The small group of women thought about canceling their protest when the sirens went off. But even though Kyiv was under missile attack again, it went ahead anyway. Antonina brought along her 3-year-old son Sasha.

“My dad doesn’t come home. We are waiting for him. I’m waiting for my dad to come back,” the little boy said.

Holding a sign saying, “Fair Deadlines for Demobilization,” Antonina said her husband was currently serving in a mortar unit near Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine. She has not seen him for five months and tries to rationalize his absence to Sasha.

“I tell my son that his dad is at work, he is in the military, he is earning money.”

“It is hard for my husband to endure this length of time on the ground, avoiding all the shells and doing everything he needs to do at the front line,” she said.

A short distance away from where the women were standing, lawmakers debated reforms to Ukraine’s mobilization rules, inside Kyiv’s heavily protected parliament building. A new law could be passed within a few weeks that is expected to pave the way for a significant increase in conscription numbers.

Ukraine’s manpower shortages in the war with Russia are back at the top of the agenda and reflect how the mood in the country has changed.

Ahead of last year’s counteroffensive, Ukraine was confident. “The time has come to take back what is ours,” said one highly produced video, published on the Telegram channel of then commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

Expectations were high that the job of rolling back Russia’s invaders, which had begun so successfully in the summer of 2022, could be re-started and maybe even completed by the end of 2023.

But Ukraine failed to make significant gains, as Russian defenses proved much harder to break down and as drones came to dominate the battlespace. Over the course of 2023, Russia – a country with three times as many people as Ukraine – increased its troop numbers in the occupied territories by almost a third, according to a London think tank.

In the past few weeks, the news has been getting worse for Kyiv. Moscow’s forces are advancing in several locations along the eastern front, and in the early hours of Saturday, generals announced they had withdrawn from Avdiivka, an industrial town in the southeast.

The feeling now is that not only do new soldiers need to step up, but there needs to be more of them as well.

“One way or another everybody should serve, it is our duty to defend our land, our families, our motherland. If you don’t want to fight, what kind of citizen are you?” a drone operator who goes by the call sign “Mac” said from eastern Ukraine, where he is serving with the 92nd Assault Brigade.

Mykola, who commands a Grad rocket launch system and is also currently stationed in the east, said he was 59 years old, which puts him just a year under the mobilization limit.

“All of Ukraine is at war, and each and every man who thinks he lives in Ukraine must go through it. It is irreversible. People here are tired,” he said.

Consensus on need for reform

Ukrainians have volunteered in large numbers since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion two years ago. But the long lines seen at recruitment offices in the first half of 2022 are a thing of the past. A draft system exists to supplement the ranks of volunteers, but the government has long complained the system is dysfunctional, with state authorities failing to enforce mobilization rules.

Eligibility to fight starts at 18 years old and ends at 60. In Ukraine, women can serve as well as men. However, the draft only applies to men aged 27 and above. Reforms under discussion in parliament include bringing the minimum age down to 25. That figure might still seem quite high, but Ukraine’s demographics are problematic. High emigration and low birth rates in the 1990s and 2000s mean the population distribution shows a pronounced contraction in the number of people currently aged in their 20s, compared to those in their 30s and 40s.

The centerpiece of the proposed legislation foresees all men of fighting age under a new obligation to register details of where they live as well as their employment situation. The idea is that a new central database will make the pool of potential draftees more visible to the armed forces, ensuring conscription is more transparent and more effective.

Failure to obey a draft order could mean tougher penalties, including possible suspension of a driver’s license or a bank account, though officials acknowledge the implementation of enforcement measures requires attention.

Last week, Ukraine’s police acknowledged that existing cases of draft avoidance have moved too slowly through the justice system. Of the 2,600 cases admitted in the past two years, a verdict has been reached in only 550. “The courts still need to do more to make people feel there is no possibility to avoid punishment for this crime,” a senior police official said.

Along the country’s western borders, Ukrainian authorities continue to stop men trying to leave the country illegally. Martial law requires all eligible servicemen to remain in Ukraine, though exemptions exist, including for single parents of young children or professional athletes.

The SBSU Facebook page regularly posts videos of detained men. Many are pictured with inflatable boats, or even simple rubber rings, caught after allegedly attempting river crossings to Hungary. Other videos show men discovered inside cars, often buried under bags, though one was found hidden inside a large box. One man was even filmed after having tried to pass himself off at the border as a woman, officials said.

Demchenko said punishment for such offenses tended to be a fine of up to UAH 8,500 ($220). Although the identities of all the men are hidden, at least part of the reason for publishing the videos appears to be to heap shame on those looking to flee.

