Voting on whether Russia should annex Kremlin-controlled regions of Ukraine opened yesterday as the West denounced the referendum that has dramatically raised the stakes of Moscow’s seven-month invasion.

A team of experts commissioned by the U.N.’s top human rights body to look into rights violations in Ukraine said Friday its initial investigation turned up evidence of war crimes in the country following Russia’s invasion nearly seven months ago.

Annexation vote begins in occupied Ukrainian territories to join Russia, West terms "sham"

Some draft-age Russians rushed to the borders on Thursday to escape their country's biggest conscription drive since World War Two, as world powers rounded on Moscow at the United Nations, accusing it of escalating the conflict in Ukraine.

Some Russian men headed swiftly to the borders yesterday after President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilisation, with traffic at frontier crossings with Finland and Georgia surging and prices for air tickets from Moscow rocketing.

Russia and Ukraine carried out an unexpected prisoner swap on Wednesday, the largest since the war began and involving almost 300 people, including 10 foreigners and the commanders who led a prolonged Ukrainian defence of Mariupol earlier this year.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy demanded a special United Nations tribunal impose "just punishment" on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, including financial penalties and stripping Moscow of its veto power in the Security Council.

President Vladimir Putin yesterday called up 300,000 Russian military reservists, saying his promise to use all military means in Ukraine was “no bluff,” and hinting that Moscow was prepared to use nuclear weapons.

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered Russia's first mobilisation since World War Two and backed a plan to annex swathes of Ukraine, warning the West he was not bluffing when he said he'd be ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia.

Russian-installed leaders in occupied areas of four Ukrainian regions set out plans for referendums on joining Russia this week, a step an ally of President Vladimir Putin said would alter the geopolitical landscape forever.

An ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia's top lawmaker on Tuesday backed plans by Moscow-backed separatists in Ukraine to hold referendums paving the way for the annexation of swathes of additional territory in its former Soviet neighbour.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed that there will be no let-up in Ukraine’s fight to regain its territory as Kyiv said its troops had crossed the Oskil River, preparing for an assault on Russia’s occupation forces in the eastern Donbas region.

Joy, trepidation and grief flickered across the face of Nataliia Yelistratova as she sat next to her husband on a special train back to their home town of Balakliia that Ukraine recaptured last week after six months of Russian occupation.

Russia has widened its strikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure in the past week following setbacks on the battlefield and is likely to expand its target range further, Britain said yesterday.

Ukraine’s recent counter-offensive will not change Russia’s plans in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin said as Moscow yesterday launched strikes on Ukrainian positions in several parts of the country.

Ukrainian investigators descended on a pine forest outside the recaptured town of Izyum yesterday and began pulling hundreds of hastily buried bodies from the sandy soil.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi today (September 16, 2022) met Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Uzbek city of Samarkand for the first time since Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out in February and told him that it is not an era of war.

Ukrainian authorities found a mass grave containing 440 bodies in the northeastern town of Izium that was recaptured from Russian forces days ago, officials said, including some people killed by shelling and air strikes.

Russian forces in eastern Ukraine are fortifying their defences and it will be hard for Kyiv’s troops to repeat the rapid success of their recent lightning counter offensive, a senior regional Ukrainian official warned yesterday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday told UN chief Antonio Guterres during a phone call that the "priority" should be to send Ukrainian grain to countries in greatest need, the Kremlin said.