| FOLLOW US ON: FACEBOOK TWITTER FLIPBOARD TELEGRAM |
President Vladimir Putin will formally annex four partially Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine on Friday, the Kremlin has said, a move already rejected by Kyiv and its Western allies as illegal and meaningless.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a ceremony to mark the incorporation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia into Russia would take place at 3pm Moscow time (12:00 GMT).
Rival ethnic Shan armed groups the Shan State Army-North (SSA-N) and Shan State Army-South (SSA-S) clashed recently in Kyethi Township in central Shan State, as long-running territorial disputes continue to cause military tensions between the two groups, according to the Shan State Progress Party (SSPP), the SSA-N’s political wing.
The SSA-N is also fighting the Myanmar military in Momeik Township in northern Shan State. Fighting broke out on September 17 when around 80 junta troops advanced to Mt. Hui Kham in the east of Momeik. Seven junta soldiers were killed and at least five others were injured in two days of fighting, according to the SSPP.
A soldier and two Islamic State (IS) militants were killed on Saturday in clashes north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the Iraqi military said.
Based on intelligence reports, an Iraqi army force attacked an IS hideout in dense orchards in the Tarmiyah area, some 30 km north of Baghdad, the media office of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a statement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday announced a partial military mobilization in Russia, putting the country’s people and economy on a wartime footing as Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine continues.
In a rare prerecorded televised announcement, Putin said the West “wants to destroy our country” and claimed the West had tried to “turn Ukraine’s people into cannon fodder,” in comments translated by Reuters, repeating earlier claims in which he has blamed Western nations for starting a proxy war with Russia.
A cease-fire between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan held on Saturday despite sporadic shelling, a day after intense fighting between the former Soviet republics killed dozens, Western reports indicated.
Tajik border guards said the situation between the Central Asian neighbors was “relatively stable,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.