Ukraine live briefing: Zelensky responds to protests in Russia as arrests continue
At least 100 people were arrested in Russia’s southwestern region of Dagestan on Sunday, according to the human rights group OVD-Info, as protesters gathered in the regional capital of Makhachkala to condemn the war in Ukraine days after President Vladimir Putin announced a military mobilization that would affect up to 300,000 reservists from around the country.
In a speech Sunday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to the protests by urging Russians to “fight to ensure that your children are not sent to die.” Zelensky also said Kremlin-backed forces in Crimea have begun mobilizing Tatars, a group of Turkic-speaking peoples, for their war effort in the Ukrainian port city of Kherson, calling it “another element of Russia’s policy of genocide.” The Kremlin plans to continue staged referendums this week to annex occupied parts of Ukraine. Russia controls large swaths of the Luhansk and Kherson regions, as well as significant parts of Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.