Numerous reports indicate Russia's partial mobilization has been disorganized and arbitrary. DW spoke to some who received draft notices even though they should not have.

The head of Europe's largest nuclear power plant was kidnapped, Ukraine's nuclear power company said. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces surrounded some 5,000 Russian soldiers in the key city of Lyman.

Moroccan prisoner of war, Brahim Saadoun, returned home on Saturday after Russia agreed to release 10 foreigners captured in Ukraine following a prisoner exchange brokered by Saudi Arabia.

The Ukrainian president has promised to protect Russian soldiers who voluntarily surrender. Meanwhile, pro-Russian authorities have accused Ukraine of targeting a hotel in Kherson.

The EU denounced the "illegal" annexation votes Russia held in occupied Ukrainian regions and proposed a new raft of sanctions over the development.

Major developments in current affairs are rarely isolated events, but often the result of decades of history in the making. Historians and international affairs experts have argued that Russia's war in Ukraine is no exception, though they don't all agree about the cause.

Russia's war in Ukraine is raising concerns in Taiwan that China could carry out a similar invasion of the island. Many ordinary people are signing up for self-defense courses to ensure they are prepared.

Russian conscripts are likely to be sent to Ukraine with minimal training and preparedness, UK intelligence has said. Russian ally Kazakhstan has refused to back "referendums" in eastern Ukraine. DW has the latest.

Katherine Lawlor of the Institute for the Study of War tells DW's Nicole Frölich that the so-called referendums in occupied Ukraine are linked to the failing military campaign and mobilization of reserves.

Kyiv has said Russian missiles landed near Ukraine's second-largest nuclear power station in Mykolaiv. Meanwhile, the Baltic states and Poland have closed their borders to Russians holding visas.

A UN commission has reported evidence of executions, torture and sexual violence in four areas formerly under Russian occupation. Some of the victims included children.

In the week when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched referendums in Russian-held parts of Ukraine and made a thinly veiled threat to use nuclear weapons against the West, Talking Europe speaks to the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell.