Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited a Pennsylvania arms plant producing munitions critical for his country's war effort ahead of meetings this week with President Joe Biden and other world leaders. The Scranton plant is one of the few facilities in the United States that manufactures 155 mm artillery shells. Ukraine has consumed millions of rounds of the shells since the war began in February 2022. The Ukrainian president is hoping to receive permission to fire U.S. long range missiles deep into Russia to strike critical assets like airfields and arms depots critical for Moscow’s war effort. Zelenskiy will also outline his plan for victory on the battlefield.

New satellite images show a large crater at a Russian cosmodrome that experts say may be the result of a failed test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Four firetrucks are also visible in the September 21 images of the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, located in the Arkhangelsk region in Russia’s north, that RFE/RL obtained from Planet Labs.

An open source intelligence analyst who goes by @MeNMyRC1 and who studied the images said the hole may have been caused by the explosion of the intercontinental ballistic missile RS-28 Sarmat. Other analysts agreed with that assessment.

If true, it would be the fourth time a Sarmat launch has failed.

Russia claimed in April 2022 to have successfully launched the missile.

The Sarmat, which began development in the 2000s, is a liquid-fueled missile designed to travel up to 18,000 kilometers. At 35 meters in length, it can reportedly carry a 10-ton payload with a wide variety of warheads.

A Russian man convicted of murder and of cooking and eating the heart of one of his victims has returned home from the war in Ukraine, at least temporarily, local media reported.

Dmitry Malyshev was sent home to recover from injuries he received in fighting, Fyodor Kadovba, the head of the village of Rakhinka in the Volgograd region, told local outlet V1.ru.

“I saw him yesterday in the store. Said hello. As he told me, he is currently recuperating and will go back to the [war] zone,” Kadovba said.

Kadovba said it is the second time Malyshev has returned home earlier this year to recuperate. He said Malyshev has a jaw injury and shrapnel in his hand.

Malyshev, the head of an organized crime group, was sentenced in 2015 to 25 years in prison for killing three people, including two local businessmen and a Tajik citizen, whose heart he later ate.

He was among thousands of prisoners who accepted the Russian government's offer to fight in Ukraine in exchange for clemency.

Dozens of prisoners who have returned home from the war have gone on to commit violent crimes, including murder.

Moscow will not participate in a second peace summit planned by Ukraine for later this year, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on September 21. Kyiv organized the first peace summit in June in Switzerland with more than 80 countries backing a communiqué that called for Ukraine’s territorial integrity to be the basis of any peace agreement. Russia was not invited to that summit. Zakharova said any peace agreement should reflect the “situation on the ground and geopolitical reality.” Russia controls about 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory. Ukraine last month invaded Russia, seizing a swath of territory that would strengthen its negotiating position in any eventual peace talks.

A Russian citizen has been detained in Kazakhstan after Moscow put him on an international wanted list after he condemned the invasion of Ukraine.

Yevgeny Nakaznenko, who has been living in Kazakhstan since 2007, was detained in Almaty while trying to board a flight to Istanbul on a business trip.

Nakaznenko runs a foreign language school in Kazakhstan.

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Moscow opened an investigation into Nakaznenko on charges of spreading “false” information about the Russian Army and "encouraging terrorism."

Russian President Vladimir Putin outlawed criticism of the war and the country's armed forces just weeks after he launched the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

Hundreds of Russian citizens have been charged under the law, with many handed lengthy sentences.

In a video post on his Instagram account, the businessman -- who is of Ukrainian ethnicity -- condemned the war and voiced his opinion about Russian politics, although it is unclear if that was the post that triggered the arrest warrant.

A pro-Russian Kazakh blogger, Anton Budarova, who saw the video, called on Russian authorities to punish Nakaznenko, according to opposition journalist Yevgenia Baltatarova.

An Almaty court has placed Nakaznenko in pretrial detention until the end of October. He faces possible extradition to Russia.

OVD-Info, a human rights group, said Nakaznenko was unaware of the charges against him and was not trying to flee Kazakhstan.

Russia put Nakaznenko on its list of “terrorists and extremists” on August 8, by which time police had opened their case against him.

Nakaznenko is not the first Russian citizen detained by Kazakhstan at the request of Moscow for anti-war comments.

Tens of thousands of Russians have moved to Kazakhstan to avoid a so-called "partial military mobilization," which Putin announced in September 2022.

The Kazakh government under President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has been trying to maintain a careful balance between Russia on the one-hand and Ukraine and the West on the other since the start of the war.

While not openly condemning Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, Toqaev has publicly stated that his country would not recognize parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions occupied by Moscow's forces as Russian territory.

About a dozen foreign diplomats are safe after a police vehicle escorting them to a business meeting in the Swat district in northwestern Pakistan hit a land mine on September 22, killing one officer and injuring three others. The convoy included diplomats from Russia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Bosnia, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, and Portugal. Police spokesman Moin Fayaz said it was unclear if the convoy was the intended target. The diplomats were on their way back from an event organized by local businessmen to promote tourism in the Swat district. Once a Taliban stronghold, Swat has experienced a rise in attacks tied to Islamic militarism.

At least 51 people are dead and 20 injured after a blast at a coal mine in eastern Iran, Iranian media report.

Iranian state TV said a methane leak caused the blast late on September 21 at the mine in Tabas, some 540 kilometers southeast of the capital, Tehran. Twenty-four miners were believed to be trapped inside.

Around 70 people had been working there at the time of the blast.

Iran's new reformist President Masud Pezeshkian, preparing to travel to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, said he ordered all efforts be made to rescue those trapped and aid their families. He also said an investigation into the incident had begun.

