Afghanistan is one of the largest recipients of humanitarian aid from the European Union, EU officials said on August 27, one day after saying it was appalled by a new decree issued by the Taliban-led government further restricting the lives of women.

The European Union this year has provided 125 million euros ($139 million) to Afghanistan for humanitarian-aid purposes, Balazs Ujvari, European Commission spokesman for budget, human resources, humanitarian aid, and crisis management, said at a European Commission news briefing in Brussels.

In addition to classic aid distribution, the EU has also organized 35 “air-bridge” flights carrying 1,600 tons of aid since 2021.

“This shows that in a broad variety of areas, we are deploying a variety of humanitarian and civil-protection tools as well to try and alleviate the ongoing difficulties in the country," Ujvari said.

European Commission chief spokesman Eric Mamer added that when the EU distributes humanitarian aid, it works with partner organizations, not the government.

Nabila Massrali, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, said the EU reacted very quickly on August 26 to the Taliban’s so-called Law on the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, but at the same time she defended keeping ties with the Taliban.

“When it comes to the engagement with the Taliban, we do maintain contact...to allow the dialogue for political priories of the EU and to ensure that the EU can provide support to the Afghan people, and this is very important,” she said at the briefing. “The EU engagement with the Taliban is not an acknowledgement of legitimacy.”

SEE ALSO:

Taliban Morality Laws Provide 'Distressing Vision' For Afghanistan, Warns UN Envoy

In addition to saying it was appalled by the August 26 decree, the EU statement called it a “serious blow undermining the rights of Afghan women and girls, which we cannot tolerate.”

The decree imposes further restrictive dress codes for women and says that voices of women must not be heard in public, “which effectively deprives Afghan women of their fundamental right to freedom of expression,” the EU statement said.

The European Union said the decree, issued on the third anniversary of a suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport that killed 13 U.S. soldiers and scores of Afghans during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal, also gives the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice a mandate to enforce it.

“This, together with the restrictions imposed, punishable under Taliban law, violates legal obligations and treaties to which Afghanistan is a state party, including by undermining Afghan people’s right to due process,” the EU statement said.

It also noted that the decree creates another obstacle to normalized relations and recognition by the international community -- goals that the Taliban publicly aspires to.

The German War Graves Commission held a ceremony on August 27 in the Lithuanian city of Kaunas to mark the 1 millionth German war dead reburied since the end of the Cold War. The commission buried the remains of World War II soldier Max Beyreuther along with the remains of 78 other fallen soldiers at the Kaunas German War Cemetery. Beyreuther, a medical officer in the German Army, died in October 1944 at the age of 32. He has been identified as the 1 millionth German soldier to be reburied since the Volksbund gained access to sites in Eastern Europe more than 30 years ago. Germany and Russia in 1992 signed the War Graves Agreement to allow for the exhumation and proper reburial of soldiers killed in action, primarily in World War II.

Kyrgyz Culture Minister Altynbek Maksutov in a televised interview on August 27 defended the participation of Russian entertainers who have openly supported Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine in celebrations of Kyrgyzstan's upcoming Independence Day. There has been online opposition to the scheduled performances of Russian singers Filipp Kirkorov, Stas Mikhailov, and Lyusya Chebotina at public celebrations on August 31. The protesters oppose their participation, saying their support for the war violates another former Soviet republic's sovereignty and independence. Maksutov said the protesters should not attend the Russian singers' performances if they do not like them. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, click here.

TBILISI -- Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has called the country's upcoming parliamentary elections a "choice between Europe and Russia" for the South Caucasus nation.

Zurabishvili's statement came after she signed a decree announcing October 26, the last Saturday of October, as the day for the parliamentary polls, saying that voters will have to "chose between war and peace" in the election.

"The day of the decision, the day of choice, the day of survival is coming," Zurabishvili said, stressing that the election will be "existential" for the former Soviet republic and will "define the country's destiny for many years to come."

"Nobody in Georgia wants a war, and nobody is planning it.... The choice will be between being Russia's slave or cooperation with Europe," Zurabishvili added.