Debate around numbers

For all the focus on reform, one big question remains: how many more soldiers does Ukraine need?

At the end of last year, differences between President Volodymyr Zelensky and his then-army chief Zaluzhnyi spilled into the open, when Zaluzhnyi apparently suggested a number the president felt was too high.

Though Zaluzhnyi denied he had specifically requested 500,000 new troops, the number became lodged in the public debate, and Zelensky took issue with it publicly, telling journalists at a press conference: “This is a very serious number. It is a question about people, about justice, about defense capabilities. It is also a financial question.”

Zaluzhnyi was dismissed earlier this month.

Former Defense Minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk believes that further mobilization is essential. “Maybe not half a million, but still hundreds of thousands,” he said, adding that it should be “strategy-based – what we are going to do, rather than, ‘Oh, we need more people.’”

It is a message Zelensky appears to have given his new commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, as well, that he will only consider a hard request for new recruits when he sees a plan for the war through the rest of the year.

Publicly, the president continues to frame mobilization around an idea of justice.

The President’s Office believes it is as much about changes inside the armed forces as it is about increasing overall numbers. According to a Zelensky aide, of the almost 1 million Ukrainians mobilized, only 200,000 to 300,000 have served on the front line. The rest, he said pointedly, “are very far from the war,” adding it is up to the new army chief to change that before coming to Zelensky and asking for an increase in the draft.

Zagorodnyuk, the former defense minister, though careful not to say he thinks too many people are avoiding front-line service, agrees that reform inside the military is needed.

“The bureaucratic apparatus of the armed forces is a bit inflated. There are too many commands, there are too many administrative units, and so on,” he said.

Whatever number Sysrkyi eventually comes up with, it will not just be military and social factors that weigh on Zelensky’s mind. Paying for soldiers is expensive. At a press conference in December, the president said it took six taxpayers to support one soldier.

More broadly, Ukraine’s economy also needs to have enough labor to keep functioning.

Mylovanov said adding even 500,000 additional conscripts would likely leave the economy some way away from that point. But with only 6 million men in the labor force, he said, mobilization is not a lever any government can keep pulling indefinitely.

Away from financial considerations, the economist feels Russia’s recent advances in Avdiivka and other places might make mobilization easier, by increasing each Ukrainian’s sense of responsibility to join the war effort, in spite of the known hardships and dangers.

“It matters what family thinks,” he said. “It’s not just an individual decision.”

Back at the protest outside parliament, the women calling for fairness in mobilization hope that if families do have a voice in this, it means some men can return home soon, just as others are going off to fight for the first time.

After more than two decades of loyal service, Alim Abdallah was about to experience his first taste of civilian life.

A military discharge ceremony was planned for October 9, and two days later he was due to start a master’s degree.

But instead of celebrating, his family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances gathered in their thousands to pay their last respects at his funeral.

Abdallah, 40, a lieutenant colonel in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), was killed on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon on October 9, just two days after Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, kidnapping more than 250 and sending regional tensions soaring.

About a million-strong, the global Druze community is largely spread across Israel, Lebanon and Syria. Some 130,000 Israeli Druze live in the Carmel and Galilee in the country’s north. A further 20,000 reside in the Golan Heights, territory Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 war. Most Druze there identify as Syrian and have rejected offers of Israeli citizenship.

Originating in Egypt in the 11th century, the religious sect is an offshoot of Islam which permits no converts – either to or from the religion – and no intermarriage.

What sets the tightly knit community, whose mother tongue is Arabic, apart from other minority communities within Israel’s borders is their fierce national pride. Druze men over 18 have been conscripted to the IDF since 1957 and often rise to positions of high rank, while many build careers in the police and security forces.

After almost 23 years of service, Abdallah, the deputy commander of the 300th Baram Regional Brigade, was a prime example.

Back home, Mona cared for their two teenage daughters and 9-year-old son. Both girls were very scared, she said, while the younger one kept waking at night, worried about her father. “She kept crying, saying she was afraid something would happen to dad,” Mona said.

Mona, 40, recalled the family’s last communication with Abdallah, whom she described as modest and a “perfect father.”

“He was on the way to the incident and was calming us down, saying ‘you don’t have anything to worry about, everything’s OK’.

“There was an officer with him sitting in the back who took our last photo together – of him holding the telephone in his hand and we’re in the background.”

Speaking through tears, she added: “I didn’t think that we’d be going to a cemetery on the day after he should have been released (from military service).”