The accident was caused by a methane gas explosion in the B and C blocks of the mine., which is run by the Madanjoo company, state media later reported.

"Seventy-six percent of the country's coal is provided from this region and around eight to 10 big companies are working in the region, including the Madanjoo company," the governor of South Khorasan Province, Ali Akbar Rahimi, told state TV on September 22.

Earlier, state TV broadcast footage of ambulances and helicopters arriving at the scene of the incident to transport the injured to hospitals.

Iran's Red Crescent said search-and-rescue operations were under way in the mine.

"Gas accumulation in the mine" has made the search operations difficult, local prosecutor Ali Nesaei was quoted by IRNA as saying.

"Currently, the priority is to provide aid to the injured and pull people from under the rubble," Nesaei said.

He added that "the negligence and fault of the relevant agents will be dealt with" later.

This is not the first disaster to strike Iran's mining industry.

Last year, an explosion at a coal mine in the northern city of Damghan killed six people, also likely the result of methane, according to local media.

In May 2021, two miners died in a collapse at the same site, local media reported at the time.

A blast in 2017 killed 43 miners in Azad Shahr city in northern Iran, triggering a wave of anger directed at the authorities.

Lax safety standards and inadequate emergency services in mining areas are often blamed for the accidents.

Besides its oil, Iran is also rich in a variety of minerals. Iran annually uses some 3.5 million tons of coal but only extracts about 1.8 million tons from its mines per year. The rest is imported, often used to fuel the country’s steel mills.

With reporting by AFP and AP

A group of wives, mothers, and children of mobilized Russian soldiers deployed in their country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine protested outside the Defense Ministry in Moscow, with an unspecified number of detentions reported. The protest in the Russian capital on September 21 coincided with the date two years ago when Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on a partial mobilization. The group reportedly was demanding a meeting with Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, as well as a demobilization. At one point, the protesters, numbering about two dozen, were confronted by a group hurling abuse and trying to disperse them. To read the full story by Current Time, click here.

KHARKIV -- Russian military strikes hit high-rise apartment buildings in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, leaving dozens wounded in a second consecutive nighttime attack this week.

The bombs fell late on September 21 on the district of Shevchenkivskiy, north of the city center, Kharkiv Governor Oleh Synyehubov said. Nine residential buildings sustained varying degrees of damage, he added.

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Twenty-one people were wounded, including an 8-year-old, according to Synyehubov and Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov.

Terekhov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, also said that 60 residents had been evacuated from one building that was heavily damaged. An 8-year-old and two 17-year-olds were among the wounded, he added.

The overnight strikes came after another attack on Kharkiv late on September 20 that wounded 15 people, including 10- and 12-year-olds.

According to Ukrainian officials, KAB-type aerial glide bombs were used in the attacks, a retrofitted Soviet weapon that the Russia military has used in eastern Ukraine.

Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city and 30 kilometers from the Russian border, has been targeted frequently by the Russian military since Russian President Vladmir Putin launched his country’s full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbor in February 2022.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned the latest attacks on Kharkiv and repeated his call for more weapons from Kyiv's Western partners to defend against Russian strikes.

"Ukraine needs full long-range capabilities, and we are working to convince our partners of this," he wrote on social media.

Further south, a Russian drone attack killed two people on September 21 in the city of Nikopol, the regional governor said.

In the eastern town of Kurakhove, one of the focal points of Russia's slow advance through the industrial Donetsk region, one person was killed in a Russian artillery strike, regional prosecutors said, according to Reuters.

And local authorities in the Sumy region said Russian aircraft struck energy infrastructure in the town of Shostka.

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Sumy has been another frequent target of Russian attacks and lies opposite Russia's southern Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces launched an incursion last month.

Elsewhere, the Ukrainian Air Force reported on September 22 that air-defense systems had shot down 71 of 80 Russian attack drones launched overnight.

It said six more drones were neutralized by electronic warfare. The air force also said Russia had launched two guided missiles from occupied parts of Ukraine’s Luhansk region. It did not say what happened to the missiles.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said air-defense units had destroyed 15 drones that Ukraine launched overnight.

With reporting by Reuters and AP

At least five people, including three children, were killed in a crash involving a military and civilian vehicle in Serbia on September 21, the director of the Kraljevo hospital told Radio Television of Serbia. The Defense Ministry said a PASARS combat vehicle of the Serbian military collided with a civilian vehicle near the town of Usce on the Kraljevo-Raska road. The collision occurred around 1 p.m. as the combat vehicle -- an anti-aircraft, self-propelled artillery and rocket system -- was being escorted by police, the ministry said. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Balkan Service, click here.

Thousands of supporters of the opposition Pakistan Tehrik-e Insaf (PTI) party rallied in Lahore to demand the release of imprisoned leader and former Prime Minister Imran Khan, but the gathering was cut short after authorities shut off power to the lights and sound system at the site, local media reported.

PTI leaders traveled from Peshawar to Lahore to meet up with other supporters from throughout the country.

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PTI was given permission to hold the rally from 3 p.m. until 6 p.m., at which time the power was cut at the meeting place.

Government leaders insisted they had given the PTI “free hand and ensured their security” but that only about 3,000 people had shown up, the Dawn newspaper reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is set to kick off his U.S. visit on September 22 with a stop at a Pennsylvania factory producing key munitions for his country's fight against Russia’s invading forces.

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Two U.S. officials told AP that Zelenskiy will tour the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant as he begins a crucial journey that will also see him address the UN General Assembly in New York on September 24 and meet separately at the White House with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on September 26.

