Charles Maynes

President Putin says he's officially annexing four regions in Ukraine, after holding so-called referendums that the international community broadly denounced as a sham.

The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to formally annex four territories from Ukraine on Friday, following staged referendums that were condemned by the West.

Separatist leaders in occupied areas of Ukraine moved to join the Russian Federation — after claiming that the people there had chosen to join Russia, in referendums denounced by the West as a sham.

The so-called referendums — which Ukraine, the U.S. and others have denounced as shams — are widely viewed as an initial Kremlin move toward formal Russian annexation of the territories.

While waging the fight in Ukraine, Moscow confronts protests over its call-up of military reservists, an attack on a recruiting office and other incidents that include a deadly school shooting.

Snowden, a former contractor with the National Security Agency, has been living in Russia since 2013 to escape prosecution for leaking classified documents about government surveillance programs.

Russians held scattered demonstrations across the country on Saturday despite threats of arrest and a heavy police presence. The Kremlin has ordered 300,000 more troops for the war in Ukraine.

The mobilization of thousands more troops to bolster the military campaign in Ukraine is rippling across Russia, as the military swiftly drafts new recruits and signs of discontent appear to spread.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says Russia will mobilize up to 300,000 additional troops to fight in Ukraine. Moscow appears poised to annex the Ukrainian territory it currently controls.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Wednesday what he called a "partial mobilization" in Russia as the war in Ukraine reaches nearly seven months and Moscow loses ground on the battlefield.

Leaders of four separatist and partially Russian-occupied regions said they would hold referendums on whether to formally join Russia, starting as soon as Friday.

Russian pop diva Alla Pugacheva [Poo-gah-CHEOV-ah] is among those condemning President Putin's war in Ukraine. Her willingness to part ways with the Kremlin may hint at a larger domestic groundswell.

Hostilities began anew last week between the two countries in the deadliest spate of violence since 2020, though a cease-fire reached on Wednesday put a temporary stop to the bloodshed.

China's Xi Jinping, Russia's Vladimir Putin and India's Narendra Modi are among the world leaders in Uzbekistan for a security forum. What unites them is a distrust of the American-led world order.

The leaders of China and Russia join other world leaders for meetings at the Eurasian summit — dealing with security and trade. Top of the agenda: regional security and Russia's war in Ukraine.

There have been fresh clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia, two former Soviet republics, in recent days. They've clashed with each other for decades over a long-running territorial dispute.

The Kremlin made its first public response following Ukraine's success on the battlefield in recent days.

Amid a Ukrainian counteroffensive, Russian forces withdrew from several key cities in the northeast. But things are being framed differently in Moscow.

Ukrainian officials claim to have taken Izium, Balakliya and Kupiansk — all of which have been controlled by Russian forces for months.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who played a pivotal role in the end of the Cold War, has died at the age of 91 in Moscow.