Despite Georgia's longtime aspiration to join NATO and the European Union, the government's relationship with the West has been going downhill in recent years amid Tbilisi's visible turn toward Russia.

Brussels has paused ongoing EU accession negotiations with Tbilisi and the United States has undertaken a "comprehensive review" of relations with Georgia over the controversial "foreign agent law" that was recently adopted by the Georgian government -- which is ruled by the Georgian Dream party of billionaire former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili -- amid fierce protests.

"The choice will be between obedience to Russia via miserable concessions and actual selling the soul to Russia and being an equal state in Europe, promoting our identity, history, talents, and opportunities -- Georgia's adequate representation in a free and peaceful environment. There will not be a second chance," Zurabishvili said.

Georgia's civil society has for years sought to move the country away from the influence of Russia, which still maintains thousands of troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two breakaway Georgian regions that Moscow recognized as independent states following a five-day war with Tbilisi in 2008.

A list of 400 individuals and companies added to the U.S. Commerce Department’s sanctions list last week as a result of the help they provided Moscow in obtaining electronic components despite sanctions includes four Russian and two European companies that had been implicated in an investigative report by Schemes, the investigative unit of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service. The list includes the Russian-registered Display Component and Aspectrium, as well as two companies with the same name -- Eksiton. It also includes Hungary's Matrix Metal Group and Cyprus's Noratec Holdings. In May. Schemes said in its report that the six companies had been involved in supplying Russia with electronic components used in military planes. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, click here.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv has conducted its first test of a domestically produced ballistic missile as Russia unleashed a second day of deadly strikes on across Ukraine.

Zelenskiy also said at a news conference following a forum in Kyiv on August 27 that the war with Russia would eventually end in dialogue, but that Kyiv had to be in a strong position.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

Zelenskiy said he hoped to go to the United States in September to attend the UN General Assembly in New York and meet U.S. President Joe Biden and present a plan to end the war. Kyiv's incursion into Russia's Kursk region is part of that plan, but it also includes other steps on the economic and diplomatic fronts, he said.

"The main point of this plan is to force Russia to end the war," he said, adding that he wants it to be fair for Ukraine.

He did not elaborate on the next steps but said he would also discuss the plan with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate running for president, and probably also with former U.S. President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate.

His announcements came as Ukraine has been pleading with its Western allies to remove their ban on Kyiv using weapons they supplied to attack military targets deep inside Russia in order to prevent Moscow's forces from destroying civilian and energy infrastructure.

Ukraine has also said it is working on developing the Hrim-2 short-range ballistic missile system, which is designed to combine the features of a tactical missile system and a multiple rocket launcher.

Last weekend Zelenskiy also confirmed the existence of the domestically produced Palianytsia missile, which he called a "new class" of weapon for Ukraine.

Zelenskiy spoke hours after at least five people were killed and several more were wounded in a second massive drone and missile attack by Russia on Ukraine in as many days.

In Russia's Kursk, where fighting has been under way since August 6 when Ukrainian forces launched a shock incursion into Russian territory, Rafael Grossi, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear agency, visited the Kurchatov nuclear plant amid fears about the atomic installation's safety.

Grossi said after the visit that there was a risk of "nuclear incident" at the plant, where the situation was serious.

The Kurchatov plant is situated some 60 kilometers from the Ukrainian border on the banks of the Seym River, where there has been heavy fighting for the past three weeks.

Separately, the Ukrainian military's top commander, General Oleksandr Syrskiy, said that his forces now control 1,294 square kilometers and 100 settlements in Kursk. He also said Ukrainian troops have taken a total of 594 Russian prisoners during the ongoing operation in Kursk.

As Russia launched another wave of strikes, the Ukrainian Air Force said it had shot down a total of 60 drones and 5 missiles early on August 27.

The fresh wave of attacks prompted an all-out air-raid alert declared for the whole of Ukraine.

Ukrainian aviation expert Valeriy Romanenko told RFE/RL that the recent massive air strikes that Russia has launched are meant to exceed the capabilities of Ukraine's antiaircraft missile systems.