The Ukrainian presidency announced separately that Zelenskiy also will meet former U.S. President Donald Trump, the Republican party's presidential nominee in the November election against Harris.

Zelenskiy is looking to shore up global support for Kyiv's battle against Russia and to gain permission -- particularly from the United States and Britain -- to use Western-suppled weapons deeper inside Russia to help prevent the Kremlin’s forces from launching attacks on Ukrainian civilian and military sites.

He plans to present Biden his “victory plan,” which includes requests for long-range strike capabilities and other weapons and would stand as the basis for any future talks with the Kremlin.

“This will be the start and foundation for talking in any format with Russia -- in any format, with any of its representatives -- because there will be a plan and something to show," Zelenskiy told a briefing on September 20.

Zelenskiy’s first stop will be the city of Scranton -- Biden’s birthplace -- to tour an ammunition plant manufacturing 155 mm artillery shells used in howitzer systems that can strike from up to 32 kilometers away, allowing troops to take out enemy targets from a protected distance.

The United States has so far provided Kyiv with more than 3 million of the shells and has fired up to 8,000 of them a day.

Top Pentagon officials and Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro are expected to meet Zelenskiy at the plant.

With reporting by AP

Hungarian intelligence services have conducted several interviews with the CEO of BAC Consulting, a Budapest-based company linked to the deadly explosions of pagers used by Hezbollah members this week, the Hungarian government said on September 21. Taiwanese pager firm Gold Apollo said on September 18 that the model of pagers used in the detonations in Lebanon were made by BAC Consulting, adding it had only licensed out its brand to the company and was not involved in the production of the devices. Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, 49, the Italian-Hungarian CEO and owner of BAC Consulting, told NBC News earlier this week that she did not make the pagers and said she was "just the intermediate."

SEE ALSO:

What We've Learned About The Hungarian, Bulgarian, And Norwegian Links To Hezbollah's Pagers

Iran has strongly condemned the targeted killing of a military commander of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia in an Israeli air strike in Beirut. However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said that Iran, an ally of Hezbollah, is not planning a direct act of revenge. "The incident is a matter for Hezbollah, and it will certainly show an appropriate reaction in due course," the Iranian chief diplomat said, according to a report published by Iran's ISNA news agency on September 21. Iran would push for international condemnation of Israeli "war crimes" to prevent an even more dangerous escalation of the situation in the Middle East, the minister said.

KYIV -- Kyiv’s allies have increased military support for Ukraine this month, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said, after the European Union pledged a new $39 billion loan for the country’s recovery.

"[Aid] accelerated in September...and we can feel the difference," Zelenskiy said late on September 20.

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The EU loan -- backed by revenues of frozen Russian assets -- was announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who visited Kyiv on September 20.

Ahead of the trip, she said the EU will provide an additional $178 million to help Ukraine repair damaged energy infrastructure, expand renewable energy, and finance shelters.

However, Zelenskiy also pointed to U.S. resistance to allowing Kyiv to use Western-supplied weapons to strike deep inside Russia, saying it is a result of fears by the White House of potential escalations by the Kremlin.

“I think [U.S. President Joe] Biden is really getting information from his entourage today that there may be an escalation. But -- and this is important -- not everyone around him thinks so. And this is already an achievement in that not all of his entourage thinks so,” said Zelenskiy, who is traveling to the United States in the upcoming week to address the UN and meet with Biden and other U.S. leaders.

Experts have warned that the coming winter could be the hardest yet for Ukraine, as the country's energy infrastructure is under significant pressure amid Russian strikes on its power plants, heating plants, and transmission networks.

Russia's Defense Ministry said on September 21 that it again struck Ukrainian energy facilities overnight using high-precision weapons and drones. The claim cannot be independently verified.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said Kyiv believes that Moscow is preparing to strike Ukrainian nuclear facilities before the onset of winter and he urged international watchdogs to establish “permanent enhanced missions” at the sites.

“Damage to those facilities creates a high risk of a nuclear incident with global consequences,” he wrote on X.

Late on September 21, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said explosions rang out in Kharkiv -- Ukraine’s second-largest city -- with a guided bomb hitting a high-rise residential building, injuring at least 12 people.

Ukrainian authorities said an earlier Russian attack killed three civilians in central Ukraine, as Ukrainian drone strikes forced Russia to evacuate residents of a border village.

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A 12-year-old boy and two elderly women were killed in the city of Kryvyi Rih in the Dnipropetrovsk region in “a terrifying attack in the middle of the night, when the city slept,” regional Governor Serhiy Lysak wrote on Telegram.

He said three other people were wounded in the attack, which also destroyed two buildings and partially damaged 20 more.

Kryvyi Rih, a major steel-producing city, regularly comes under Russian air strikes.

Earlier, Ukrainian authorities reported that two people were killed and 15 others, including children, were wounded in Russian attacks in the northeastern Kharkiv region late on September 20.

Ukrainian air defenses shot down five Russian missiles and 11 drones on the night of September 21, according to a statement by the Ukrainian Air Force.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed on September 21 that 101 Ukrainian drones were intercepted overnight over various Russian regions.

The drone attacks forced Russian authorities to evacuate at least 1,200 people from the Tikhorets district in southwestern Krasnodar region, the regional governor said on September 21.

Veniamin Kondratyev said on Telegram that falling debris from a downed drone "caused a fire that spread to explosive objects.” Residents were evacuated but no casualties were reported, the governor added.

Kondratyev did not provide further details about the incident, but the Telegram channel Astra reported that falling debris caused a fire and explosion at a weapons depot.