Abdallah had rushed to the border on October 9 after hearing some members of his brigade had been attacked by militants who infiltrated from Lebanon.

When Abdallah arrived, two of his men were dead, but he managed to rescue another and take on the attackers – until he was fatally shot, his widow said.

According to Abdallah’s family, it later emerged that the insurgents had been heavily armed, not just with guns and ammunition but grenades, ropes and handcuffs.

Abdallah’s wife recalled how he rushed to the scene when he heard that some of his troops were under attack. “He was always first into every operation. He acted out of pure professionalism and for the brothers he grew up with.”

Abdallah was buried in the military section of the cemetery in the village. Also buried there is Lt. Col. Salman Habaka, 33, another Druze fighter and one of the first soldiers to arrive at Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, where more than 120 people, including children, were killed by Hamas, and others were taken hostage. Habaka was killed in Gaza just weeks later.

While many headlines in Israel trumpet Druze heroism and loyalty, this is no utopia. There have been rumblings of discontent since 2018, when tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in Tel Aviv to protest Israel’s controversial “nation-state” law. Critics say it focuses almost exclusively on enshrining Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people and fails to mention equality or minority rights.

Meanwhile, anger and resentment have grown over planning laws surrounding building on agricultural land. In some cases, this has led to the demolition of Arab property and the imposition of massive fines.

The twin issues have been keenly felt, particularly among the young, according to Gadeer Kamal-Mreeh, a trailblazing Druze journalist and former member of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, for the Blue and White party.

But they are now on the backburner as the community has chosen to “unite and fight,” said Kamal-Mreeh, the first non-Jewish Israeli envoy in Washington DC for the Jewish Agency for Israel, a non-profit organization.

Part of her current role is to address university campuses and other audiences about Israel’s diversity.

‘Unite and fight’

The bond between Jewish and Druze fighters serving in the IDF is commonly referred to as a “covenant of blood,” she said, and, for the time being at least, this connection trumps any political tensions.

“Since October 7 we’ve all been in survival mode, realizing there is an existential threat (to Israel),” she said of the community, which has spent the last four months in fear of a broader conflict involving Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Islamist movement which has its main base on the Israel-Lebanon border.

“Among the Druze sector we have been seeing a shift in public opinion. Leave any discussion, leave any disagreement – just unite and fight.”

She highlights “many heroic stories of Druze soldiers who were not waiting for any command from anyone, to go directly to the south” near the border with Gaza.

The Druze are well known for their hospitality, which has been much in evidence since October 7, she said, with families opening their homes to evacuees from the south while others have cooked en masse for soldiers at the front.

Yet while community tensions may have been put aside, they have not disappeared, said Anwar Saab, a former IDF brigadier general and organizer of the 2018 protests.

“The Druze community has no dream to have a country – we don’t want it, we don’t believe in it. It’s not part of our culture or religion.

“I believe in Israel and I still have all the commitments: I pay taxes, I serve in the army and do all the things I need to do but it’s not my country because the nation-state law differentiates between the communities.”

The outbreak of war and the Druze sacrifices have prompted many within government to call for an amendment of the law, but Saab argues that a kneejerk reaction is not the answer. Other areas, including planning laws, education and local government, must also be reformed.

“We need a strong democracy where citizens are equal. And equality is not just about serving in the army,” he said.

Omri Eilat, a post-doctoral fellow of the Middle East and Islamic studies at the University of Haifa, agrees that more should be done to ensure the Druze are treated fairly. Though not Druze himself, he is the former director of the research institute at the Druze Heritage Center in Isfiya, Israel.

“The relationship between Druze and Jews, regardless of the level of religion or political opinion or origins, remains very good and I think taking better care of the Druze is one of the only bipartisan issues in Israeli politics.”

He added: “They feel that they pay with blood and so they should be taken better care of.”

Perhaps no one feels that sense of disillusionment with the government more keenly than Mona. In the days after her husband’s death, she was visited by war cabinet minister and chairman of the National Unity party Benny Gantz, who later posted a video on TikTok of himself with the fallen soldier’s son, but not by Israeli Prime Minister Bejamin Netanyahu.

“The whole government was here apart from Bibi – he only cares about himself,” she said when asked about the visit, referring to the prime minister by his nickname.

“But to my great sorrow, they all came here and said we will do and do and do – but it was all talk.

“It’s not just a covenant of blood. It’s a covenant of life,” she said, explaining that she had asked the politicians to “act for the Druze people” and amend the laws surrounding national identity and building regulations.

