- تتناقض الدلائل على الحرب في أوكرانيا بشكل حاد مع الإيحاء الرئيس الروسي فلاديمير بوتين يبدأ في إنهاء يوم الثلاثاء.
Moscow-backed officials in the occupied parts of four regions - Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia - announced plans for urgent referendums on joining Russia, the BBC's Paul Kirby writes.
While any new Crimea-style annexation would almost certainly not be recognised by most of the outside world, in Russia it could provide Mr Putin with the grounds for a military mobilisation that would bolster his forces in the face of the ongoing Ukrainian advance.
Yet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his impression from recent talks with Mr Putin is that he wants to end the conflict "as soon as possible".
Adding to the speculation about an impending mobilisation, Russia's parliament backed stiffer penalties for desertion and Moscow's mayor said the city would use a migration centre to help the Russian defence ministry recruit foreigners.
On the ground in eastern Ukraine, government forces pushed into Luhansk region, saying they had regained the village of Bilohorivka. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Russians were "clearly in a panic".
Any loss of territory in Luhansk is a blow to the Russians and their separatist allies there after they declared full control over the region this summer. So who is winning on the battlefield? Read our explainer.
'They tortured me for 12 days'
The BBC's Orla Guerin has been witnessing the scars of war in the city of Izyum which Ukraine recently took back during its lightning counter-offensive in Kharkiv region.
In her latest report, she talks to Mykhailo Ivanovych, 67, who says he was tortured in the basement of a makeshift Russian prison after being arrested on suspicion of sabotage.
"All of those held with me were tortured," he says. "Sometimes they took someone from their cells two or even three times in a day. I saw someone being carried out. I think he was dead."
WARNING: You may find some of the details in Orla's report distressing.
It is not only Ukrainians who say they were abused during the Russian occupation of Kharkiv. A group of Sri Lankans who were in Ukraine for work or study have told the BBC's Sofia Bettiza they were detained and maltreated for four months.
Men in the group say they were beaten and threatened by drunken Russian soldiers. Two say they had fingernails removed.
They say they had to live on very little food, only allowed to use the toilet once a day for two minutes. On the occasions they were allowed to shower, that too was restricted to just two minutes.
Read Sofia's full report.
'I was a partisan for six months'