Rockets fly in a "bunch" and appear to air-defense systems be just one rocket, Romanenko said. The air-defense system launches a single rocket, but there is not one but five or six to shoot down.

Romanenko also pointed out that the Russians are using X-101 missiles, which have a range of almost 5,500 kilometers.

"The Russians take advantage of this and plan trajectories in such a way as to avoid the positions of antiaircraft missile systems as much as possible," he told Current Time, the Russian-language network run by RFE/RL. They also use variations in the terrain where possible, programming the rockets to pass undetected behind hills and other topography and make many turns without losing the target.

In the latest wave of Russian missiles strikes, a hotel in Kryviy Rih in the southern region of Dnipropetrovsk was hit. Governor Serhiy Lysak said on Telegram that a man and a woman had been killed and five people were wounded.

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Local officials also said that two people had been killed in overnight Russian strikes in the southern region of Zaporizhzhya.

In the northeastern region of Kharkiv, a Russian missile killed one person and wounded another five, regional Governor Oleh Synyehubov said on Telegram.

In the Khmelnytskiy region, eight Russian drones were shot down, but a person was wounded during the attack, regional Governor Serhiy Tyurin said on Telegram.

Air defense systems shot down all 15 drones that attacked Kyiv, the administration of the Ukrainian capital said, adding that a fire broke out due to falling debris in a forest park in the city's Dnipro district.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor or Russia's Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, claimed early on August 27 that the situation was challenging but manageable in the area amid an attempted incursion by Ukrainian troops.

"According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the situation on the border remains difficult, but under control. Our military is carrying out planned work. I ask you to remain calm and trust only official sources of information," Gladkov wrote on Telegram. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine on Gladkov's claim.

With reporting by Reuters

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused authorities in Kazakhstan of violating international human rights law by "misusing" extremism and terrorism legislation to target peaceful government critics and others.

The rights group said in a 29-page report issued on August 27 that that those placed on Kazakhstan’s Financing Terrorism List face financial restrictions that cause them "significant hardship" and lead to "violations" of their guaranteed rights.

The situation "is particularly egregious when the prosecutions are for alleged nonviolent “extremist” or “terrorist” crimes, that should not be considered crimes in the first place," it added.

"If you participate in peaceful antigovernment protests in Kazakhstan, not only can the government prosecute you as an ‘extremist,’ but it can cut you off financially," HRW's senior Central Asia researcher Mihra Rittman said in the report.

"Kazakhstan should immediately end its pernicious use of extremism and terrorism laws against peaceful critics and others and remove anyone currently on the Financing Terrorism List who has been convicted of nonviolent crimes.”

According to HRW, the tightly controlled former Soviet republic's laws do not distinguish between violent and nonviolent extremism and multiple articles in the Criminal Code relating to extremism and terrorism are vaguely worded and overly broad.

The Central Asian nation's authorities automatically place on the list of groups or individuals financing terrorism or extremism any person convicted on charges that they deem to be "extremist" or "terrorist" regardless of whether the person instigated, took part in, or financially supported violence.

"Kazakhstan authorities should revise the criminal code’s provisions on extremism and terrorism so that they have sufficient precision to guarantee legal certainty. Kazakhstan also should not criminalize legitimate exercise of freedoms of speech, expression, and association, or violate other rights protected by international law, HRW's statement said.

Iran’s pro-reform President Masud Pezeshkian has appointed lawmaker Abdolkarim Hosseinzadeh as his deputy for rural development and underprivileged areas.

The appointment, announced late on August 26, makes Hosseinzadeh the first-ever Sunni cabinet member in an Iranian government since the Islamic republic came to power in 1979.

In his decree, Pezeshkian said he tapped Hosseinzadeh for the job because of his “commitment and valuable experiences.”

Pezeshkian tasked his deputy with enhancing the living conditions in villages and “improving the indicators of rural development.”

Hosseinzadeh, 44, has been representing the northwestern cities of Naqadeh and Oshnavieh in parliament since 2012.

