Ukraine updates: Kursk incursion aimed to start talks — Kyiv

Russia said it thwarted an attack from 12 US-built ATACMS missiles launched by Ukraine on the Crimea bridge, which was built at the behest of President Vladimir Putin after Moscow annexed the peninsula in 2014.

"Air defenses were used last night to deflect a group strike by 12 ATACMS missiles made in the US on the Crimean bridge. All the missiles were destroyed," Moscow's Defense Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

The bridge opened in 2018 and connects Kerch in Crimea with southern Russia's Krasnodar region.

Ukraine has attempted multiple attacks on the bridge since Moscow began its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Russian authorities have declared an association of Russian politicians in exile who oppose Moscow's war in Ukraine to be an "undesirable organization."

Members of the "Deputies of Peaceful Russia" group are accused of taking part in events with an "anti-Russian orientation" in Germany, the General Prosecutor's Office said, according to Russian media.

"They spread misleading information about the activities of Russian state agencies and support extremist organizations," the statement added.

The nongovernmental organization was founded in October 2023 and held its first congress in Berlin. Its members include 74 regional and municipal Russian lawmakers and representatives, many of whom are living in exile.

"All participants in the association consider [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's regime to be criminal, condemn Russia's military aggression against Ukraine and advocate Russia's democratic path and the decentralization of power," the group states on its website.

Under Russian law, which has been steadily tightened by the State Duma since 2015, organizations are designated "undesirable" if their activities are considered to "pose a threat to the foundations of the constitutional order, defense, or security of the state."

Croatia's Defense Minister Ivan Anusic announced late on Thursday that the Balkan country would bring back the military draft from January 1, 2025.

The decision, which has sparked public protests, was taken in light of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine as well as the build-up of military forces in its neighbors with which it fought a brutal war in the 1990s.

"We increased the salaries of soldiers, non-commissioned officers and officers, their material rights not only through personal income but also through daily wages and everything they are entitled to," the minister told the Croatian broadcaster RTL on Thursday.

"The modernization and equipment of the Armed Forces is proceeding as planned and in accordance with the agreement with our allies and the NATO leadership," he added.

Croatia ended its military conscription in 2008, but is now following in the footsteps of other European countries such as Latvia that reintroduced the draft last year.

Serbia is also considering introducing such a measure.

The Ukrainian military has urged civilians in the eastern town of Pokrovsk to speedily evacuate as Russian troops encircle the town "at a fast pace."

"With every passing day there is less and less time to collect personal belongings and leave for safer regions," Ukrainian authorities wrote on Telegram.

The warning came as Russia attacks continued across the eastern Donbas region, with Ukraine's General staff registering 144 clashes over the past 24 hours.

The Ukrainian military reported heavy fighting centered not only around Pokrovsk, but also Toretsk and Kurakhove, all towns that lie in Donetsk oblast.

Ukraine said it had repelled dozens of Russian attacks backed by air strikes and artillery,

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Friday that Ukraine's recent surprise cross-border incursion into the Russian region of Kursk was necessary to convince Moscow to start "fair" peace talks.

"We need to inflict significant tactical defeats on Russia," Podolyak wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

"In the Kursk region, we clearly see how the military tool is objectively used to convince the Russian Federation to enter into a fair negotiation process."

Podolyak said that Ukraine had no intention of holding onto Russian territory and that it was only fighting a defensive war.

But he said there was a need to inflict tactical defeats on Russia to coerce them to start negotiating an end to the war.

The presence of Ukrainian troops within Russia may impact public opinion, Podolyak suggested, since for many in Russia the war had not been something that directly affected them.

ab/rm (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)