© Reuters. Ukrainian servicemen drive near Bakhmut, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine September 7, 2022. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
(Reuters) – The heavily pro-Kremlin editor of Russian public news channel RT expressed anger that enlistment officers were sending appeal documents to the wrong men, amid frustration over a military mobilization was growing throughout Russia.
RUSSIAN MOBILIZATION
* The head of the Kremlin Human Rights Council, Valery Fadeyev, publicly announced that he had written to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu asking him to “urgently solve” the problems of the mobilization.
* In Buryatia, a mostly rural region of Siberia, Russia’s mobilization has seen some men recruited regardless of their age, military record or medical history, according to interviews with local residents, rights activists and local officials. Activists suspect the burden of the war itself falls on impoverished ethnic minority regions to avoid sparking popular anger in the capital Moscow, 6,000km away.
REPLACED RUSSIAN GENERAL
* In another rare public sign of turmoil at the top in Russia, the Defense Ministry said deputy minister for logistics, four-star general Dmitry Bulgakov, had been replaced “to be transferred to another post “. He gave no further details.
REFERENDUMS
* Russia on Friday launched referendums aimed at annexing four occupied regions of Ukraine, drawing condemnation from Kyiv and Western countries that called the votes a deception and vowed not to recognize their results.
* Ukrainian officials said people were banned from leaving some occupied areas until the end of the four-day vote, armed groups were going into homes to force people to vote and employees were threatened with dismissal if they did not participate.
* Reuters could not immediately verify the coercion reports.
* Voting in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia provinces was hastily organized after Ukraine recaptured large swathes of the northeast in a counter-offensive.
* Ukraine, Western leaders and the United Nations have condemned the votes as an illegitimate precursor to illegal annexation. There are no independent observers and much of the pre-war population has fled.
* The United States is prepared to impose additional economic costs on Russia in conjunction with its American allies if Moscow goes ahead with annexing parts of Ukrainian territory, the White House said on Friday.
* NATO will step up aid to Kyiv in response to the “sham” referendums, the alliance’s secretary general said on Friday.
* Russia maintains that the referendums offer the inhabitants of the region the opportunity to express their point of view.
CEREAL OFFER
* A total of 211 ships with 4.7 million tonnes of agricultural products on board have left Ukraine so far as part of a UN-brokered deal with Turkey to unblock Ukrainian seaports, said said the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure.
FIGHTS, ABUSE
* Russia attacked a dam on the Siverskyi Donets River with a suspected short-range ballistic missile, the second strike on a dam since September 15, apparently in an attempt to flood Ukrainian military crossings, the authorities said on Saturday British military intelligence.
* A Russian missile hit a residential building in Zaporizhzhia, causing casualties, the city’s acting mayor told media.
* A UN-mandated commission of inquiry said on Friday it had found evidence of war crimes, including executions, rape, torture and kidnapping of children in areas of Ukraine occupied by the Russia, after visits to 27 areas and interviews with over 150 victims and witnesses.
* Russia denies deliberately attacking civilians in the conflict and says the abuse charges are a smear campaign. He did not immediately comment on the report.
* Ukraine said on Friday it would cut diplomatic ties with Iran over its decision to supply drones to Russian forces. Iran said it regretted Ukraine’s decision to downgrade relations.