Both sides exchanged rocket, mortar and artillery fire from trench lines north of the Russian-held southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, where one of the war's most consequential battles is looming.