“We paid the highest price – losing a person who was about to start his real life but who sacrificed it for the state of Israel.

“The whole nation is with us but not the government. It really hurts.”

A British nuclear missile test launch failed at a site off the coast of Florida, marking the second time in eight years that the country’s Trident 2 ballistic missiles have malfunctioned during trials.

An “anomaly occurred” during the test on board the nuclear-powered submarine HMS Vanguard, a UK Ministry of Defense spokesperson said Wednesday in a statement, adding, “We are confident that the anomaly was event specific, and therefore there are no implications for the reliability of the wider Trident missile systems and stockpile.”

The latest incident, first reported by The Sun newspaper, occurred during an exercise in late January near Florida.

The fault was specific to the test kit and that the launch would have likely been successful if it had occurred out on a patrol, using a real nuclear warhead, according to the source.

The Ministry of Defense confirmed that UK Minister of Defense Grant Shapps was on board the HMS Vanguard at the time of the test anomaly. The First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Ben Key was also on board.

“The UK’s nuclear deterrent remains safe, secure and effective,” The Ministry of Defense spokesperson added.

“HMS Vanguard and her crew have been proven fully capable of operating the UK’s Continuous At-Sea Deterrent, passing all tests during a recent demonstration and shakedown operation (DASO) – a routine test to confirm that the submarine can return to service following deep maintenance work,” the spokesperson said. “The test has reaffirmed the effectiveness of the UK’s nuclear deterrent, in which we have absolute confidence.”

Shapps is expected to present a written ministerial statement on Britain’s nuclear deterrent to Parliament on Wednesday, according to the House of Commons order paper.

The opposition Labour Party called the reports of the Trident test failure “concerning.”

“The Defence Secretary will want to reassure Parliament that this test has no impact on the effectiveness of the UK’s deterrent operations,” Labour’s shadow Defense Secretary John Healey said.

The UK has four nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, each of which is armed with American-built Trident 2 D5 missiles, according to the Royal Navy. The missiles can be fired at targets up to 4,000 miles away.

The annual cost of the UK’s Trident II D5 missile inventory, which it shares with the United States at a facility in Georgia, was about $15.1 million [£12 million] as of 2015, according to a House of Commons research briefing.

A 280 million-year-old fossil thought to be a well-preserved specimen of an ancient reptile is largely a forgery, according to new research.

The fossil, initially discovered in the Italian Alps in 1931, has the scientific name Tridentinosaurus antiquus. Scientists thought the dark, deep outline of the lizardlike body encased in rock was skin and soft tissue, and they considered the fossil to be a puzzle piece for understanding early reptile evolution.

The fossil appeared in book and article citations over the decades, but no one ever studied it in detail. Housed in the collections at the University of Padua’s Museum of Nature and Humankind in Italy, the relic raised many questions about the exact nature of the creature it was in life when additional, similar specimens couldn’t be found.

A new, detailed analysis has revealed that the dark color of the fossil isn’t preserved genetic material — it’s just black paint covering a couple of bones and carved rock. The researchers behind the study reported their findings February 15 in the journal Paleontology.

“The body outline of this fossil specimen has the same colour of genuine fossilised soft tissues of plants and also animals,” said lead study author Dr. Valentina Rossi, postdoctoral researcher in paleobiology at University College Cork in Ireland, in an email. “So, without the use of diagnostic techniques, it was impossible to identify the dark colored material properly.”

The revelation highlights the fresh knowledge that could be reaped from reexamining old and previously studied fossil specimens in museum collections using the latest technological methods.

Unveiling a forgery

Reptiles first appeared between the Carboniferous and Permian eras, about 310 million to 320 million years ago. But understanding the evolution of these scaly vertebrates depends on what paleontologists unearth in the fossil record, and the diversity of the earliest reptilian animals is still a knowledge gap researchers are trying to fill.

Even rarer among ancient finds are fossils that contain soft tissue, which has the potential to harbor crucial biological information like DNA.

When the specimen was discovered, researchers thought the fossil might provide a rare glimpse into reptilian evolution.

“The fossil was believed to be unique because there were no other examples from the same geographical area and geological period of that preservation in a fossil vertebrate at the time,” Rossi said.

But the color of the supposed skin was similar to what had been observed in fossil plants found in similar rocks, Rossi said.

There were oddities about the find, such as a general lack of visible bones, including the skull bones, despite the fact that the body didn’t appear completely flat. So the initial assessment was that the specimen was essentially a mummy of an ancient reptile.

