War briefing in Ukraine: Fight hard through fall, Zelensky urges armed forces | Ukraine

Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that the situation on the front line of the war against Russia was “very, very difficult.”as well as with regard to “our capabilities, our future capabilities and our specific tasks,” with the Armed Forces of Ukraine having to do everything they can in the fall.

Ukrainian military bloggers have reported in recent days that the Russians were advancing on the mountain town of Vuhledar in the south of the Donetsk region, which Ukrainian forces had defended throughout the war. Russian troops have also been slowly advancing further north for months with the aim of taking over the entire Donbass region, consisting of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

NATO members should not let Vladimir Putin's “reckless Russian nuclear rhetoric” stop them from providing more military aid to Ukraine, the alliance's outgoing secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said as he handed the job to Mark Rutte. “Every time we have increased our support with new types of weapons – main battle tanks, long-range firearms or F-16s – the Russians have tried to prevent us from doing so,” Stoltenberg said. “They have not succeeded and this latest example should not deter NATO allies from supporting Ukraine,” he added, referring to Vladimir Putin's recent alleged changes to Russian nuclear doctrine. Stoltenberg said NATO had not identified a change in Russia's nuclear posture “that requires any changes on our part.”

Mark Rutte, writes Jennifer Rankin, takes over the leadership of NATO at a perilous moment for Ukraine as it faces a third winter of fighting Russia's brutal invasion. NATO allies recently pledged to increase long-term support for Ukraine “so that it can win in its fight for freedom.” Rutte is an outspoken liberal who led four Dutch coalition governments over 13 years. He will officially take over as NATO Secretary General on Tuesday morning.

HR McMaster, a US national security adviser during Donald Trump's presidency, has dismissed as a “real myth” the Republican presidential candidate's boasts that he would broker an end to Russia's war in Ukraine if elected in November. “I don’t really believe it,” HR McMaster said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “It is a real misunderstanding of war to assume that you can achieve a favorable political outcome without a favorable military outcome. That never really happened during the war.”

Three journalists working for independent Russian media were arrested in Moscow on Monday before a concert celebrating the Kremlin's alleged annexation of Ukrainian regions, a human rights group said. Citing relatives of those arrested, human rights NGO OVD-info said one of the journalists worked for the Republic news site and the other two worked for SOTAvision, whose reporters – who were denied access to the Red Square celebration – were arrested in the meantime are surveys of viewers. The medium is one of the last Russian media outlets still working to document the Kremlin's actions against dissidents.

According to a decree signed by Vladimir Putin, Russia plans to conscript 133,000 soldiers between October and January, affecting those not in the reserve and eligible for military service. Russia plans to increase its defense budget by nearly 30% next year as it devotes resources to the war against Ukraine and spends more on the military than on welfare and education combined, a draft budget shows.