Ukraine war: New Russian mobilisation, hypersonic weapons and killer drones
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia was planning to call up more troops for a major new offensive, even as Moscow was facing some of its biggest internal criticism of the war over a strike that killed scores of fresh conscripts.
Kyiv has been saying for weeks that Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to order another mass conscription drive and shut his borders to prevent men from escaping the draft.
"We have no doubt that the current masters of Russia will throw everything they have left and everyone they can round up to try to turn the tide of the war and at least delay their defeat," Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address on Tuesday.
"We have to disrupt this Russian scenario. We are preparing for this. The terrorists must lose. Any attempt at their new offensive must fail."
Russia's defence ministry on Wednesday blamed mobile phone use by its soldiers for a Ukrainian strike on New Year's Eve in Makiivka in the Donbas that had killed 89 servicemen -- the deadliest incident Moscow has acknowledged for its troops since the start of the war.
If Russia is planning a new mobilisation, the deaths of scores of conscripts on New Year's Eve could undermine morale. Hundreds of thousands of men fled Russia when Putin ordered the first call-up of reservists since World War II in September after military setbacks.
Putin said last month there was no need for further mobilisation. But in a sign the Kremlin may now be considering one, a little-known group claiming to represent supposed widows of Russian soldiers released a call on Tuesday for Putin to order a large-scale mobilisation of millions of men.
The Kremlin has not commented on that appeal.
Russia has effectively shut down all direct opposition to the war, with
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