“A plausible explanation was that the bones were hidden below the layer of skin and thus not visible,” Rossi said. “There are few examples of dinosaurs mummies, where pretty much like human mummies, the bones are still wrapped inside the skin which is preserved in 3D.”

Intrigued by the growing uncertainty surrounding the fossil, Rossi and her colleagues began their study in 2021 by examining it with ultraviolet photography. The analysis revealed that the specimen was covered in a thick coating, Rossi said.

“Coating fossils with varnish is an ancient method of preservation because, in the past, there were no other suitable methods to protect fossils from natural decay,” said study coauthor Mariagabriella Fornasiero, curator of paleontology at the Museum of Nature and Humankind, in a statement.

Hoping to find biological information about the fossil beneath the coating, the team used powerful microscopes to analyze the samples of the remains across different wavelengths of light.

Instead, the researchers determined that the body outline was carved in the rock and painted with “animal charcoal,” a commercial pigment used about 100 years ago that was made by burning animal bones. The carving also explained why the specimen appeared to retain such a lifelike shape, rather than appearing flatter like a genuine fossil.

“The answer to all our questions was right in front of us, we had to study this fossil specimen in detail to reveal its secrets — even those that perhaps we did not want to know,” Rossi said.

The result was unexpected, but it explains why the fossil baffled researchers for decades. The latest research confirms it “is not the oldest mummy in the world,” said study coauthor Evelyn Kustatscher, curator of paleontology at the South Tyrol Nature Museum in Bolzano, Italy, and coordinator of the research project, in a statement.

Old secrets and new questions

Intriguingly, there are actual bones within the fossil. The hind limbs, although in poor condition, are real, and there are also traces of osteoderms, or scalelike structures. Now, the researchers are trying to determine the exact age of the bones and what animal they belonged to. The team is also studying the rock, which may also preserve insightful details from 280 million years ago.

It’s not the first time a fossil forgery has been uncovered, but Rossi said this particular style of forgery is unusual.

“The only fossil that I am aware of that was painted over rock is a fossilised crayfish which was made to look like a giant spider,” Rossi said. “In this particular case, however, the type of paint wasn’t identified, but I bet is a carbon-based one similar to what we found on our fossil.”

Given the lack of records to accompany the fossil, including a description of what exactly was found in 1931, Rossi and her team can’t be entirely sure that the forgery was done on purpose.

“We believe that, since some of the bones are visible, someone tried to expose more of the skeleton, by excavating more or less where someone would expect to find the rest of the animal,” Rossi said. “The lack of proper tools for preparing the hard rock did not help and the application of the paint in the end was perhaps a way to embellish the final work. Unfortunately, whether all of this was intentional or not, it did mislead many experts in interpreting this fossil as exceptionally preserved.”

Using advanced techniques to study fossils can reveal their true nature, Rossi said.

“It is of fundamental importance that research uses new methods to take a closer look at finds that have already been examined,” said study coauthor Fabrizio Nestola, professor of mineralogy and president of the University Center for Museums at the University of Padua, in a statement.

“The Tridentinosaurus is an example of how science can reveal old secrets — and how new questions can arise from them,” Nestola added. “It will then be the task of our museum to process the newly gained knowledge and bring it to the public in order to lead a scientific and cultural debate.”

A US-Russian dual citizen has been arrested in Russia on charges of treason for allegedly collecting funds for Ukrainian organizations and openly supporting Kyiv.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said the 33-year-old woman, who lived in Los Angeles, was detained in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg for “providing financial assistance to a foreign state in activities directed against” Russian security. Yekaterinburg is about 1,100 miles east of Moscow.

“Since February 2022, she has proactively collected funds in the interests of one of the Ukrainian organizations, which were subsequently used to purchase tactical medicine, equipment, weapons and ammunition by the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” the FSB said in a statement released Tuesday.

It also accused the woman of taking part in “public actions in support of the Kyiv regime” while in the US.

“Operational search activities and investigative actions continue. The court chose a preventive measure in the form of detention for the accused,” the statement added.

Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti identified the woman as Ksenia Karelina and said she was appealing her arrest. A regional court website from Sverdlovsk where the investigating case has been opened, on Tuesday listed the name Ksenia Pavlovna Karelina as being charged under article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code – treason.

The Sverdlovsk Regional Court press service told RIA her hearing was meant to take place on Tuesday, but due to the absence of a lawyer it has now been postponed until February 29.

Moscow has detained several US citizens in recent years, some of whom have been exchanged for Russian prisoners held in Western countries.

The FSB arrested American journalist Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, in Yekaterinburg in March last year on charges of espionage, which he, his employer and the US government have strenuously denied.