Sunni Muslims make up around 5-10 percent of the population in Shi'ite-majority Iran, according to government estimates. They have very rarely held key posts since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

After winning the July 5 runoff presidential election, Pezeshkian said he sought to form a “national unity” government. Members of his team later said that included naming a relatively young cabinet which represented Iran’s ethnic and religious diversity.

But Pezeshkian came under fire for failing to include members of underrepresented groups, including Sunni Muslims, in his proposed ministerial picks earlier this month.

All 19 ministerial nominees were approved by the conservative-dominated parliament last week in a move not seen since 2001.

SEE ALSO:

Iranians Decry The Demise Of Republicanism After Cabinet Controversy

Ahead of the vote of confidence in the cabinet, Pezeshkian told lawmakers that he had selected its members in “coordination” with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This led many to conclude that Pezeshkian’s cabinet had been picked by the supreme leader and lamented what they said were the limits of the president’s powers in Iran.

Pezeshkian’s cabinet also includes three women, including Roads Minister Farzaneh Sadeq, who is only the second woman in the Islamic republic’s history to be named a minister.

The other two women are Zahra Behruz-Azar, Pezeshkian’s deputy for women and family affairs, and Shina Ansari, a deputy to the president and head of the Department of the Environment.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor or Russia's Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, says the situation is "difficult but under control" in the area amid an attempted incursion by Ukrainian troops. "According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the situation on the border remains difficult, but under control. Our military is carrying out planned work. I ask you to remain calm and trust only official sources of information," Gladkov wrote on Telegram. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine on Gladkov's claim. An incursion by Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk region has been under way since August 6.

The Kazakh government ruled on August 27 that a referendum will be held on the construction of a nuclear power station amid protests against the idea. An exact date for the nationwide plebiscite has yet to be determined. In recent weeks, several activists known for their stance against the nuclear power station's construction have been prevented from attending public debates on the issue. Nuclear-power-related projects have been a controversial issue in Kazakhstan, where the environment was severely impacted by operations at the Soviet-era Semipalatinsk nuclear test site from 1949 to 1991 and the Baikonur spaceport, which is still being operated by Russia. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kazakh Service, click here.

UN nuclear agency chief Rafael Grossi arrived on August 27 at the Kursk nuclear power plant, which Moscow says has been repeatedly attacked by Ukrainian forces who are just 40 kilometers away after carving out a slice of Russian territory. The safety of nuclear power plants has repeatedly been endangered over the course of the Ukraine war, which began in February 2022 when Russia sent thousands of troops over the border into Ukraine. The incursion by Ukrainian forces into Russia, which began on August 6, has put the spotlight on the Kursk plant -- a major Soviet-era station. Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine last week of trying to attack the Kursk plant, which has four Soviet graphite-moderated RBMK-1000 reactors -- the same design as those at the Chornobyl nuclear plant, which in 1986 became the scene of the world's worst civilian nuclear disaster. Ukraine has yet to respond to the accusations that it attacked the facility.

The Basmanny district court in Russia sentenced former Ukrainian Ambassador to Kazakhstan Petro Vrublevskiy in absentia to six years in prison on August 26 on a charge of inciting ethnic hatred.

Earlier this year, Russian authorities issued an arrest warrant for Vrublevskiy and placed him on the country's registry of terrorists and extremists.

Vrublevskiy found himself at the center of a scandal in August 2022 -- about six months after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine -- after he said in an interview with noted Kazakh blogger Dias Kuzairov that "the more Russians we kill now, the fewer of them our children will have to kill in the future."

Moscow and Russian organizations in Kazakhstan then demanded that Astana expel the diplomat for his controversial statement, but Kazakh authorities refused, though they did ask Kyiv to replace him.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in early October 2022 that Moscow was "outraged" by the fact that Vrublevskiy remained in Kazakhstan, adding that the Kazakh ambassador to Russia had been summoned over the issue.

In response, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry said that the tone of Moscow’s request to expel the Ukrainian ambassador was "dissonant to the character of the allied mutual ties between Kazakhstan and Russia as equal strategic partners."

The Kazakh side also said at the time that Astana and Kyiv have a "full understanding" of the situation and that a decision on the diplomat leaving Kazakhstan would be made solely by Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy sacked Vrublevskiy in mid-October 2022.

