Seven months into the conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order to add another 300,000 troops has triggered sporadic protests throughout the country, amid fears that the government will soon close the border for draft-aged men.

The Kremlin may rush to complete its planned annexation of four occupied regions of Ukraine as early as this week after votes to join Russia, condemned by the United Nations as illegal, are completed. 

Key developments 

• Russian exodus grows amid fears Kremlin may restrict borders
• Biden aide says US has warned Kremlin against using nuclear arms
• Russians confront new normal as annexation voting continues
• Zelensky says China’s position on Russian invasion ‘ambiguous’

On the ground

With partial mobilisation under way, Russia’s military attacked the southern Odesa region with drones overnight, damaging military infrastructure, Ukraine’s southern operational command said on Facebook. Russian missiles also hit Zaporizhzhia, local authorities said. Ukraine’s General Staff said in its morning update that more than 40 settlements, from Kupyansk and Kramatorsk in the east to Mykolaiv and Odesa in the south, were shelled over the past day. 

Putin gives Edward Snowden Russian citizenship  

Russia’s president gave citizenship to the former US National Security Agency contractor, according to a presidential decree.

Snowden has been in Russia since 2013, when he was granted temporary asylum while facing US charges for disclosing a top-secret US spying programme. In 2020, Snowden said he applied for dual US-Russian citizenship.

Kremlin says ‘no decisions’ made on closing borders 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “no decisions have been made” about possibly closing the borders to stem the outflow of Russians subject to mobilisation.

“I’m not aware of anything,” he said when asked about media reports that the authorities plan to restrict travel outside the country by those who might be called up. He also said no decisions had been made on imposing martial law in parts of the country.

Thousands of Russians have flooded to the borders in the days since the September 21 mobilisation order, seeking to avoid being sent to fight in Ukraine.

Hungary lays down Russian sanctions red line 

Hungary’s foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, said his country won’t support any European Union sanctions that could interrupt nuclear energy supplies. Russia’s state-controlled nuclear giant Rosatom has contracted to build a new reactor in Hungary that’s expected to begin generating by 2030.

“We never supported and will never support any sanctions that will endanger our nuclear investment, be it in a direct or indirect way,” he said on Monday at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. 

Hungary would oppose sanctions against Russia that would impact the engineering, construction or information technologies that the reactor near the city of Paks will need, he said.

The EU is “already moving toward a recession” after sanctions disrupted east-west energy supply chains, he said. The new reactor, whose construction is expected to start next year, is needed to “protect our sovereignty”, according to Szijjarto.

Russia’s drone attacks may harm grain deal, says Ukrainian official 

At least five “suicide” drones sent by Russian forces hit Odesa over the past days, including buildings in the area near the city seaport, Serhiy Bratchuk, the spokesperson for the head of the Odesa regional military administration, said during a video briefing.

Russia is trying to spare its missiles and use self-exploding Iran-made drones instead, according to Bratchuk. Ukrainian authorities are worried this may affect the functioning of the “grain corridor” and hope that all sides, including Turkey, will make sure their security guarantees remain in effect, Bratchuk said.

Zelensky and his key security and defence officials discussed ways to counter Russia’s use of new types of weapons in the war during a meeting on Monday, his press service said.

Putin ally says he founded Wagner mercenary group 

Businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, who for years denied any connection to the Wagner private military contractor, confirmed that he founded the mercenary group in a statement his company posted on social media.

Prigozhin, an ally of Putin, said he formed the group in May 2014 to send fighters to Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, adding: “I cleaned the old weapons myself, sorted out the bulletproof vests myself and found specialists who could help me.”

He acknowledged the Russian group has been active in Syria and other Arab states, as well as in Africa and Latin America, calling it “one of the pillars of our homeland”. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied any connection to Wagner.

Moldova mulls over curbing citizenship for draftees in Russian army  

The government of Moldova is considering withdrawing the citizenship of people who enlist in the Russian army, President Maia Sandu said, adding that she sees increased risks of mobilisation in the country’s east where the Russian-controlled breakaway region of Transnistria is located. 

Because many Moldovan citizens also have Russian citizenship and live and work there, Sandu said she asked Moscow to exclude Moldovans from the mobilisation. The government is also boosting efforts to help those who want to return to Moldova as the number of such requests is rising, she said.

Growth in Russian entries to Finland eases 

A total of 8,314 Russian citizens crossed the land border into Finland on Sunday, with most coming via crossings near St Petersburg, according to figures published by the border guard authority. 

While the traffic was still “busy”, the numbers were low compared to pre-pandemic times and growth began to level off over the weekend, officials said.

Gunman shoots military draft officer in Russian region 

A gunman shot a military draft officer at a recruitment centre in Ust-Ilimsk in Russia’s Irkutsk region in Siberia, state-run Tass news service reported.

The military commissar, Alexander Eliseev, was in an extremely serious condition in intensive care, Tass reported, citing the regional governor. The gunman was detained at the scene.

Zelensky urges Russians to avoid mobilisation 

Zelensky used his nightly video address on Sunday to reiterate a call for Russians to flee in order to avoid mobilisation.

“The more citizens of the Russian Federation at least try to protect their own lives, the sooner this criminal war” will end, he said.

Ukraine gets US air-defence systems  

Zelensky said Ukraine had received advanced air-defence systems from the US, though it’s “not even nearly enough” to protect the country’s civilian infrastructure.

The National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System, developed by Raytheon Technologies and Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, is among the military aid the US has said it’s providing to Ukraine following Russia’s invasion. 

Speaking in an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation broadcast on Sunday, Zelensky didn’t say how many systems were delivered, or when. A US Defense Department spokesperson declined to comment.

Anti-mobilisation protests reported across Russia 

Scattered protests against Russia’s mobilisation have broken out across the country, particularly in southern and eastern areas far from Moscow that have been hit hardest by the draft. 

In Dagestan, crowds of women chanted “No to the war” and “Shame” at police in a video posted by the Meduza news website. Police fired in the air to disperse another rally against the call-up in a video Kommersant newspaper posted on its Telegram channel. As of Sunday evening, some 2,345 people had been detained at demonstrations since Putin triggered the mobilisation on September 21, according to the OVD-Info monitoring group. DM