In a statement on September 21, Ukraine’s military said it had struck a depot near the city of Tikhoretsk, labeling it one of Russia’s "three largest ammunition storage bases [and] one of the key ones in the logistics system of Russian troops.”

It also said Kyiv’s forces struck a key weapons arsenal near the settlement of Oktyabrskiy in Russia’s Tver region.

A highway was closed for two hours in the Tver region town of Toropets on the morning of September 21 to ensure the safety of traffic, Russian news agencies reported, citing a branch of the federal roads agency.

Ukraine, which has been defending itself against the full-scale Russian invasion since February 2022, has repeatedly attacked targets on Russian soil, including ammunition and fuel depots, to disrupt supplies for Moscow's troops fighting in Ukraine.

Off the battlefield, Russia Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on September 21 said the Kremlin will not take part in any follow-up to the June peace summit hosted by Switzerland, calling the process a “fraud” carried out by Ukraine and its Western backers.

More than 90 nations attended the summit in June, although Russia -- which launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 -- was not invited and China declined to attend. Some countries have suggested that Moscow be included in the next gathering.

With reporting by dpa, AFP, and Reuters

Iran presented the latest version of its kamikaze drone at a military parade in Tehran on September 21. State broadcaster IRIB reported that the Shahed 136-B drone has a range of 4,000 kilometers. Iran claims to have made great strides in the production of drones in recent years. They are said to play a central role in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, though Tehran categorically rejects accusations it is supplying Moscow with weapons for its unprovoked aggression.

Israel and Hezbollah, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, engaged in a massive exchange of missile fire on August 25, but signaled they were not looking to escalate the conflict amid fears of all-out war in the region.

Tensions also remained high near the Gaza Strip after Hamas – an Iran-backed group also designated a terrorist organization by the United States and EU – apparently fired an "M90" rocket toward Tel Aviv late on August 25, although Israeli officials said it fell harmlessly into an empty field.

"Following the siren that sounded in Rishon LeTsiyon, one projectile was identified crossing from the southern Gaza Strip and falling in an open area in the area of Rishon LeTsiyon," the Israeli military said.

In one of the biggest clashes to rock the Middle East since war broke out in the Gaza Strip last October, Israel said it launched preemptive air strikes on targets of Iran-backed Hezbollah in southern Lebanon after Israeli intelligence detected that Hezbollah was planning to attack in the morning.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech later in the day that the attacks, which did not include using precision or strategic missiles, targeted "the Glilot base -- the main Israeli military intelligence base," near Tel Aviv, about 100 kilometers across the southern Lebanese border with Israel.

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Nasrallah added in the televised speech that Israel began striking Hezbollah targets about 30 minutes before the group launched its attack, which was in response to the killing of one of its commanders.

Addressing Nasrallah and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's preemptive operation was "another step toward changing the situation in the north and returning our residents safely to their homes."

Thousands have been displaced in northern Israel as Hezbollah and Israel continue to trade cross-border attacks, which have intensified since war broke out in Gaza following an October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas that left some 1,200 people dead and scores more taken hostage.

The August 25 exchange of hundreds of missiles and drones sparked fears that the war may escalate and engulf the entire region, but a Hezbollah official said in a written statement to media outlets that the group had "worked" to ensure its attack would not trigger a full-scale war.

SEE ALSO:

Israel And Hezbollah Edge Closer To Conflict Neither Side Desires

Reuters quoted its diplomatic sources as saying Israel and Hezbollah exchanged messages following the exchange saying neither wanted to escalate the conflict further.

Randa Slim, a senior fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Institute, said that at least for now, the scope of the strikes from both sides may be enough to avoid a major war between Israel and Hezbollah "because both sides do not want it."

Earlier in the day, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said around 100 fighter jets "eliminated thousands of Hezbollah rocket-launcher barrels" that had been "aimed for immediate fire" toward northern and central Israel.

Hezbollah said the attack was "phase one" of its retaliation for the killing of its top commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli strike on July 30 in Beirut. It insisted the operation had been "completed successfully."

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared a 48-hour state of emergency across Israel.

SEE ALSO:

Why Is Iran Delaying Its Vowed Attack On Israel?

The IDF said Hezbollah had fired 150 projectiles, but Hezbollah claimed to have launched more than 320 Katyusha rockets.

Israeli fighter jets continued to strike Hezbollah rocket launchers after the group's attack to "remove threats."

Three people were killed in areas in southern Lebanon, according to the country's Health Ministry.

The extent of damage caused by Hezbollah's attack is unclear. Video footage on social media showed some rockets being intercepted and the aftermath of several rockets making impact.

The Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon called the developments "worrying" and called "on all to cease fire and refrain from further escalatory action."

"We will continue our contacts to strongly urge for de-escalation," it said.

Hezbollah and Israel have inched even closer to a full-blown war for weeks, especially after the death of 12 people in an apparent Hezbollah rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on July 27.

Three days later, Israel struck a target in Beirut, killing Shukr, who was widely believed to be the second-most powerful person in Hezbollah's hierarchy behind Nasrallah.

Diplomats, meanwhile, huddled in Egypt on August 25 for high-level talks aimed at brokering a cease-fire in the 10-month-old war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.

Later, a Hamas representative said the group's delegation left Cairo after meeting with Egyptian and Qatari mediators “who briefed them on the results of the latest negotiations" and said it had rejected Israel's latest terms for a cease-fire.

Israel's attack on Gaza has killed more than 40,000 people, according to the local Hamas-run health authorities.