The Kazakh government under President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has been trying to juggle its good ties with Ukraine, its Western allies, and Russia since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine.

While not openly condemning Russia’s aggression, Toqaev has publicly stated that his country would not recognize Russian-occupied entities in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Kazakh businesses last year set up so called "invincibility" yurts (traditional nomadic felt tents) in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and several other Ukrainian cities, to provide local residents with food, tea, warmth, and the possibility of charging electronic devices.

With reporting by Interfax and TASS

At least 4 people were killed while several others were either wounded or missing on August 27 in a second massive drone and missile Russian attack on Ukraine in as many days that included a strike on a hotel in Kryviy Rih, in the southern region of Dnipropetrovsk.

The fresh wave of attacks came as Rafael Grossi, the chief of the UN nuclear agency, was expected to visit the Russian nuclear plant in Kursk, where fighting has been under way since August 6, when Ukrainian forces launched a shock incursion into Russian territory.

Dnipropetrovsk Governor Serhiy Lysak said on Telegram on August 27 that a man and a woman had been killed in the overnight missile attack on the Kryviy Rih hotel. "5 were wounded, a 43-year-old woman is in a severe state," Lysak said, adding that the fate of two more people was unknown, and they could still be under the rubble.

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Lysak said that four high-rise buildings and several shops were also damaged in the attack. He said that Nikopol has also come under attack.

Local officials also said that two people had been killed in overnight Russian strikes in the southern region of Zaporizhzhya.

Air defense systems shot down all 15 drones that attacked Kyiv, the administration of the Ukrainian capital said, adding that a fire broke out due to falling debris in a forest park in the city's Dnipro district.

The August 27 attack prompted an all-out air-raid alert declared for the whole of Ukraine.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

The Ukrainian Air Force said it had shot down a total of 60 drones and 5 missiles early on August 27.

Reports of drone and missile attacks have also come from Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskiy, and other regions.

In the Khmelnytskiy region, eight Russian drones were shot down, but a person was wounded during the attack, regional governor Serhiy Tyurin said on Telegram.

Grossi, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said on Twitter that he was going to the Kursk nuclear plant to assess the situation there.

"Given the serious situation, I’m personally leading tomorrow’s IAEA mission to the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant in Russia," Grossi said on X.

The plant is situated some 60 kilometers from the Ukrainian border on the banks of the Seym River, where heavy fighting has been under way for the past three weeks.

On August 26, Russian forces launched more than 200 drones and missiles at Ukraine's territory, killing at least seven people and damaging energy infrastructure.

The August 26 attack was condemned by U.S. President Joe Biden as "outrageous."

Following the August 26 attacks, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Ukraine's global allies to take "decisive action" and allow Ukraine to strike military targets deeper inside Russia with Western-provided weapons.

"Ukraine cannot be constrained in its long-range capabilities when the terrorists face no such limitations," Zelenskiy said.

"Weakness and inadequate responses fuel terror.... Every leader, every one of our partners, knows the decisive actions required to end this war justly," he added, while calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a "sick creature."

The detention of Pavel Durov, the Russian-born co-founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, has been extended by a French investigative judge until August 28 as Moscow expressed outrage over what it said appeared to be "a direct attempt to restrict freedom of communication."

Durov, a billionaire who holds citizenships from Russia, France, the United Arab Emirates, and the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, was detained at Le Bourget airport outside Paris on August 24 and held for questioning. The Paris prosecutor's office said late on August 26 that Durov's detention order was extended for 48 hours, meaning he must be charged or set free by August 28.

SEE ALSO:

Explainer: The Dark Side Of Telegram

France's OFMIN, an office tasked with preventing violence against minors, has reportedly issued an arrest warrant for Durov in a preliminary investigation into alleged offenses, including fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organized crime, and the promotion of terrorism.

Telegram has said that Durov “has nothing to hide” and that it is “awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation."

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on August 27 that the allegations against Durov were “very serious” and that “they require evidence that is just as serious” to erase the suspicions of many that the billionaire's arrest was politically motivated.

