In the remote village of Sedanka in Russia's Far East, almost all of its fighting-age men have left to join the Ukraine war.

Sedanka has only 250 residents, but dozens of its men left for the front. It is wondering whether recognition that the government promised will ever arrive.

Three years after it seized control of Mariupol following a brutal 86-day siege, Russia is using a more subtle power to keep its grip on the Ukrainian port city: social media influencers. A CNN ...