With reporting by Reuters

Israel has reportedly launched new strikes at Hezbollah, which has been designated at terrorist organization by the United States, just inside Lebanon a day after a heavy exchange of missile and drone attacks between the two foes that Iran claimed showed a shift in the balance of power.

State media reported on August 26 that Israel targeted the border village of Tair Harfa and an area near Sidon in Lebanon a day after Hezbollah launched scores of rockets and drones against targets in northern and central Israel in the early hours of August 25. The attack came shortly after Israel carried out what it described as preemptive strikes targeting Hezbollah’s rocket launchers.

There were no immediate reports of casualties from Israel's strikes on August 26.

Iran said on August 26 that the exchange of fire, which marked one of the largest clashes to hit the Middle East since war broke out in the Gaza Strip last October, showed Israel has lost not only its ability to anticipate small-scale attacks but also its deterrent power.

“Despite the full backing of its supporters, including the United States, Israel has lost its deterrent power and ability to predict the time and place of even a limited and calibrated attack,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani wrote on X, referring to the large-scale attack on Israel by Iran’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah a day earlier.

“The occupying regime has always sought territorial expansion, but now has to defend itself within the occupied territories,” Kanani added. “Fear has been embedded in the homes of the residents of the occupied lands.”

Israeli officials said the preemptive attack prevented the launch of “thousands” of rockets. Hezbollah claimed to have launched more than 320 rockets and drones but Israel put the figure at around 150.

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Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah alleged that the group’s operation was calibrated to ensure it did not trigger a full-scale conflict.

Addressing Nasrallah and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's preemptive operation was "another step toward changing the situation in the north and returning our residents safely to their homes."

Hezbollah said its operation was “phase one” of its retaliation for the killing of Fuad Shukr, widely believe to be Hezbollah’s second-most powerful person. Shukr was killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut on July 30.

Hours after Shukr’s assassination, the political leader of the EU- and U.S.-designated Palestinian terrorist group Hamas was killed in Tehran. Iran vowed to avenge Ismail Haniyeh and accused Israel of killing him. Israel has neither denied nor claimed responsibility.

SEE ALSO:

Israel And Hezbollah Edge Closer To Conflict Neither Side Desires

In his speech, Nasrallah said one reason why Hezbollah took nearly a month to hit Israel was because it was discussing with Iran and other allies about whether to carry out a coordinated attack on Israel or attack separately.

Pressure has been growing on Iran to deliver on its promised attack against Israel to avenge Haniyeh.

During a phone call on August 25 with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araqchi insisted that a “measured and well-calculated” response will come.

“We do not fear escalation, yet do not seek it -- unlike Israel,” Araqchi told his Italian counterpart.

BUDAPEST -- A Budapest-based company alleged to have made the pagers used in the deadly attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon appears to have only one employee working from an empty office that offers a range of services but not pager manufacturing.

At least 12 people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by members of Hezbollah, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, detonated simultaneously across Lebanon on September 17.

One official from Hezbollah, Iran's most powerful proxy in the Middle East, called the attack the group's "biggest security breach" in its history.

In a second wave of attacks, walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah detonated on September 18 across Lebanon's south. The country's Health Ministry said at least 20 people were killed and more than 450 injured.

Images of pagers destroyed in the September 17 simultaneous detonations indicated they were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo, a Taiwan-based company.

Gold Apollo founder Hsu Ching-Kuang said the pagers used in the explosion were made by a company in Europe that Gold Apollo named in a statement as BAC Consulting KFT.

SEE ALSO:

Israel's Suspected Attack On Electronic Devices In Lebanon Marks New Phase In Hezbollah Hostilities

The statement added that according to a cooperation agreement, BAC is authorized to "use our brand trademark for product sales in designated regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are solely the responsibility of BAC."

"The product was not ours. It was only that it had our brand on it," Hsu told reporters at the company's offices in the northern Taiwanese city of New Taipei on September 18.

However, the head of the Budapest-based company BAC Consulting KFT later told NBC News that her company did not make the pagers.

"I don't make the pagers. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong," a person who identified themselves as Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono told the U.S. broadcaster.

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How Have Hezbollah's Devices Put It At Risk?

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According to RFE/RL's Hungarian Service, Barsony-Arcidacono, 49, has an apartment in Ujpest, a central district of Budapest, and had been engaged in business activities there since 2021.

Efforts to contact Barsony-Arcidiancono by RFE/RL were unsuccessful. The Hungarian Interior Ministry did not response to queries from RFE/RL on whether authorities planned to open a probe on the matter.

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The stated address for BAC Consulting in Budapest is a peach-colored building on a mostly residential street in an outer suburb.

A person at the building who asked not to be named told RFE/RL's Hungarian Service he had never met any employees from BAC Consulting and only mail was forwarded to that address once a month.

The official register described the company as a "leadership consulting" business that was established in 2022.

The company's LinkedIn page boasts of having "over a decade of consulting experience."

"With over a decade of consulting experience, we are on an exciting and rewarding journey with our network of passionate experts with a hunger for innovation and discovery for the Environment, Innovation & Development, and International Affairs. We work internationally as agents of change with a network of consultants who put their knowledge, experience, and humanity into our projects in a connecting and authentic journey," it reads.

Besides consulting, its registered business activities also included everything from broadcast equipment production to hairdressing and even oil extraction. The company's website makes no reference to pager manufacturing. Revenue for 2022 was the equivalent of $700,000, with that figure dipping to a reported $565,000.

Barsony-Arcidiacono is listed as the CEO and sole employee of BAC Consulting KFT. On her LinkedIn page profile, she claims to have worked as an adviser for several organizations, including the European Commission, the EU’s top executive body, and UNESCO, the UN’s cultural organization.