Without substantial evidence, "we are witnessing a direct attempt to restrict freedom of communication and, one might even say, direct intimidation of the head of a large company,” Peskov said.

French President Emmanuel Macron has tried to allay such suspicion, saying on August 26 that Durov's arrest was solely part of an independent investigation.

In a post on X, Macron said France “is deeply committed” to freedom of expression but that “freedoms are upheld within a legal framework, both on social media and in real life, to protect citizens and respect their fundamental rights.”

SEE ALSO:

French President Says Arrest Of Telegram CEO Was Not A Political Decision

Dubai-based Telegram boasts more than 900 million users worldwide. In his first major interview in seven years, which he gave to U.S. conservative media figure Tucker Carlson on April 17, Durov vowed that Telegram aims to be a "neutral platform" and not a "player in geopolitics."

Critics in Ukraine, however, say it spreads misinformation and facilitates illegal actions. Some accuse Telegram of having ties to the Russian state and of contributing to its war effort.

Despite its critics, there is “no such decision [to close Telegram] being prepared by the National Security and Defense Council,” Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, a Ukrainian lawmaker from the opposition Holos party and the chairman of the Committee on Freedom of Speech in Ukraine's parliament, said August 26.

Yurchyshyn told RFE/RL that Ukraine plans to monitor the situation for now and added that the blocking of Telegram in Ukraine is still possible.

“We understand that the French are considering accusations of promoting terrorism, and this has greatly worried the Russian authorities because communication [on Telegram] is not only about military operations in Ukraine,” Yurchyshyn said.

He noted that communications about the Wagner Group’s special operations in the Central African Republic or other African countries in which France has influence have also taken place on Telegram.

“That is, most likely, the French special services receive additional information that may be of interest to our special services,” he said.

Access to Telegram was temporarily restricted by Russia in 2018. The decision was made after the messaging app allegedly refused to provide Russia's FSB security agency with encryption keys from users' correspondence, citing the secrecy of correspondence guaranteed by the Russian Constitution.

The decision to block was sharply criticized by many Russian public figures, as well as critics of the Russian government. However, independent Russian media reports indicated that Telegram reached a compromise with the authorities and has been sharing some data with the security services for several years, although that has been denied by Telegram.

The Slovak Interior Ministry has canceled the temporary protective status it granted to Artem Marchevskiy, a close associate of pro-Russia Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk. The ministry granted Marchevskiy temporary protective status on April 8 and canceled it on July 3, the Slovak Interior Ministry was quoted as saying by the Czech news website Novinky.cz on August 26. Marchevskiy left Prague for Slovakia earlier this year after Czech authorities imposed sanctions on him for attempts to carry out "influence operations" for Moscow's benefit on Czech territory. Marchevskiy holds Ukrainian and Israeli passports. The German publication Der Spiegel identified Medvedchuk and Marchevskiy as operators of the Prague-based pro-Moscow news website Voice Of Europe, saying the website played a key role in financing pro-Kremlin European Parliament candidates.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with U.S. President Joe Biden on August 26 about his visit to Ukraine as the White House said it welcomed all countries that listened to Kyiv's view on ending Russia's invasion. Modi visited Kyiv on August 23 and told President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that "no problem should be solved on the battlefield." Briefing Biden by telephone on his trip, Modi "reiterated India's consistent position in favor of dialogue and diplomacy and expressed full support for [an] early return of peace and stability," an Indian Foreign Ministry statement said. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the United States welcomed "any other country that wants to help" Zelenskiy work toward a just peace.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on August 26 that the arrest of Pavel Durov, the Russian-born co-founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, was not political.

“The arrest of the president of Telegram on French soil took place as part of an ongoing judicial investigation,” Macron said on X. "It is up to the judges to rule on the matter."

Durov was detained at the Bourget airport outside Paris on August 24 and was still being held for questioning on August 26. Telegram issued a statement on X on August 25 saying that Durov “has nothing to hide” and that Telegram is “awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation."

French media reported that France's OFMIN, an office tasked with preventing violence against minors, had issued an arrest warrant for Durov in a preliminary investigation into alleged offenses, including fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organized crime, and the promotion of terrorism.

