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The latest developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine. All times EDT.
9:47 p.m.: The International Criminal Court and Europe's judicial arm issued a set of guidelines Wednesday to help civil society workers record international atrocities including war crimes and crimes against humanity, specifically in Ukraine, Agence France-Presse reported.
Launched in The Hague, where both the ICC and Eurojust are located, the guidelines give practical tips, including how to take statements from witnesses and how to store information for later use in ICC prosecutions.
"With the war in Ukraine... accountability for core international crimes and violations of human rights is more than ever essential for international criminal justice," Eurojust's president Ladislav Hamran said.
Other tips also included taking statements from witnesses and how to photograph people as well as dealing with physical evidence to be presented in court cases.
8:05 p.m.: A U.S. astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts blasted off to the International Space Station (ISS) Wednesday on a Russian-operated flight, in a rare instance of cooperation between Moscow and Washington, Agence France-Presse reported.
The Russian space agency Roscosmos and NASA both distributed live footage of the launch from Kazakhstan and commentators speaking over the feed said it was stable and that "the crew is feeling well."
NASA's Frank Rubio and Russia's Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin make up the crew that launched from the Russia-leased Baikonur cosmodrome.
Rubio is the first US astronaut to travel to the ISS on a Russian Soyuz rocket since President Vladimir Putin sent troops into pro-Western Ukraine on February 24.
7:17 p.m.: Moments after President Vladimir Putin called up 300,000 reservists on Wednesday in Russia's first such mobilization since World War II, a human rights lawyer said citizens were getting orders to enlist, Reuters reported.
In St Petersburg, Pavel Chikov said recruitment offices had handed packs of conscription papers to homeowners' associations.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the army was calling up people with experience of service and military "specialists" to fight in Ukraine.
But there was little clarity as to who these would be.
6:42 p.m.: Russia's opposition on Wednesday called for protests against President Vladimir Putin after he ordered the mobilization of 300,000 reservists for what Kremlin foe Alexey Navalny said was a failing criminal war, Reuters reported
Navalny, Russia's most prominent opposition leader, said Putin was sending more Russians to their deaths for a failing war.
"It is clear that the criminal war is getting worse, deepening, and Putin is trying to involve as many people as possible in this," Navalny said in a video message from jail recorded and published by his lawyers.
5:41 p.m.: Russian missiles struck Ukraine's second city Kharkiv, striking apartment blocks and a railway yard, Agence France-Presse reported.
The salvo spurred fears that Moscow's forces are targeting homes and key infrastructure to hurt civilian morale.
"Our area was relatively quiet, and now you see what happened," Lyubov Grygorivna, 65, told AFP outside a badly damaged housing block.
Kharkiv, a major hub in the northeast just 40 kilometers south of the Russian border, was attacked on the first day of the February 24 invasion, but its Ukrainian defenders held on to the city.
In recent weeks it has been spared from more intense bombardments as a Ukrainian counter-offensive swept Russian land forces from the region. Russia can, however, still launch missiles from its own territory.
4 p.m.: Russia on Wednesday released 10 foreign prisoners of war captured in Ukraine, following a mediation by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi foreign ministry said, according to Reuters.
Among those released are U.S. citizens Alexander Drueke, 39, and Andy Huynh, 27. The pair, both from Alabama, were captured in June while fighting in eastern Ukraine where they went to support Ukrainian troops resisting Russia's invasion.
3:15 p.m.:
2:30 p.m.: Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered what he called a partial military mobilization as Russia's invasion of Ukraine nears the seven-month mark and Kyiv has regained territory in a sweeping counteroffensive. Correspondents with Current Time, a co-production with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and VOA, asked residents of the Russian cities of Yekaterinburg and Kaliningrad on Wednesday how they feel about the announcement.
2:10 p.m.: Despite Russia’s harsh laws against criticizing the military and the war, there were protests across the country Wednesday against President Vladimir Putin’s order for a partial mobilization of reservists The Associated Press reported.
More than 800 Russians were arrested in anti-war protests in 37 Russian cities, including Moscow and St. Petersburg, according to the independent Russian human rights group OVD-Info.
An Associated Press crew in Moscow witnessed at least a dozen arrests in the first 15 minutes of a protest in the capital.