Under education, she lists the London School of Economics and the SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) University in London.

A second wave of device explosions killed at least 20 people and wounded hundreds more in Lebanon, officials said on September 18, stoking fears of an all-out war in the region.

A security source and a witness said Hezbollah, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, said walkie-talkies used by its members blew up in its Beirut stronghold. State media reported similar blasts in southern and eastern Lebanon.

At least one of the blasts took place near a funeral for people killed the previous day when thousands of pagers used by the group exploded. The number of dead in those attacks was 12, with more than 2,700 people wounded, including many Hezbollah fighters.

The Lebanese Health Ministry described the devices targeted in the September 18 attack as walkie-talkies. Late on September 18, it revised the number of dead from 14 to 20 in a statement that also said more than 450 were wounded.

Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and the EU, accused Israel of being behind the latest blasts, saying the action threatened stability in the region.

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Did A Budapest-Based Company Make Pagers Used In Attack On Hezbollah?

Hezbollah and the Lebanese government also blamed Israel for what appeared to be a sophisticated remote attack. Israel, which has not commented, announced prior to the September 17 attack that it was broadening the aims of its war in Gaza against Hamas to include Hezbollah, Hamas’s ally in Lebanon.

Speaking to Israeli troops on September 18, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: “We are at the start of a new phase in the war -- it requires courage, determination and perseverance.” He made no mention of the exploding devices but praised the work of Israel’s army and security agencies, saying “the results are very impressive.”

Hezbollah said on September 18 that it attacked Israeli artillery positions with rockets in the first strike since the pager blasts.

The White House warned all sides against escalation.

"We don't believe that the way to solve where we're at in this crisis is by additional military operations at all," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

"We still believe that the best way to prevent escalation, to prevent another front from opening up in Lebanon, is through diplomacy," Kirby said.

Human Rights Watch's former executive director, Kenneth Roth, commented on the attacks on X, saying that international humanitarian law prohibits the use of booby traps -- objects that civilians are likely to use -- "precisely to avoid putting civilians at grave risk."

The Iranian envoy to the United Nations said in a letter that Tehran will follow up on the pager detonation attack in which its ambassador to Lebanon was injured. It added that it "reserves its rights under international law to take required measures deemed necessary to respond."

The pagers were reportedly ordered from Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo, which said they had been produced by BAC Consulting in Hungary and had no parts that could be related to Gold Apollo.

“According to the cooperation agreement, we authorize BAC to use our brand trademark for product sales in designated regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are solely the responsibility of BAC,” the statement said.

The Taiwanese company also described BAC Consulting's payment method from a Middle Eastern bank account as strange.

A Hungarian government spokesman said the company was "a trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary."

BAC Consulting was registered as a limited liability company in May 2022, the Associated Press reported. It is a one-person business registered to its owner, Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, who describes herself on the social media platform LinkedIn as a strategic adviser and business developer.

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated that the United States knew nothing about the attacks.

"We’re still gathering the information and gathering the facts," Blinken said at a news conference in Cairo. "Broadly speaking, we’ve been very clear and we remain very clear about the importance of all parties avoiding any steps that could further escalate the conflict that we’re trying to resolve in Gaza to see it spread to other fronts."

The UN Security Council will meet on September 20 to discuss the pager blasts, said Slovenia's UN Ambassador Samuel Zbogar, president of the 15-member council for September.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned earlier on September 18 that the pager blasts indicate "a serious risk of a dramatic escalation in Lebanon and everything must be done to avoid that escalation."

"Obviously the logic of making all these devices explode is to do it as a preemptive strike before a major military operation," he told reporters in New York.

He also said that it was very important not to weaponize civilian objects.

Guterres "urges all concerned actors to exercise maximum restraint to avert any further escalation," said Guterres spokesman Stephane Dujarric in a statement.

With reporting by AP and AFP

At least nine people were killed and 2,750 were wounded when pagers exploded simultaneously in Lebanon, the health minister said on September 17 after the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group said two of its members and a girl were among those killed in the "mysterious" explosions.

Health Minister Firass Abiad said 200 of the injuries were critical, and Iran's ambassador in Beirut was among those injured, Iranian media reported.

Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary condemned the detonation of the pagers as an "Israeli aggression," while Hezbollah said Israel would receive "its fair punishment" for the blasts.

Mojtaba Amani, Iran's ambassador in Beirut, was injured, Iranian media reported. The Fars news agency, which is close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, quoted an unidentified informed source as saying that Amani suffered a "superficial injury" as a result of a pager explosion.

The news channel of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Mehr news agency also reported that Amani was injured.

The pagers that exploded were the latest models of the devices that Hezbollah imported into the country in recent month, Reuters reported, citing three unidentified sources.

Reports from Lebanon indicate that "hundreds" of members of the Lebanese Hezbollah group, including fighters and aid workers, were injured in the explosion of the pagers in southern Lebanon and its suburbs.

The Lebanese Foreign Ministry called it an "Israeli cyberattack," adding that some of the pagers that exploded were in Syria. The ministry also said in a statement that it was preparing to submit a complaint to the UN Security Council.

"This dangerous and deliberate Israeli escalation is accompanied by Israeli threats to expand the scope of the war against Lebanon on a large scale, and by the intransigence of Israeli's positions calling for more bloodshed, destruction, and devastation," it said.

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, said in a statement that she deplored the attack, warning that it "marked an extremely concerning escalation."