“At the heart of this issue is the lack of moderation and cooperation of the platform (which has nearly 1 billion users), particularly in the fight against pedophilia,” Jean-Michel Bernigaud, the head of OFMIN, confirmed in a LinkedIn post.

Dubai-based Telegram boasts more than 900 million users worldwide. In his first major interview in seven years, which he gave to U.S. conservative media figure Tucker Carlson on April 17, Durov vowed that Telegram aims to be a "neutral platform" and not a "player in geopolitics."

SEE ALSO:

Explainer: The Dark Side Of Telegram

Critics in Ukraine, however, say it spreads misinformation and facilitates illegal actions. Some accuse Telegram of having ties to the Russian state and of contributing to its war effort.

Despite its critics, there is “no such decision [to close Telegram] being prepared by the National Security and Defense Council,” according to Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, a Ukrainian lawmaker from the opposition Holos party and the chairman of the Committee on Freedom of Speech in Ukraine's parliament.

Yurchyshyn told RFE/RL that Ukraine plans to monitor the situation for now and added that the blocking of Telegram in Ukraine is still possible.

“We understand that the French are considering accusations of promoting terrorism, and this has greatly worried the Russian authorities because communication [on Telegram] is not only about military operations in Ukraine,” Yurchyshyn said.

He noted that communications about the Wagner Group’s special operations in the Central African Republic or other African countries in which France has influence have also taken place on Telegram.

“That is, most likely, the French special services receive additional information that may be of interest to our special services,” he said.

Access to Telegram was temporarily restricted by Russia in 2018. The decision was made after the messaging app allegedly refused to provide Russia's FSB security agency with encryption keys from users' correspondence, citing the secrecy of correspondence guaranteed by the Russian Constitution.

SEE ALSO:

Russian Officials Reportedly Told To Delete Work Messages From Telegram

The decision to block was sharply criticized by many Russian public figures, as well as critics of the Russian government. A mass rally in defense of Telegram was held in Moscow, where then-opposition leader Aleksei Navalny spoke.

However, independent Russian media reports indicated that Telegram reached a compromise with the authorities and has been sharing some data with the security services for several years, although that has been denied by Telegram.

With reporting by AFP

Croatian singer Severina Vuckovic was briefly detained at the border with Serbia for questioning that she said was related to her support for protests against the construction of a new lithium mine. Vuckovic confirmed in a press release on August 25 that the border police asked her and her manager to step aside and conducted secondary searches and questioning. She was then taken to a police station for further questioning regarding her opinions on Serbia and recent protests against lithium mining in the country and released late on August 25 after a few hours, she said. The Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Serbia and Croatia on August 26 condemned her detention, saying it was an example of "the attempt to stigmatize regional cooperation and solidarity." To read the original story on RFE/RL’s Balkan service, click here.

The United States has issued a reward of up to $2.5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of a Belarusian wanted for his alleged participation in a malware advertising scheme. Volodymyr Kadariya has been charged in the United States with cybercrime offenses involving malware known as the Angler Exploit Kit. It and other malware was used in a scheme to compromise the computers of millions of unsuspecting Internet users through online advertisements from October 2013 through March 2022. Kadariya was indicted in June 2023 in New Jersey on fraud charges. The reward announced on August 26 is through the State Department’s Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program.

Former Wagner Group fighter Ivan Rossomakhin, who was sentenced in April for raping and murdering an elderly woman in Russia, has been released and sent back to the war in Ukraine, the Travmpunkt rights group said on August 26. Rossomakhin returned to his native village in March 2023 after taking part in Moscow's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. He was recruited by the Wagner mercenary group in 2022 from a penitentiary, where he was serving a 14-year prison term for murder. He was pardoned after serving for Russia in Ukraine. To read the original story by Current Time, click here.

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) announced on August 26 that 88 Russian competitors will take part under a neutral banner at the Paris Paralympics. The games, which get under way on August 28, will also feature eight Belarusians competing as neutrals, IPC spokesman Craig Spence told a press conference. The IPC has overseen their gradual return as neutral participants in the Paralympics under strict conditions. A third-party agency was tasked with verifying that the potential competitors did not actively support Russia's invasion of Ukraine or have any links with their countries' militaries.

