#SOLDIERS

Russia’s Ministry of Defense plans to draft around 20,000 people currently in pre-trial detention, or 40% of the country’s remand population, military sources have told a Russian news outlet.

Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski has called on European governments to suspend social benefits for Ukrainian men of conscription age living in EU.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense has warned that it lacks the funds to pay soldiers after September 20, prompting lawmakers to promise urgent action.

A series of NATO military exercises has begun in Latvia involving thousands of troops from several countries, amid jitters in the Baltic nation over potential aggression by neighboring Russia.

The EU is to increase the number of Ukrainian soldiers being trained but will not do so inside Ukrainian territory, the block’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Friday.

The Polish parliament voted on Friday to allow soldiers protecting the border to use lethal weapons in case of direct threats to the country and their own security.

Russia and Ukraine exchanged 95 prisoners of war each on Wednesday, the two countries said.

The number of people in active service in Poland’s armed forces has reached 200,000, an increase of over 60,000 since 2021.

France has invited Poland, along with the U.S. and several European nations, to participate in a training mission for Ukrainian soldiers, as reported by the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

Czech Defense Minister Jana Černochová announced that the country will train 4,000 Ukrainian soldiers in 2024, but will not send its instructors to Ukraine.

Estonia is ‘seriously considering’ sending troops to Ukraine to provide ‘backline’ support to free up Ukrainian soldiers to fight on the front.

The Ukrainian parliament has voted to use criminals to fight on the front lines against Russian troops.

General Władysław Anders’ soldiers were the first to cross the city gate, recalled the city’s mayor Matteo Lepore.

Poland’s Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz has said that as a sign of mourning for two soldiers who died following an accident during training exercises, state flags will be flown at half-mast at all military facilities on Thursday.