Russia-Ukraine war news: Russia raises maximum draft age; U.S. announces new aid package
Ukraine live briefing: Russia to raise maximum draft age; U.S. to send Kyiv $400M in new aid Russian conscripts gather at a recruitment center in Sevastopol, Crimea, on July 6. (Alexey Pavlishak/Reuters)
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Russia’s lower house has passed legislation that will raise the country’s maximum draft age from 27 to 30 as Moscow scrambles to find fighters for its war in Ukraine. The changes will be enacted on Jan. 1, according to an official Telegram channel. Current Russian law requires men between 18 and 27 to complete one year of military service.
The United States will send Ukraine an additional $400 million in security assistance, the Pentagon announced. The package — which includes Stryker combat vehicles, small Hornet drones and a restock of artillery ammunition — adds to the more than $100 billion of aid that the United States has sent since the beginning of the war.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
Key developments
Russia’s conscription bill also cracks down on draft dodging by preventing men who have received a draft notice from leaving the country, local media reported. The bill is expected to be approved by the upper chamber and signed into law by President Vladimir Putin.
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Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has changed position ‘in preparedness to enforce a blockade on Ukraine,’ Britain’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday, noting the change since Moscow pulled out of the grain deal earlier this month. Russia may use the repositioning to “intercept commercial vessels" it believes are heading to Ukraine. Russia’s decision to leave the grain agreement raises potential “for the intensity and scope of violence in the area to increase,” the ministry said. The deal allowed exports of nearly 33 million tons of commodities to other countries, according to U.N. data.
Ukraine will continue to launch attacks on Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, and the Crimean Bridge, which connects the peninsula to Russia, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said. “All these targets are official targets because it will reduce their capacity to fight against us [and] will help to save the lives of Ukrainians,” Reznikov told CNN. Kyiv struck the bridge this month.
Russia said it “reserves the right to take tough retaliatory measures” after claiming it stopped Ukrainian drone attacks in Moscow and Crimea on Monday. The strike in Moscow broke windows on the 17th and 18th floors of a nonresidential skyscraper but caused no casualties. In Crimea, a drone hit an ammunition depot, halting traffic on a highway, Russian authorities said.
Global impact
A U.K. parliamentary committee says British government failures helped the Wagner group and its network to thrive. The UK’s Foreign Affairs Committee, part of the British House of Commons, document calls on the government to designate the Wagner Network as a terrorist organization and stop it from using London as a financial hub. The committee said sanctions placed on members of the group, led by Yevgeniy Prigozhin, are “underwhelming” in comparison to other countries like the United States. “For nearly 10 years, the government has under-played and under-estimated the Wagner network’s activities, as well as the security implications of its significant expansion,” the report said.
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Russia is bolstering its ties in East Asia as Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and other officials arrive in North Korea this week to join a Chinese delegation in marking the country’s Victory Day, Reuters reported. Putin is planning to visit to China in October during the Belt and Road Forum, Russian news outlets reported Tuesday. Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has not condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine, visited Moscow in March.
Talks on renewing the Black Sea Grain Initiative are not happening, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said Tuesday, according to Reuters. Russia’s resumed naval blockade of Ukrainian ports has triggered concerns about global hunger and grain prices, which the International Monetary Fund warned could rise by as much as 15 percent if the blockade continues.
Battleground updates
U.S. Marine veteran Trevor Reed, who was detained by Russia for three years and freed in a 2022 prisoner swap, was injured fighting in Ukraine, the State Department told reporters Tuesday. Reed was wounded by a land mine, the Messenger reported, and was transported to hospital in Germany, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a news conference in Tonga that the incident “underscores why we continue to call on Americans not to travel to Ukraine and not to fight there.”
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Three people were killed in strikes on a recreational reservoir in Donetsk on Monday, including a 10-year-old-boy and an 11-year-old girl, Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the regional Ukrainian military administration, wrote on Telegram. Six others, including three children ages 5 to 12, were also injured in the attack.
From our correspondents
The war in Ukraine is spurring a revolution in drone warfare using AI: New artificial intelligence software being deployed in Ukraine keeps drones locked on a preselected target, even as Russia tries to interfere or as the target moves. It represents a significant upgrade from existing drones that track specific coordinates, John Hudson and Kostiantyn Khudov write.
The AI technology is one of several innovative leaps underway in Kyiv’s domestic drone market and is especially crucial for Ukraine’s outgunned military, which is fighting a larger and better-equipped Russian enemy. Improvements in speed, flight range, payload capacity and other capabilities are having an immediate impact on the battlefield, such as when Ukrainian forces attacked Putin’s prized Crimean Bridge in a drone operation last week.
Source: The Washington Post
