Russian presidential hopeful calling for peace in Ukraine meets with soldiers’ wives

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian presidential hopeful opposing Moscow’s military action in Ukraine has met with a group of soldiers’ wives who are demanding that their husbands be discharged from military service. Longtime Kremlin critic Boris Nadezhdin, who serves as a local legislator, is collecting signatures to qualify for the race and challenge President Vladimir Putin in the March 15-17 vote. Speaking at a meeting Thursday with the wives of servicemen who were mobilized in the fall of 2022, Nadezhdin criticized the government’s decision to keep them in the ranks as long as the fighting in Ukraine continues. Wives of some of the mobilized soldiers want to see them discharged from duty and replaced with contract soldiers.