The Moscow City Court on Tuesday rejected Gershkovich’s lawyers appeal and has upheld his pretrial detention until March 30.

“Having considered the appeal against the decision of the Lefortovo District Court of Moscow to extend the period of detention in relation to Evan Gershkovich, left the court decision unchanged and the appeal was not satisfied,” the court said.

If convicted, Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison.

Russian President Vladimir Putin recently suggested “an agreement can be reached” with the US to exchange Gershkovich for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian serving a life sentence in Germany for murdering a former Chechen fighter in Berlin in 2019.

“Listen, I’ll tell you: sitting in one country, a country that is an ally of the United States, is a man who, for patriotic reasons, eliminated a bandit in one of the European capitals,” Putin said in an interview earlier this month with the right-wing American pundit Tucker Carlson.

“We have no taboo about solving this problem. We are ready to solve it, but there are certain conditions that are being discussed through special services channels between the intelligence services. I think an agreement can be reached,” he told the former Fox News host.

In December 2022, Russia released WNBA star Brittney Griner in a prisoner swap that involved Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. Griner, who had for years played in the off-season for a Russian women’s basketball team, had been detained in February of that year on drug smuggling charges at an airport in the Moscow region.

Former US Marine Paul Whelan was sentenced to 16 years in prison in June 2020 after being convicted on espionage charges that he vehemently denies.

This is a developing story and will be updated

Maxim Kuzminov, a Russian pilot who dramatically defected to Ukraine by flying his helicopter across the border, is dead, according to Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Directorate (GUR).

Initially, the Civil Guard said the victim was a 33-year-old Ukrainian but later said the identity of the body was still to be determined and part of an investigation, which had been sealed by a judge.

The remains of the man shot inside the garage are thought to still be in Alicante province under the supervision of forensic examiners.

The shooting took place in a neighborhood where some Russian and Ukrainian expatriates have settled since the war began, according to the Villajoyosa city hall press office.

Asked Tuesday whether Russia had any knowledge of the death, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow had no information on the matter.

Russian Foreign Intelligence Director Sergey Naryshkin would also not comment directly on Kuzminov’s death, but told reporters the defector had become “a moral corpse the moment he began planning his dirty and terrible crime,” Russia’s RIA Novosti reported.

Shortly after Kuzminov’s defection, Russian TV aired a segment about him on the “Vesti Nedeli” program, which carried a clear threat to the defector’s life. In the program, a reporter said that Russia’s own military intelligence agency had already received their order with regard to Kuzminov, adding that, “its fulfillment is only a matter of time.”

Later in the segment, a man in a military uniform, whose face is shown covered, says: “We can’t let such a thing go, we will punish him for such actions.”

The Freedom for Russia Legion – a group associated with Ukraine’s GUR made up of Russian nationals fighting for Ukraine – expressed their condolences to family and friends of Kuzminov, saying he was a “real warrior and honest man.”

“Ukraine fulfilled all its obligations to Maxim, he received the promised monetary reward for the delivered equipment and had the opportunity to choose to stay in Ukraine and live in peace, continue serving in one of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, or go to the EU,” the Legion said in a statement.

‘Let’s give it a try’

Kuzminov defected in August after Kyiv got his family out of Russia undetected, the head of the GUR, Kyrolo Budanov, told Radio Liberty last year. Budanov said it was the first successful operation of its kind.

When Kuzminov flew into Ukraine, the two other Russian service members on board the Mi-8 helicopter with him did not know what was happening. The pair were killed while trying to escape after they realized they had landed in Ukraine.

“We would prefer (to take) them alive, but it is what it is,” Budanov said at the time.

In an interview published by the GUR in September, Kuzminov recounted the defection. He told reporters he fled Russia because he was opposed to the war.

“I contacted representatives of Ukrainian intelligence, explained my situation, to which they offered this option: ‘Come on, we guarantee your safety, guarantee new documents, guarantee monetary compensation, a reward,’” the pilot said.

His defection seemingly came last minute during a flight near the border.

After relaying his location, he said “let’s give it a try, I’m not that far away.”

“Having made a final decision, I flew at an extremely low altitude in radio silence mode. No one understood what was going on with me at all,” Kuzminov said.

The operation, extending back to last year, involved a series of attacks, including vandalizing the cars of the interior minister and several monuments. The Estonian Internal Security Service arrested 10 individuals, including both Russian and Estonian nationals. Estonian officials say more attacks were planned.