Poland said that a drone had likely entered its airspace early on August 26 during a Russian bombardment of Ukraine, adding that the object may have landed on Polish territory and that searches were under way. Russia launched more than 100 missiles and around 100 attack drones at Ukraine during the morning rush hour on August 26, killing at least five people and striking energy facilities nationwide, officials said. "Most likely it was a drone and we assume so, because the trajectory of the flight and the speed indicate that it was definitely not a missile," Jacek Goryszewski, spokesperson for the Polish Army's operational command, told Reuters. To read the original story by Reuters, click here.

Reviving the Iran nuclear deal remains off the agenda for the Biden administration, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said on August 26, as Tehran called for “new negotiations” to update the agreement before it can be revived.

Iran’s new foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, said last week that the agreement “cannot be revived in its current form” due to sunset clauses that have expired and insisted that new talks are needed to resuscitate the agreement.

However, a State Department spokesperson told RFE/RL that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as the 2015 nuclear accord is formally known, “is not on the table right now.” The United States unilaterally exited the deal in 2018 under then-U.S. President Donald Trump.

“The United States will ensure one way or another that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, and we are prepared to use all elements of national power to ensure that outcome,” the spokesperson said.

Still, Washington views “diplomacy as the best way to achieve a sustainable, effective solution,” the spokesperson said.

During a televised interview, Araqchi conceded that renegotiating the agreement would be challenging.

“This document definitely needs to be reopened and parts of it needs to be changed. That is no easy task because once you reopen a document, putting it back together will be challenging,” he said in a live television interview.

Complicating matters further are the November presidential election in the United States and ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Araqchi said the Ukraine war had “deeply impacted how Europeans view security,” while the Gaza conflict has “completely upended the situation in the region.”

The minister, who was one of the architects of the deal between Iran and six major world powers, said the format of talks since 2021 to revive the agreement can no longer work.

“New negotiations are needed,” Araqchi added.

The deal restricted Iran’s nuclear program and capped uranium enrichment at 3.67 percent. In return, the United States lifted sanctions that had suffocated Iran’s economy and energy sectors.

But Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement in 2018 and reimposed sanctions that had been lifted under its terms. Iran retaliated by gradually scaling back its commitments and is currently enriching uranium at 60 percent.

Araqchi, then a deputy foreign minister, led Iran’s negotiating team when Tehran and Washington started indirect talks in April 2021 to restore the agreement. Negotiations paused when hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi came to power in Iran and a new team of negotiators entered the fray.

But talks were suspended in September 2022 in the wake of nationwide protests that rocked Iran for months. Hundreds were killed in the unrest as the authorities cracked down on demonstrations.

Iran's new president, Masud Pezeshkian, who succeeded Raisi after he died in a helicopter crash earlier this year, has vowed to engage the West.

But the ultimate decision-maker in Iran is Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has praised efforts by conservatives to expand the country's nuclear program.

Several Telegram channels reported on August 26 that a major explosion rocked Russia's largest oil refinery, located in the Siberian city of Omsk, sparking a fire at the facility. The reports carried videos showing flames and clouds of smoke rising from the Gazpromneft-ONPZ facility. The refinery's administration confirmed the reports, saying that the fire was under control. It remains unclear what exactly caused the explosion. Several oil refineries located in Russia's western regions have been under Ukrainian drone attacks since January. The distance from Ukraine's eastern border to Omsk is more than 2,000 kilometers. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

UN nuclear agency head Rafael Grossi said he will visit Russia's Kursk nuclear power plant on August 26, weeks after Ukraine launched a surprise counteroffensive in the region. "Given the serious situation, I’m personally leading tomorrow’s IAEA mission to the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant in Russia," he said in a post on X. The International Atomic Energy Agency has urged both Russia and Ukraine to exercise "maximum restraint" to "avoid a nuclear accident with the potential for serious radiological consequences" as fighting nears the plant.