Is the war entering a new phase? The overpriced gas Anatoly has been buying in recent weeks in Moscow will ruin his white Kia's engine. "It's low-quality," the taxi driver told Al Jazeera withholding his last name for security purposes. "The engine already sounds like a sick heart The government allows a'temporary decrease in quality,' but what am I to do when I need new spare parts" that are barely available because of Western sanctions, he asked rhetorically. They don't knock, they kick the door," said the 49-year-old with a three-day stubble and bloodshot eyes. Russia's top military brass has not commented on Ukraine's assaults. But even the Kremlin's most outspoken supporters have changed their once-triumphant tune. "We have to get ready for hardships and self-sacrifice," Vladimir Solovyov, a popular talk show host on the Rossiya 1 television network, said in mid-June. Solovyov has a penchant for aggressive, loud monologues and military-style attire. He once urged the Kremlin to "erase" Ukrainian cities with nuclear strikes and said that Kyiv and its Western allies "serve the prince of darkness." Military bloggers are even more pessimistic because of their proximity to the frontline. One of them, Prizrak Novorossii (The Ghost of New Russia), wrote on Telegram in late June that the Kremlin should conduct a massive mobilisation campaign because Russians already "foresee big changes and possible cataclysms because of, to put it mildly, the unfavourable dynamics of hostilities." The reason is simple - outmanned Ukrainians use "an asymmetrical tactic of long-range drone strikes with technological solutions that Russia is only catching up on," he wrote. "So, the question isn't about whether or not to have mobilisation, but about how to conduct it," the blogger concluded, adding that recent events "inspire little optimism." 'I'm afraid my son will be drafted' "I'm afraid my son will be drafted, but we don't have money to send him abroad," Kseniya, a mother of two from the western city of Tula, told Al Jazeera. She withheld her last name and personal details for security purposes. "We've been told a thousand times that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin brought stability, and instead, we see total chaos.

In Russia, the impact of Ukraine's missile and drone strikes on energy infrastructure from Moscow to the Black Sea and beyond has long been evident. Drivers in the Russia-annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea banned from filling their tanks so priority can be given to military vehicles. But such is the gravity of the situation it has now been explicitly acknowledged by President Vladimir Putin for the first time. Over the weekend, Russia's president discussed the crisis with senior officials and oil executives. And in public remarks, he was unusually frank. You're well aware that problems persist for both motorists and businesses, he told the meeting.

Is the war entering a new phase? It was, perhaps, Ukraine's quietest victory over Russia's oldest and closest ally. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged neighbouring Belarus to shut down four Moscow-installed relay stations that help guide Russian drone attacks on Ukraine. The stations - originally cellular communication towers - relay signals for Russian drone operators and allow their unmanned aircraft to exchange information with each other and fly deep into western Ukraine, which has few drone interceptors and NATO-supplied air defence systems. The relayers did "make the signal stronger" and the Russian attacks "more precise", Andriy Pronin, one of the pioneers of drone warfare in Ukraine, told Al Jazeera.

Is the war entering a new phase? Russia-Ukraine war: Why has Putin rejected limits on long-range strikes? Russian President Vladimir Putin says Moscow will continue its more than four-year-long war on Ukraine, rejecting Kyiv's proposals to limit the use of long-range missiles and stop hostilities. In an interview with Russia's state television service on Sunday, Putin said Ukraine had proposed a mutual halt to long-range attacks as a step towards peace. But the Russian president suggested this proposal was made because Kyiv's forces were under pressure along the 1,250km (775-mile) front line.

Is the war entering a new phase? Russian overnight attacks have killed two people and wounded more than 20 across Ukraine, while Kyiv's attacks on Russian territory and occupied areas have killed one and wounded 10, according to local officials. Drone and bomb attacks hit multiple Ukrainian regions overnight into Saturday, killing one person in Sumy and one in Dnipropetrovsk, while nine people, including two children, were injured in attacks on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia. In Sumy district in the north, a man of 66 was killed in a Russian drone attack on a house, regional military Governor Oleh Hryhorov said, while a second statement referenced "a massive attack" elsewhere in the same region bordering Russia, which injured 10. Attacks on the southeastern town of Zaporizhzhia injured nine, including two children, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said. "The enemy attack caused extensive destruction to the city's civilian infrastructure," the service said.

Is the war entering a new phase? Russia has reported that it downed 660 drones overnight, as Ukraine maintains a barrage that is straining Russian air defences and energy infrastructure. The number of drones shot down marks one of Kyiv's biggest launches of long-range strikes, Russia's Ministry of Defence stated on Friday. That has stoked concern that Moscow may try to pull ally Belarus into the conflict, launched when it invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The latest wave of Ukrainian drones saw Russia intercept unmanned aircraft over 13 regions, including the capital, Moscow, and the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula, as well as the Black and Azov seas.

Latvian intelligence says Russia is preparing military provocations against Baltic states or Poland, including drones and missiles, to pressure NATO to stop supporting Ukraine.

Russian troop build-up threatens city seen as key to seizing Ukraine's Donbas Russian troops have infiltrated the strategic city of Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine and are now trying to surround it. The entire city is now effectively in a grey zone, no longer controlled by anyone, Ukrainian soldiers have told the BBC. They get into areas behind our backs and in urban conditions it's extremely difficult to push them out, says a Ukrainian drone pilot who operates in that area and prefers to remain anonymous. Kostyantynivka is a gateway to the rest of the Donbas region. If it falls, Russian forces would be able push towards Ukraine's last remaining strongholds in the east, the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, and move closer to seizing Donbas completely, one of the Kremlin's key objectives in this war.

Is the war entering a new phase? Russia has renewed its strikes on Ukraine, killing three people including an eight-year-old girl, Ukrainian officials said. The Russian strikes on Friday come a day after Ukraine launched its biggest-ever drone attack on Moscow, killing a different eight-year-old girl and sparking an inferno at a major oil refinery, according to Russian officials. Between late Thursday and early Friday, Russia launched 90 drones at Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian air force. "An eight-year-old girl was killed. These are the consequences of this morning's enemy attack on Pavlohrad," Oleksandr Ganzha, the governor of Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region, said.

Ukraine launched one of its largest drone attacks on Moscow, striking a major oil refinery and sending thick black smoke over the capital, according to Russian officials.