Asked whether protesting would help, one Muscovite who declined to give their name said: “It won’t help, but it’s my civic duty to express my stance. No to war!”
“Thousands of Russian men — our fathers, brothers and husbands — will be thrown into the meat grinder of the war. What will they be dying for? What will mothers and children be crying for?” the Vesna opposition movement said, calling for protests.
1:50 p.m.:
1:25 p.m.: Russia on Wednesday released 10 foreign prisoners of war captured in Ukraine, following a mediation by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi foreign ministry said.
The list includes American, British, Croatian, Moroccan and Swedish nationals, the ministry said in a statement, adding that a plane carrying the prisoners landed in the kingdom.
"The relevant Saudi authorities received and transferred them from Russia to the kingdom and are facilitating procedures for their respective countries," the statement said.
The ministry did not identify the prisoners. A Saudi official said they were five Britons, two Americans, a Croatian, a Moroccan and a Swedish national.
Large numbers of foreigners have traveled to Ukraine to fight since Russia's February 24 invasion. Some of them have been caught by Russian forces, along with other foreigners in the country who say they were not fighters.
1:10 p.m.:
12:45 p.m.: President Vladimir Putin's decision to order a partial Russian mobilization to fight in Ukraine is a sign of weakness, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Liz Truss said in a joint statement, according to Reuters.
"Russia's invasion is failing," they said after meeting at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
12:30 p.m.: The German government said Wednesday that it has agreed to nationalize the country’s biggest natural gas importer, Uniper, expanding state intervention in the industry to prevent an energy shortage resulting from Russia’s war in Ukraine, The Associated Press reported.
The deal with Uniper builds on a rescue package agreed to in July and features a capital increase of 8 billion euros (dollars) that Germany will finance. As part of the agreement, the government will gain a 99% stake in the energy supplier, which until now was controlled by Finland-based Fortum. The Finnish government has the largest stake in Fortum.
Germany’s economy minister, Robert Habeck, said the deal was necessary because of the significance that Uniper plays in the German gas market. It still needs to be approved by the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm.
12:05 p.m.: President Vladimir Putin will not win the war in Ukraine despite his order to mobilize thousands of extra troops, the secretary general of NATO said on Wednesday, calling the Russian leader's threat to use nuclear weapons "dangerous and reckless rhetoric."
Jens Stoltenberg told Reuters in an interview that Russia's first mobilization since World War Two would escalate the conflict and cost more lives, but the move was evidence that Putin had miscalculated since the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
Stoltenberg, speaking to Reuters Editor in Chief Alessandra Galloni in New York, said the 30-nation Western defense alliance will stay calm and "not engage in that same kind of reckless and dangerous nuclear rhetoric as President Putin."
11:40 a.m.: United Nations agencies warned on Wednesday that nearly one million people in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen are starving or will face starvation this year in the absence of aid, as the global food crisis worsens, Reuters reported.
Local conflict and weather extremes remain the primary drivers of acute hunger, aggravated this year by economic instability linked to the ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.
"The severe drought in the Horn of Africa has pushed people to the brink of starvation. Acute food insecurity is rising fast and spreading across the world. Without a massively scaled up humanitarian response, the situation will likely worsen in the coming months," said the head of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
According to the FAO's quarterly 'hunger hotspots' report, co-authored by the U.N. World Food Program (WFP), high prices for food, fuel and fertilizer have forced advanced economies to tighten monetary policy. This has increased the cost of credit for low-income countries, constraining their imports and forcing them to introduce austerity measures.
11:25 a.m.: President Joe Biden said Wednesday that Russia has “shamelessly violated the core tenets” of the United Nations charter with its “brutal, needless war” in Ukraine, The Associated Press reported.
Delivering a forceful condemnation of Russia’s invasion to the international body, Biden said reports of Russian abuses against civilians in Ukraine “should make your blood run cold.”
He also said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s new nuclear threats against Europe showed “reckless disregard” for his nation’s responsibilities as a signatory of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
“We will stand in solidarity against Russia’s aggression. Period,” Biden said.
President Joe Biden is making the U.S. case to world leaders at the United Nations that Russia’s “naked aggression” in Ukraine is an affront to the heart of what the international body stands for as he looks to rally allies to stand firm in backing the Ukrainian resistance.