Without commenting directly on the explosions, an Israeli military spokesman said the chief of staff, Major General Herzi Halevi, had met with senior officers to assess the situation. No policy change was announced but "vigilance must continue to be maintained," he said, according to Reuters.

The United States was not aware in advance and had no involvement in the explosions, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

The blasts came after weeks of private diplomacy by the United States to discourage Iran from retaliating against Israel for the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas political chief, in Tehran.

Amos Yadlin, the former head of Israeli military intelligence, told RFE/RL that whoever carried out the pager-explosion operation intended to send a "clear message" to Hezbollah.

Yadlin said it could be a response to a plot to assassinate a senior Israeli security official that the Israeli security apparatus announced. He also noted that Hezbollah continues its attacks on Israel as it tries to link itself to the Gaza conflict, and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah does not want to stop these attacks.

The Israeli government decided on September 16 to add the safe return of its citizens to the north as a goal in the war. This was part of an Israeli cabinet announcement that was expanding its war objectives and the focus of its almost yearlong campaign against the extremist group Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union, in Gaza to confront Hezbollah on its northern border with Lebanon.

Nasrallah must understand that his actions will lead to a shift in Israeli policy, Yadlin told RFE/RL.

"However, whether this policy shift will result in a full-scale war or a limited military operation will become clear in the coming days. In any case, we are now in a new phase," he said

The events coincide with the return of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the region to try to revive cease-fire talks on the Israeli-Hamas war.

While the focus of the war has been on Gaza, exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah, Hamas's ally in Lebanon, have killed hundreds of people, mostly militants in Lebanon and dozens of civilians and soldiers in Israel, and caused tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border to flee.

Israel's announcement on expanding its objectives came a day after Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that "military action" was the only way left for Israel's northern communities to return to their homes.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin discussed Middle East tensions with Gallant on September 17, the Pentagon announced.

"Secretary Austin spoke by phone today with his Israeli counterpart to touch base regarding ongoing tensions in the Middle East and the threats facing Israel," Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder told journalists.

Ryder declined to say whether the explosions were discussed.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and AP

The Basmanny district court in Moscow has sent 30 people to pretrial detention over a shoot-out earlier this week in central Moscow at the offices of Wildberries, the country's largest online retailer, that left two people dead.

The group includes a Chechen mixed martial arts fighter, according to TASS and RIA Novosti, but the husband of Wildberries CEO Tatyana Bakalchuk said he was not among those detained.

Vladislav Bakalchuk said on Telegram on September 20 that he was the victim of a “cynical provocation and attack by unknown armed men” when he and others went to the office of Wildberries on the day of the shooting “with peaceful intentions to resolve issues related to payments to employees and contractors” and other business matters.

Tatyana Bakalchuk -- Russia's richest woman -- described the events as an armed takeover attempt by her estranged husband and two disgruntled former executives.

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She released a tearful video message on September 18 accusing her husband of organizing the attack.

Vladislav Bakalchuk's lawyers said the following day that their client had been charged with murder, attempted murder, and other charges as a result of the violence.

But on September 20, Vladislav Bakalchuk said in his Telegram post that he was home after his attempt to "peacefully resolve" the situation had turned into a tragedy.

“I am sure that the authorities will sort out what happened, and all those responsible will be punished. I am ready to provide assistance and support to all victims. I am glad to be back home and continue fighting for justice,” Vladislav Bakalchuk said.

Responding to his wife's video, he said, “Tatyana, did you really not know about the armed provocation being prepared against me?”

The shoot-out came just over six weeks after Wildberries finalized its merger agreement with Russ Group, a Russian advertising firm. Vladislav Bakalchuk denounced the deal as a huge mistake and a hostile takeover.

Tatyana Bakalchuk filed for divorce in July after her husband asked the authoritarian ruler of the North Caucasus region of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, for help in a conflict with his wife.

Among the men remanded into custody was Umar Chichayev, a mixed martial arts fighter and deputy commander of a national guard unit linked to Kadyrov, according to Russian news agencies.

"The court granted the petition of law enforcement agencies and remanded Chichayev in custody for one month and 30 days," the Basmanny district court ruled, according to TASS.

Media reports identified the two men killed in the incident as Islambek Elmurziyev, 28, and Adam Almazov, 41. Both were from the North Caucasus region of Ingushetia.

Tatyana Bakalchuk, 48, was born to an ethnic Korean family in October 1975 in Grozny, then the capital of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Forbes estimates her worth at more than $4 billion.

Wildberries has benefited from sanctions imposed following Russia's invasion of Ukraine as Western e-commerce firms pulled out of the country.

Company revenue jumped 70 percent last year to 539 billion rubles ($5.8 billion) while its net profit rose to 19 billion rubles ($205 million).

Tatyana Bakalchuk was the sole owner of her empire until December 2019, when she transferred 1 percent of her business to her husband.

With reporting by AFP

Russian shelling in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region on September 20 killed two people and injured five, while a missile strike in Dnipro caused at least one injury, Ukrainian officials said.

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Russian forces used mortars to shell villages in the Kharkiv region, taking the lives of a 43-year-old man and a 53-year-old woman, said Kharkiv Governor Oleh Synyehubov. Two other women were injured. An earlier attack on other villages left two woman and a man injured, he said.

In Dnipro, one person was injured and a building was partially destroyed in an attack that occurred in the evening of September 20 after the air force warned of the threat of a strike with a ballistic weapon, the head of the regional military administration said.

"The building of an educational center was partially destroyed,” said Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration head Serhiy Lysak. He identified the injured person as a 19-year-old boy who suffered multiple wounds and a fracture.

Russian forces who occupy the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant accused Ukrainian forces on September 20 of launching a drone attack on a nearby electricity substation and posing a threat to the facility.