The 10 suspects were detained for “acting on behalf of a Russian special service,” the Estonian government announced Tuesday. “To the knowledge of the Estonian Internal Security Service, its aim was to spread fear and create tension in Estonian society,” the statement said.

Some of the suspects were recruited on social media, according to Margo Palloson, the director general of the Estonian Internal Security Service.

Russia has not yet responded to the claims.

Earlier, Kallas posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “Estonia has successfully stopped a hybrid operation by Russia’s security services on our territory,” adding, “We know the Kremlin is targeting all of our democratic societies.”

Russia carried out a massive hybrid attack on Estonia in 2007, involving both cyber attacks and Russian-organized civil unrest. Estonia, a NATO ally, joined the alliance in 2004.

Intelligence analysts say that a variety of Russian agencies, including the FSB and the SVR (its foreign intelligence service), are involved in hybrid operations throughout eastern Europe.

Estonia has been a particular target because of its substantial Russian-speaking minority – nearly 25% of the population.

The Kremlin is also directly involved in shaping Russian influence operations in neighboring countries, according to Presidential Administration documents leaked last year.

In March last year, the White House said that “Russian actors, some with current ties to Russian intelligence, are seeking to stage and use protests in Moldova as a basis to foment a manufactured insurrection against the Moldovan government.”

The efforts in the three Baltic states, all members of NATO and the European Union, have generally been lower profile – focused on shifting opinion through social media and pro-Russian activism.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Australia on Tuesday announced plans to build its largest navy since World War II, allocating more than $35 billion for the defense project over the next 10 years, in a move analysts said pointed to heightened tensions with China in the Indo-Pacific.

According to a government statement, the plans will see the Royal Australian Navy boost its fleet of major surface warships to 26 in total after an independent review led by a retired US Navy admiral found “the current and planned surface combatant fleet is not appropriate for the strategic environment we face.”

“A strong Australia relies on a strong navy, one that is equipped to conduct diplomacy in our region, deter potential adversaries, and defend our national interests when called,” Australian Chief of Navy Vice Adm. Mark Hammond said in the statement.

“The size, lethality and capabilities of the future surface combatant fleet ensures that our navy is equipped to meet the evolving strategic challenges of our region.”

The plan to bolster the fleet includes 20 destroyers and frigates, and six Large Optionally Crewed Surface Vessels (LOSVs), that can operate with sailors aboard or independently as drones.

Those surface vessels will join a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines Australia plans to build under the AUKUS pact with the United States and the United Kingdom, the first three of which are expected to be delivered early next decade.

The independent review noted Australia had “the oldest fleet Navy has operated in its history,” according to the government statement.

And analysts said the security environment in the region – where rival China has built up the world’s largest navy and is asserting its territorial claims in disputed waters – meant Australia had to act.

Collin Koh, research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said increasing the Australian fleet’s size “is essential if there’s a need for capacity to match the growing set of mission requirements, especially projecting presence across the Indo-Pacific.”

While there is no mention of China in the buildup plan, the review commission said the future surface fleet needed the ability “to support critical activities, including patrolling our northern approaches, close escort and theatre sea lift missions.”

And analysts pointed to possible threats from China.

“It probably signals how concerned both the government and defense are about our strategic circumstances,” Jennifer Parker, adjunct fellow in naval studies at UNSW Canberra, said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

“There are many saying that for the period of the latter 2020s, we are entering a period of risk in the Indo-Pacific and that’s generated by China’s increased aggression in both the South China Sea and Northeast Asia,” she said.

Period of risk

Upon completion in the mid-2040s, the naval buildup would yield a fleet with the country’s three current Hobart-class guided-missile destroyers, which will get upgrades to their air defense and strike systems; six new Hunter-class frigates with anti-submarine warfare as well as strike capabilities; 11 new general purpose frigates for air defense, strike and escort duties; and six of the new LOSVs, which would each have 32 Vertical Launching System (VLS) cells for missiles.

An additional 25 smaller vessels will be used for offshore patrol and maritime security duties, the government said.

Noting the urgency to improve the country’s surface fleet, the government said the first of the 11 general purpose frigates would be built on an existing design imported from Japan, South Korea, Germany or Spain, with work later transitioning to an Australian shipyard.

In the ABC interview, Parker noted that there was a “period of risk” for Australia in the plan, in that some older ships will be retired before new ones come online.

John Bradford, Council on Foreign Relations international affairs fellow, said Australia would need to be steadfast in sticking with the plan.