10:30 a.m.: U.S .President Joe Biden delivered remarks before the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.
10:20 a.m.: President Joe Biden on Wednesday is announcing $2.9 billion in global food security aid to address shortages caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the effects of climate change, The Associated Press reported.
The White House says Biden will use his speech at the U.N. General Assembly later in the morning to announce the funding, which includes $2 billion in direct humanitarian assistance through the United States Agency for International Development.
The balance of the money will go to global development projects meant to boost the efficiency and resilience of the global food supply.
“This new announcement of $2.9 billion will save lives through emergency interventions and invest in medium to long term food security assistance in order to protect the world’s most vulnerable populations from the escalating global food security crisis,” the White House said.
10:10 a.m.: Russia's defense ministry on Wednesday said that a large-caliber shell had damaged a technical water pipe at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine, Russian state-owned news agency RIA reported, according to Reuters.
No further information was immediately available.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was captured by Russian forces in March. It remains close to the frontline, and has come under fire repeatedly in recent months, raising fears of a nuclear catastrophe. Both Ukraine and Russia blame each other for shelling the facility.
9:55 a.m.:
9:40 a.m.: Police in Germany have raided 24 houses and apartments across the country reportedly linked to Uzbek-born Russian tycoon Alisher Usmanov, who is known as a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
Police representatives told reporters in Munich and Frankfurt on Wednesday that raids were conducted in connection with alleged breaches by a Russian oligarch of sanctions and money-laundering rules. They did not mention the name of the targeted person.
Local media reports said a villa on Lake Tegern belonging to Usmanov had been among the raided buildings.
News agencies quoted sources close to the investigation as saying that the raids were linked to Usmanov and four other people who are suspected of siphoning off several million euros acquired as part of illegal activities, including tax evasion.
In March, German media reported that authorities had seized the Dilbar, a 156-meter superyacht worth of $600 million belonging to Usmanov.
Usmanov was ranked at number six in the Sunday Times list of the world's richest people in 2021. He is one of dozens of Russian billionaires hit by Western sanctions following the start of the invasion of Ukraine.
9:20 a.m.: A ship carrying Ukrainian grain to Afghanistan is scheduled to leave Odesa port on Thursday. VOA’s Myroslava Gongadze got exclusive access to the port and a vessel during the process of grain loading, and has this report.
9:05 a.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday he did not believe the world would allow Vladimir Putin to use nuclear weapons and vowed to press on with liberating Ukrainian territory captured by Russian forces, Reuters reported.
Zelenskyy was speaking to Germany's BILD TV in an interview published hours after the Russian president announced a partial mobilization and warned that Moscow would respond to what he called the West's "nuclear blackmail."
"I don't believe that he (Putin) will use these weapons. I don't think the world will allow him to use these weapons," Zelenskyy said, according to a text published by the newspaper. "Tomorrow Putin can say: apart from Ukraine, we also want a part of Poland, otherwise we will use nuclear weapons. We cannot make these compromises."
Putin's mobilization has come in response to Russia's failings on the battlefield, Zelenskyy said. "He sees that his units are simply running away," Zelenskyy said, adding that Putin "wants to drown Ukraine in blood, including the blood of his own soldiers."
8:40 a.m.:
8:25 a.m.: Three EU leaders urged calm over Russian President Vladimir Putin's nuclear rhetoric, Reuters reported Wednesday.
Putin's latest steps in Russia's war against Ukraine show his panic and the European Union will continue supporting Kyiv, three of the bloc's leaders said on Wednesday.
The Belgian and Dutch prime ministers and the chairman of all the EU's 27 national leaders spoke after Putin mobilized more troops for Ukraine, backed a plan to annex swathes of the country and issued a nuclear threat to the West.
"It is all a sign of panic. His rhetoric on nuclear weapons is something we have heard many times before, and it leaves us cold," said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. "It is all part of the rhetoric we know. I would advise to remain calm."
His Belgian peer, Alexander de Croo, also urged a calm response between not provoking Russia, and supporting Ukraine. "We must not add fuel to the fire," he said." We must be clear in our position and continue to support Ukraine."