"A drone strike by the Ukrainian armed forces damaged a transformer at the Zarya substation located right next to the perimeter of the Zaporizhzhya station," the Russian management of the plant said on Telegram.

"This substation contributes to power supplies for the station's infrastructure. Attacking it creates a potential threat to the nuclear power station's safety," the message said.

Ukraine's Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

Russian forces seized the nuclear power plant in the early days of Moscow's full-scale invasion, and the two sides have regularly accused the other of staging attacks that endanger safety.

The UN nuclear watchdog has stationed monitors permanently at the plant and urged both sides to refrain from all attacks on it.

Meanwhile, a project to record the number of Russian servicemen killed in the war said on September 20 that the estimate now exceeds 70,000.

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Mediazona and the Russian service of the BBC have been tallying the number of Russian military deaths by conducting a name-by-name count of losses. Those counted are only the ones whose names could be established from open sources. The real number of Russian battlefield deaths is likely much higher.

According to the data, the average Russian fighter has recently changed. A typical serviceman whose death was confirmed in 2022 was about 21 years old, and he served in elite units such as special forces, airborne forces, or marines.

“Today men are increasingly going to the front aged 40, 50, and even 60 years, most often without combat experience and special training," according to the data.

Water levels on the Danube River are expected to slowly rise 50 centimeters by the evening of September 21 as Hungary and other Central European countries deal with the aftermath of a heavy rain storm that has drenched the region.

Istvan Lang, the director-general of water management in Hungary, announced on September 20 that the burden on flood protections already put in place will be very significant.

“This is a very big flood, it will cause a lot stress,” he said on Hungarian television.

Ferry services on the Danube in Hungary have been halted, and water has spilled over the city’s lower quays in Budapest, threatening to reach tram and metro lines.

Lang said the worst of the flooding from the heavy rain will last longer than expected. The Danube is receding slower than anticipated due to the significant amount of rain that fell in Germany after the outbreak of Cyclone Boris, he added.

• RFE/RL's Hungarian Service

After excessive heavy rains in Central Europe, floodwaters in the Danube are expected to peak in Budapest on September 20-21. RFE/RL has been documenting the situation in the Hungarian capital, where the Danube has already burst its banks in places. 

Lang said the area south of Budapest will largely be safe from flooding thanks to major infrastructure improvements made in the region over time following a catastrophic flood in 1956, and the country's dams are in very good condition. The embankments south of Budapest are stronger and higher following improvements and will be able to better protect against the flood waters, he said.

Zoltan Gora, Hungary's national director-general of disaster prevention, confirmed that Budapest is protected up to a 9-meter water level. Forecasts indicate that the water will reach 8.5 meters or lower.

The capital’s water authorities have also assured residents that the drinking water supply will be safe. The government water-management body has closed drinking water reservoirs that were flooded by the Danube and added extra protection to those that have not yet been flooded.

Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony added that the sewerage system is especially vulnerable, warning citizens of possible pipe breaks and inconveniences.

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Flood protection has also been introduced along parts of the Danube in Serbia, the water-management authority in the Vojvodina region in the north of the country announced on September 20.

Regular flood defense measures have been implemented over 253 kilometers of the river, including on sections of the Danube embankment, from the state border with Hungary to the Kovilj area east of Novi Sad, as well as on structures of a hydroelectric power system and in rural parts.

The water-management authority in Vojvodina said that forecasts by the Hydrometeorological Institute of Serbia indicate that the Danube's water levels will rise in the coming days.

"The peak of the waves near Bezdan is expected on September 25, and near Novi Sad between September 27 and 28. Forecasts say the water level of the Danube near Novi Sad will be below the limits of emergency flood protection," the company points out.

In Romania, where the floodwaters have already wreaked havoc and dissipated, authorities said the latest tally shows six people died because of the flooding. In over 24 communities in the eastern region of Romania more than 20,000 inhabitants were affected by the floodwaters.

Residents in the worst-hit areas on the Danube in that country, Galati and Vaslui, have been cleaning up their mud-inundated homes.

With reporting by AP

Two Russians on September 20 set a record for the longest continuous stay on the International Space Station (ISS), according to Russian space agency Roskosmos.

Roskosmos said Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub broke the old record of 370 days, 21 hours and 22 minutes, which was set in September 2023 by Russians Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin and American Francisco Rubio.

Chub and Kononenko will add several days to their total before their scheduled return to Earth on September 23.

Kononenko, 59, holds other space duration records, including the most cumulative time in space -- 1,110 days over the course of five missions by the time he lands later this month in Kazakhstan.

In comparison, the NASA astronaut with the longest cumulative days in space, Peggy Whitson, ranks eighth internationally. Whitson has been in space for a total of 675 days cumulatively in three long missions and one short term mission.

Two American astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who are currently on the ISS, have inadvertently been aboard the space station for much of the Russians' record-setting stay.

After NASA and Boeing identified helium leaks and issues with the reaction control thrusters in the astronauts’ Starliner space capsule, a decision was made to send the capsule back without Wilmore and Williams and keep them at the ISS for their own safety.

NASA said the return of the Starliner without a crew allowed it and its manufacturer, Boeing, to continue gathering testing data while at the same time not creating risk for its crew.

NASA has considered that the astronauts' extended stay means they will not be on Earth for the U.S. presidential election in November. The pair of astronauts told reporters during a press conference on September 13 that they will still have a chance to vote in the election and will use satellites to beam their votes down to Earth.

The two U.S. astronauts are set to return to Earth in February.

With reporting by AP