"This issue requires additional negotiations," TASS news agency cited Bogdanov as telling journalists. Bogdanov is heading Russia's delegation to Damascus for the first time since Moscow's ally President Bashar al-Assad was toppled.

Russia said on Monday it had summoned the Moldovan ambassador in Moscow to protest against what Russia's foreign ministry called "unfounded accusations" against the Russian ambassador in Chisinau by a Moldovan political party.

Ukrainian special operations forces have given an insight into the brutal, near-suicidal tactics of the North Koreans they have faced in intense fighting in the Russian border region of Kursk.

Russia's current draft takes place twice a year, in the spring and fall, and targets men aged 18 to 30. Moscow's most-recent conscription campaigns had record numbers of soldiers drafted: 133,000 individuals were conscripted in the fall; and 150,000 in the spring, as reported by the Kyiv Independent.

Russian gains in Ukraine have been slowed by personnel shortages, suggesting Moscow may not be able to sustain the war.

Nicole Grajewski is a Fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and an Associate with the Project on Managing the Atom at the Harvard Kennedy School. She is the author of Russia and Iran: Partners in Defiance From Syria to Ukraine.

Russia claims it is withstanding the impact of sanctions. Sweden's finance minister said satellite images show a different story.

Recent reports from the “occupied” Kursk Oblast in Russia suggest that the Kremlin’s forces are being bogged down by defenses that Moscow originally erected against threats from the west. In addition to Russian “dragon’s teeth,” which limited the movement of armored vehicles and tanks, winter mud and craters further impacted a recent attack.

Russia is studying how China is building military-industrial systems, co-author of report from state-backed think tank tells Russian media.

Russia is sending cargoes of sanctioned oil to India on tankers that have been blacklisted by the US Treasury — setting up an acid test of Moscow's ability to get around aggressive measures imposed by Washington earlier this month.