Russian Forces Conduct "Door-to-Door" Conscription Checks in Ukrainian territory

The Ukrainian military reported on Monday that Russian forces are conducting "door-to-door" searches in Ukraine's seized regions to find young males eligible for conscription. Operational Command South of Ukraine stated that "mobilization measures are continuing in the temporarily seized territory, during which the occupying forces conduct door-to-door operations and compile lists of persons of conscription age." The statement stated that Russian forces have increased document checks at checkpoints to make it "as difficult as possible" to exit the occupied territories. Officials in Ukraine have long warned that Russia intended to use its alleged annexations as a pretext to recruit Ukrainians in seized territories to serve as "cannon fodder." Russian forces now hold less Ukrainian territory than they did following their initial incursion into the country in February 2022 due to this month's swift and effective Ukrainian military counterattack in the Kharkiv region. A fifth of Ukrainian land, or around 119,000 square kilometers (46,000 square miles), of the 603,500 square kilometers that Ukraine claims and considers to be "temporarily occupied," was secured or advanced upon by Russia during its first significant drive, which started on the night of February 23. Residents of Lyman tell CNN that Russians systematically departed the city. Nick Paton Walsh and Victoria Butenko from CNN's Lyman, Ukraine, bureau. The strategic importance of Lyman, a town in eastern Ukraine, is concealed by the ghostly emptiness of its streets. On Sunday, there were no indications that Russian troops had even been present. There are also no Russian captives or dead or damaged tanks. Instead, small groups of Dnipro-1 unit members of the Ukrainian National Guard are visible on various streets. The rattle occasionally breaks the silence of gunfire or the thud of artillery. Several residents ride their bicycles out, looking for food and confused by what is happening here. One woman sobbingly remarked, pretending to take off a hat, "One day I wear one cap, the next day I wear a different cap." According to Ukrainian officials and soldiers, many of Moscow's better units were reportedly stranded there. However, on Sunday, there weren't many indications of encirclement. According to certain officials, captives had already been taken out, and Russian corpses had been removed. Locals, however, provided a different account, claiming that the Russian military had left the city in a controlled manner on Friday. The leaders of nine NATO nations in Central and Eastern Europe released a joint statement on Sunday endorsing Ukraine's application for membership in the defense pact and urging more military assistance for Kyiv. The presidents of North Macedonia, Poland, Montenegro, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Baltic States, Poland, Slovakia, and Romania all expressed their steadfast support for the decision made at the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest regarding Ukraine's potential membership in the Alliance. "We expect Russia to quickly withdraw from all the occupied regions and back Ukraine in its defense against the Russian invasion," the statement continued. "We also encourage the Allies to expand their military aid to Ukraine considerably." The presidents of these nations, which make up about a third of NATO's members, were said to have "visited Kyiv during the war and witnessed with their own eyes the repercussions of Russian aggression," according to the statement.