The EU leaders' chairman, European Council President Charles Michel, said the bloc would not be scared away from supporting Ukraine. "In this war, there is only one aggressor, Russia, and one aggressed country, Ukraine. EU's support to #Ukraine will remain steadfast," he said.
8:10 a.m.:
8 a.m.: Residents of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv dismissed on Wednesday Russian President Vladimir Putin's callup of military reservists as a mark of desperation and expressed confidence in their own armed forces to drive Russian troops from their country, Reuters reported.
In the first such mobilization in Russia since World War II, Putin called up 300,000 reservists to fight in Ukraine and said Moscow would respond with the might of all its vast arsenal if the West pushed what he called its "nuclear blackmail" over the conflict there.
"The threat would be bigger if there was a general (Russian) mobilization, but I think at this point Putin is afraid to undertake such a step because Russians prefer to fight with words," said Viktor Chekhnii, 46, a geographer who works at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He added that few Russians wanted to go to the battlefield.
"I still believe Putin isn't insane, there is some rationality in him. So if nuclear weapons are used, this could endanger the existence of Russia as well as the whole world."
Another Kiev resident, Oleksandr Sharkin, 31, clutching a bunch of flowers as he walked near the neo-classical opera house, echoed that sentiment. "If they (the Russians) are forced to fight a war, the motivation of their soldiers will be even lower than that of the contractors," he said.
7:45 a.m.: Latvia's Foreign Minister said Wednesday that Russia is as dangerous as Nazi Germany, the Kyiv Independent reported.
“Europe must not give in to Russia's blackmail and support Ukraine as much as it can, said Latvia's Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics, following Vladimir Putin's video address on Sept. 21,” the media outlet reported.
“In his speech, Putin announced partial mobilization in Russia and annexation of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts,” the Kyiv Independent noted.
"Russia is as dangerous to Europe and the world's peace today as Nazi Germany was in the last century," it quoted Rinkevics as saying.
7:30 a.m.:
7:15 a.m.: Russian President Vladimir Putin's move to partially mobilize troops, along with a push for votes to annex occupied territories, showed his "desperation" at Moscow's military failings in Ukraine, a European Union spokesman said Wednesday, according to Agence France-Presse.
“This is just another proof of Putin that he is not interested in peace, that he’s interested in escalating his war of aggression,” said Peter Stano.
Meanwhile, China has called for 'ceasefire through dialogue' following Putin’s address on Ukraine, AFP reported.
“We call on the relevant parties to realize a ceasefire through dialogue and consultation, and find a solution that accommodates the legitimate security concerns of all parties as soon as possible,” said Wang Wenbin, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson.
7:05 a.m.: Russia’s opposition on Wednesday called for protests against President Vladimir Putin after he ordered the mobilization of 300,000 reservists for what Kremlin foe Alexei Navalny said was a failing criminal war, Reuters reported.
Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader who is currently in prison, said Putin was sending more Russians to their death for a failing war.
“It is clear that the criminal war is getting worse, deepening, and Putin is trying to involve as many people as possible in this,” Navalny said in a video message from jail recorded and published by his lawyers. “He wants to smear hundreds of thousands of people in this blood,” Navalny said.
Since the February 24 invasion, Putin has cracked down on dissent and the media, with thousands arrested at anti-war protests and a new law that calls for 15-year prison sentences for those who distribute “fake news” about the military.
Russian state television casts critics as traitors who are in the pay of the West. Putin says the country is in a battle with the West over Ukraine which he says is being used by the United States and its allies in an attempt to destroy Russia.
Russia’s anti-war groups called for street protests against the mobilization order.
“This means that thousands of Russian men - our fathers, brothers and husbands - will be thrown into the meat grinder of war,” the Vesna anti-war coalition said. “Now the war has come to every home and every family.” It called for Russians to take to the streets in major cities on Wednesday.
6:50 a.m.: Amid setbacks In Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin is moving toward escalation and raising the threat level, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Todd Prince reported Wednesday in an article analyzing recent developments.
Putin is taking steps to escalate the invasion of Ukraine and his standoff with Kyiv and the West, including a “partial mobilization” that he announced on September 21, following a stunning military setback in Kharkiv that has sparked nationalist backlash at home and raised the prospect of defeat.
