Russian President Vladimir Putin has a new general overseeing his war in Ukraine, and his military commanders are signaling a new phase in the war: an all-out effort to take and hold the portions of Ukraine’s Donbas region still under Ukrainian control.

Ukrainians seem to be taking that threat at face value. In the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, local officials have been urging many communities to evacuate, opening up humanitarian corridors for civilians to leave for safer parts of Ukraine.

In northeastern Kharkiv region, authorities are evacuating the towns of Barvinkove and Lozova. In Dnipro, a regional capital in east-central Ukraine, the mayor, Borys Filatov, has requested that women, children and the elderly leave.

Donald Trump came to town at just the right moment — in time to witness his chosen candidate finally emerge as the front-runner in the state’s contentious Senate primary.

After struggling for months to take the lead, polls released last week show GOP Rep. Ted Budd has a commanding advantage, ending speculation that the former president badly miscalculated with his early and unexpected endorsement of the little known House member.

It’s a relief for Trump, whose endorsement record will be closely scrutinized in advance of a possible 2024 presidential bid. He’s already seen one of his endorsed Senate candidates drop out of the race in Pennsylvania, and another flounder in Alabama, where the former president pulled his endorsement from Rep. Mo Brooks last month.

Russia claimed Monday that it destroyed several Ukrainian air-defense systems in what appeared to be a renewed push to gain air superiority and take out weapons Kyiv has described as crucial ahead of an expected broad new offensive in the east.

In one strike, Moscow said it hit four S-300 launchers near the central city of Dnipro that had been provided by a European country it did not name. Slovakia gave Ukraine just such a system last week but denied it had been destroyed. Russia previously reported two strikes on similar systems in other places.

Moscow’s initial invasion stalled on several fronts as it met with stiff resistance from Ukrainian forces, who prevented the Russians from taking the capital and other cities. The failure to win full control of Ukraine’s skies has hampered Moscow’s ability to provide air cover for troops on the ground, limiting their advances and likely exposing them to greater losses.

Mark Walker has been here before.

Stuck in political no man’s land, facing an upcoming filing deadline, with his hopes of becoming a senator all but dashed and the boundaries of his familiar former House district in question.

The former congressman’s Senate bid remains in limbo after former President Donald Trump earlier this month privately offered to endorse Walker to run for a newly drawn House seat instead. Also looming is a legal challenge to North Carolina’s map, which could result in the new district being abruptly redrawn to become heavily Democratic.