“The plan is realistic so long as the Australian government sustains its commitment to this effort,” said Bradford, who added that the first of the Hunter-class frigates, which he called the “premier system” in the plan, will not join the fleet until 2032.

Opposition criticism

Opposition lawmaker Andrew Hastie, shadow minister for defense, criticized the buildup’s timeline.

“We won’t see a ship in the water until 2031, assuming this plan stays to timeline. It does not meet the urgent strategic challenges posed by this dangerous world,” Hastie told reporters.

Analysts said when the ships do come online, they will need sailors to crew them, something that’s not guaranteed.

“Even with high levels of automation found on these planned new build ships, what about crewing? Will (the navy) face a manpower challenge in manning this expanded fleet?” Koh asked.

But the government said the buildup “requires a minimal increase to crew complement due to a rationalization of crew sizes and an increased reliance on technology and automation.”

In its announcement Tuesday, the government also touted the economic benefits of the buildup.

“This investment provides a clear pathway for the shipbuilding industry and workforce in South Australia and Western Australia,” the release said.

Pat Conroy, minister for defense industry, said shipbuilding would create 3,700 jobs in the next 10 years and thousands more down the line.

However, the opposition Greens party called the plan a “multi-billion-dollar mistake” driven by local political concerns to protect shipbuilding jobs – and political ones.

“No matter how many times Defence leadership fails, both overcharging and underdelivering, they keep their jobs and get rewarded with billions more public dollars,” Greens defense spokesperson Sen. David Shoebridge said in a statement.

Spanish police are investigating the disappearance of a 40-year-old American woman who was reported missing in Madrid after she failed to meet a friend earlier this month.

Spain’s Interior Ministry identified the woman as Ana Maria Knezevich Henao, saying she “disappeared” on February 2 and requires medication.

An image posted on Spain’s National Center for Missing Persons website shows a photo of Knezevich Henao with long brown hair and brown eyes. She’s about 4 feet 8 inches in height, according to the website.

Knezevich Henao’s friend, Sanna Rameau, said she last exchanged messages with her on February 2.

Around the time she went missing, Rameau said received a WhatsApp message from Knezevich Henao that read: “I met someone wonderful!! He has a summer house about 2h (hours) from Madrid. We are going there now and I will spend a few days there. Signal is spotty. I’ll call you when I get back.”

The cameras disabled were at the entrance of the building and near the elevator, the superintendent said. It’s unclear if the incident is related to her disappearance.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has presented a car to his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un, state media said Tuesday, in another sign of warming ties between the two countries that have raised concerns in the United States.

The Russian-made car for Kim’s personal use was delivered Sunday by a Russian delegation, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian state news agency TASS the car was an Aurus, the luxury automaker founded in 2018 to produce Russia’s official state cars.

Kim’s sister – and senior Pyongyang official – Kim Yo Jong thanked Putin on her brother’s behalf and said, “the gift serves as a clear demonstration of the special personal relations between the top leaders of the (North Korea) and Russia,” according to KCNA.

Russia has repeatedly fired North Korean-supplied short-range ballistic missiles at Ukrainian targets in recent weeks. Meanwhile, US officials fear that North Korea may be able to use a tighter relationship with Russia to loosen China’s influence, potentially removing what some believe has been an important handbrake on Pyongyang’s nuclear testing program.

In January, high-ranking North Korean and Russian diplomats met in Moscow in advance of what North Korean state media says is a forthcoming visit to Pyongyang by Putin — his first in more than 20 years. And Kim visited Russia for a summit with Putin in September, where he endorsed the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine and said, “I will always be standing with Russia.”

Putin’s gift potentially violates United Nations sanctions imposed on North Korea for its nuclear weapons program, though the ban on luxury goods sales to the country has not prevented Kim from appearing in a range of high-end vehicles over the years.

The North Korean leader is often seen being chauffeured in what’s believed to be a Mercedes-Maybach Pullman Guard armored limousine, worth upwards of $1 million.

In 2018, he arrived at a meeting with US officials in a black Rolls-Royce. Earlier that year, two armored Mercedes-Maybach S600 Guard vehicles were shipped from the Netherlands to North Korea, likely for Kim’s use, according to the Washington-based Center for Advanced Defense Studies.

The center also reported that Pyongyang imported more than 800 luxury vehicles in the period from 2015 to 2017 alone – the majority originating from Russian companies.

During Kim’s visit to Russia last September, Putin showed his Aurus limousine to the North Korean leader.

Former US President Donald Trump also gave Kim a viewing of the presidential Cadillac limousine nicknamed “the Beast” during their talks in Singapore in 2018.