After months of reported delays, the Kremlin-designated leaders of Ukrainian regions that are partially controlled by Russian forces abruptly announced on September 20 that they will hold so-called referendums on joining Russia from September 23-27, even as fighting rages.
The statements came as the Kremlin-controlled Russian parliament quickly passed amendments that stiffened punishments for soldiers who surrender, desert, or refuse to fight during a period of mobilization or martial law. The words “mobilization” and “martial law” were added to the law for the first time.
The next morning, Putin said that a mobilization affecting “only citizens who are currently in the reserve…and primarily those who served in the armed forces [and] have a certain military specialty and relevant experience” would begin immediately.
The moves may be part of a Kremlin plan to start recasting Russia’s so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine as a war, a word it has essentially banned, and ratchet up threats – including nuclear saber-rattling – amid growing concern over Ukraine’s advances in the east.
Putin swiftly dialed up the nuclear threat in his address aired on September 21, saying that Russia would use all the means at its disposal to protect its territory and adding, “This is not a bluff.”
Putin’s announcement of a “partial mobilization” suggests he is still trying to hedge and to keep his options open – something analysts say he does very often when presented with a dilemma.
6:35 a.m.:
6:20 a.m.: One-way flights out of Russia were selling out fast on Wednesday after President Vladimir Putin ordered the immediate call-up of 300,000 reservists, Reuters reported.
Putin's announcement, made in an early-morning television address, raised fears that some men of fighting age would not be allowed to leave Russia. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the call-up would be limited to those with experience as professional soldiers, and that students and those who had only served as conscripts would not be called up.
Nevertheless, Google Trends data showed a spike in searches for Aviasales, which is Russia's most popular website for purchasing flights.
Direct flights from Moscow to Istanbul in Turkey and Yerevan in Armenia, both destinations that allow Russians to enter without a visa, were sold out on Wednesday, according to Aviasales data. Some routes with stopovers, including those from Moscow to Tbilisi, were also unavailable, while the cheapest flights from the capital to Dubai were costing more than 300,000 roubles ($5,000) - about five times the average monthly wage.
6:00 a.m.: Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilization of reservists in Russia on Wednesday, risking a deeply unpopular step that follows a string of humiliating setbacks for his troops nearly seven months after invading Ukraine, The Associated Press reported.
It’s the first mobilization in Russia since World War II and is sure to further fuel tensions with the Western backers of Ukraine, who derided the move as an act of weakness. The move also sent Russians scrambling to buy plane tickets out of the country.
The Russian leader, in a seven-minute televised address to the nation aired on Wednesday morning, also warned the West that he isn’t bluffing over using all the means at his disposal to protect Russia’s territory, in what appeared to be a veiled reference to Russia’s nuclear capability.
5:50 a.m.: Pope Francis said on Wednesday that Ukrainians were being subjected to savageness, monstrosities and torture, calling them a "noble" people being martyred, according to Reuters.
Speaking at the end of his general audience in St. Peter's Square, Francis, who did not name Russia, told the crowd of a conversation he had on Tuesday with Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, his charity chief who is delivering aid in Ukraine.
Vatican media said Krajewski, who is Polish, had to run and take cover after coming under light gunfire last week while delivering aid with Catholic bishop, a Protestant bishop, and a Ukrainian soldier. It said he also visited mass graves outside Izium, in northeast Ukraine.
"He (Krajewski) told me of the pain of these people, the savage acts, the monstrosity, the tortured bodies they find. Let us unite with these people, so noble, and martyred," the Pope said.
5:00 a.m.: Most EU countries presented a draft resolution Tuesday asking the UN to appoint an expert to monitor the rights situation inside Russia, as Moscow slammed the initiative as "politically biased."
Following intense discussions, all European Union countries except Hungary agreed last week to ask the U.N. Human Rights Council to appoint a so-called special rapporteur on Russia.
Luxembourg, which agreed to take the lead, presented the draft resolution to countries late Tuesday, according to sources familiar with the process.
The move comes amid concerns over an intensifying crackdown in Russia as its war rages in neighboring Ukraine.
