The two Russians reached a remote island across the Bering Sea from Russia.
Two Russian nationals who fled the country to avoid being drafted into Moscow’s war in Ukraine are seeking asylum in the United States after reaching a remote island in western Alaska by boat, Alaska’s senators said in a press release Thursday—as Russians turn to more drastic measures to escape fighting in the war.
In addition to the conscription, Putin also threatened the use of nuclear weapons, saying it’s not off the table, as the war enters its eighth month. Last week, Moscow claimed overwhelming support in a series of referendums for four eastern Ukrainian regions to be annexed into Russia, though Ukraine and Western allies denounced the referendums as shams. President Joe Biden said the U.S. “will never recognize Ukrainian territory as anything other than part of Ukraine,” while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to defend citizens in those regions.
