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Many Ukrainians in the territories occupied by Russia are staying at home as they try to dodge soldier-escorted election officials forcing them to participate in a vote on annexation by Moscow.

In Mykolayiv, Lviv, Kyiv, and other cities, Ukrainian theater companies are adapting to the strained circumstances of war -- and putting on productions that capture the everyday and sometimes unglamorous heroism that defense entails.

Faced with more military setbacks in Ukraine, Russia seeks to rope in four regions by staging referendums widely denounced as a sham, and President Vladimir Putin decrees a “partial” mobilization in a bid to bolster the ranks of his struggling forces. Will that move backfire at home?

Russia is offering foreigners a bureaucracy-lite path to citizenship in exchange for a year's military service, but governments in Central Asia have warned citizens they could be jailed for participating in foreign wars.

Many Azerbaijanis were supportive of their government's 2020 war to reclaim territory around the breakaway territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. But as more people speak out after a series of border clashes, they are being targeted and tagged on social media as traitors.

The Kremlin’s aim to mobilize up to 300,000 citizens to fight in Ukraine faces significant obstacles and -- even if achieved -- may not change the course of the war, analysts say.

Moscow seems intent on holding votes in parts of four Ukrainian regions on annexing those areas to Russia. A French ex-diplomat explains why such a wartime vote has no legitimacy under international law and is a bid by Moscow to bolster its position in the wake of Ukrainian battlefield successes.

Eduard Anisimov from St. Petersburg had served almost half of his term in prison when he was recruited to fight in Russia's war in Ukraine by representatives of the Vagner private military contractor. Relatives tell RFE/RL that he went to fight in hopes of gaining his freedom.

Protests sparked by the death of a 22-year-old woman after her arrest by Tehran's morality police for allegedly violating the hijab rule is one of the biggest challenges the clerical establishment has faced in recent years, analysts tell RFE/RL.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, facing embarrassing military setbacks in Ukraine that are weakening his image at home and abroad, has taken steps toward escalation. His main aim may be to scare the West and stem the supply of weapons to Kyiv.