4:30 a.m.: Steps that Turkish lenders Isbank and Denizbank took to suspend the use of Russian payment system Mir make a lot of sense, a senior U.S. administration official said on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity, and said the United States expects more banks will cut off Mir over sanctions risk.
Isbank and Denizbank on Monday announced separately they had suspended the use of Mir after Washington expanded its sanctions last week to include the head of the entity running the payment system, which is popular with the tens of thousands of Russian tourists who arrived in Turkey this year.
The suspension by two of the five Turkish banks that had been using Mir reflect their efforts to avoid the financial cross-fire between the West and Russia, as the Turkish government takes a balanced diplomatic stance.
4:10 a.m.: Referendums organized by Russia in territories it occupies in Ukraine are worth nothing and Poland will not recognize the results, the Polish president said on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
"(The referendums) are worth nothing - the truth is that the result is decided in the Kremlin and not by voting," Andrzej Duda told reporters during a visit to New York for the United Nations General Assembly.
Russia will not take part in the draw for qualifying for Euro 2024, UEFA and the country's football federation confirmed on Tuesday, The Associated Press reported.
The Russian national team and Russian clubs were banned from international competitions earlier this year by UEFA following the invasion of Ukraine.
"All Russian teams are currently suspended following the decision of the UEFA Executive Committee of 28 February 2022 which has further been confirmed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on 15 July 2022," European football's governing body said in a statement.
3:20 a.m.: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday called for a "dignified way out" of the seven-month crisis sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Agence France-Presse reported.
Erdogan has been working with both Moscow and Kyiv to try and find a diplomatic solution to the war.
He spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by phone moments before addressing the opening session of the United Nations General Assembly with an urgent appeal for peace.
"Together, we need to find a reasonably practical diplomatic solution that will give both sides a dignified way out of the crisis," Erdogan told the United Nations.
He said a lasting peace must be based on protecting Ukraine's territorial integrity.
2:06 a.m.: Slovenia will transfer 28 Soviet-era tanks to Ukraine in an armaments swap deal with Germany, Berlin said Tuesday, amid heavy pressure for Europe's biggest economy to supply battle tanks to Kyiv, Agence France-Presse reported.
Ukraine has repeatedly sought Leopard battle tanks from Germany to aid in its counter-attack against Russia, but Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government has so far refused.
Berlin has instead struck deals with third countries, which transfer heavy weapons to Ukraine in exchange for receiving supplies from Germany.
In exchange for the 28 M-55S tanks, Germany will transfer 40 military trucks along with other supplies to Slovenia.
Germany has already struck similar deals with the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Greece.
1:18 a.m.: Russian stocks plunged to their lowest in a month on Tuesday as Moscow reignited martial law fears with new legislation and plans to hold referendums on Russian-controlled regions in east Ukraine advanced, Reuters reported.
Stocks hit their lowest since mid-August, with the dollar-denominated RTS index down 9.2% to 1,155.1 points as of 1542 GMT. The ruble-based MOEX Russian index was 8.7% lower at 2,218.0 points, earlier sinking to 2,171.92 points, its lowest point since Aug. 16.
Russia's parliament on Tuesday approved a bill to toughen punishments for a host of crimes such as desertion, damage to military property and insubordination if they were committed during military mobilization or combat situations.
"Indices are clearly collapsing amid fears around the risks of mobilization and martial law," said Tinkoff Investments analyst Kirill Komarov, adding that Tuesday's collapse would likely be the MOEX index's sharpest drop since June 30.
12:23 a.m.: Russia is stepping up "nuclear blackmail" by bombing the site of Ukraine's Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant, its director Igor Polovich said Tuesday, according to Agence-France-Presse.
With Monday's strike in the southern Mykolaiv region "the second phase of their nuclear blackmail has begun," Polovich said.
Attacks around nuclear facilities in Ukraine have spurred calls from Kyiv and its Western allies to demilitarize areas surrounding the complexes.
AFP reporters on Tuesday saw a deep crater strewn with shell fragments a few hundred meters from the Pivdennoukrainsk plant during a press trip organized by the Ukrainian nuclear energy agency Energoatom.
Pivdennoukrainsk is the third nuclear site to be affected by Russia's invasion of Ukraine launched in late February.
Some information in this report came from Agence France-Presse, The Associated Press and Reuters.
