Russia plans to recruit Yemenis to fight in the war

Russia plans to recruit at least 27 Yemeni citizens for its war against Ukraine, Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service said Sept. 19, alleging that Moscow is using a simplified legalization process to recruit foreign nationals for military service.

The agency said some of the Yemeni nationals are 2006 and 2007 births. In July, the head of a military recruitment office in Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia, allegedly asked Russian border authorities to legalize the Yemeni citizens in Russia, after which they were to be offered military contracts.

According to Ukrainian intelligence, the recruits are first granted legal status through a simplified procedure established under a decree by Russian President Vladimir Putin, allowing them to obtain citizenship or residence permits before being recruited into the Russian military.

Russia has recruited foreign fighters from countries including Nepal, Somalia, India and Cuba since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Reports that Moscow was recruiting “hundreds” of Yemeni mercenaries to fight in Ukraine emerged in 2024. The full scale of Russia’s foreign recruitment efforts cannot be independently verified.

A humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in occupied Oleshky, where people are left without food and medicine

The city of Oleshky in the occupied part of the Kherson region has been under a de facto humanitarian blockade. The last food deliveries arrived at the end of May. Local residents now report severe shortages of food and medicine.

According to the German newspaper Bild, between 2,000 and 4,000 people remain in the city. They survived the summer largely thanks to produce from their own gardens, but with the vegetable season ending, the situation is becoming critical.

Russian forces are blocking humanitarian convoys and preventing civilians from leaving for Ukrainian-controlled territory. Kherson is only a few kilometers away across the river, yet the route is sealed off by the occupiers.

Speak about Oleshky wherever you are. Urge governments to respond. We cannot allow Putin to starve Ukrainian citizens. The international community has the power to force Russia to open a humanitarian corridor.

The United States has approved a potential $2.7 billion sale to enhance Ukraine's air defense capabilities

The U.S. State Department on Sept. 18 approved a possible $2.7 billion sale of air defense systems, missiles and related equipment to Ukraine as Kyiv faces increasingly frequent Russian drone and missile attacks.

The package includes S-300 Clone and GAM-67 missiles, radar systems designed to counter drones, range-extended laser-guided air defense systems, counter-drone radars and mobile launcher modification kits. The systems were requested by Ukraine and would be financed through European contributions and U.S. Foreign Military Financing funds appropriated under the previous administration.

“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a partner country that is a force for political and economic progress in Europe,” the State Department said.

The announcement comes as Russia intensifies its aerial campaign, with near-hourly drone attacks reported across Ukraine alongside large-scale strikes involving ballistic missiles. Kyiv is also facing a critical shortage of Patriot interceptors, which are among the few systems capable of reliably engaging Russian ballistic missiles. Recent U.S. congressional records indicate Washington is preparing to approve the transfer of 10 Patriot interceptors from Germany to Ukraine.

Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. has ended large-scale direct defense funding and deliveries to Ukraine, increasing Kyiv’s reliance on European and other international partners for key weapons systems. Patriot interceptors have also become more difficult to obtain as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran has redirected some supplies to the Middle East.

The United States is facing a severe shortage of key missiles

Despite approving a military aid package for Ukraine, the United States has formally warned its allies that deliveries of critical weapons systems could be delayed by as much as five years while Washington rebuilds its depleted stockpiles. According to Bloomberg, the shortfalls are a direct result of the intensive use of munitions during the ongoing war with Iran. Multiple European countries are already being told that shipments of missile systems and air-defense equipment will be postponed. Germany, for example, has requested accelerated deliveries of long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles and Typhon ground-based launchers, but U.S. inventories are so low that manufacturer Raytheon is unlikely to fulfill the order within the next five years. Several Eastern European nations that rely heavily on American systems have also encountered delays since the conflict began in late February.

During the war with Iran, the USA forces expended more than half of their most advanced Patriot interceptors, roughly one-third of their Tomahawk cruise missiles, and nearly half of their Precision Strike missiles and THAAD interceptors. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that as much as two-thirds of America’s overall missile-defense interceptor inventory may have been used since mid-2025. These shortages are now complicating efforts to supply additional Patriot interceptors to Ukraine ahead of winter and have even affected Asian partners such as Japan, which was told its Tomahawk deliveries would be delayed by up to two years. Pentagon officials have acknowledged that the scale of munitions consumption has created strategic inventory shortfalls and exposed bottlenecks in the U.S. defense industrial base.