Iran says punishing Israel will prevent further instability in the Middle East but that it does not want to escalate tensions already running high after the assassination in Tehran of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the U.S.- and EU-designated Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

Fears that the Gaza war could turn into a wider regional conflict have intensified as Iran and its Lebanese Hizballah ally -- which has also been deemed a terrorist organization by Washington -- have vowed to avenge deadly strikes in Tehran and Beirut that Iran has blamed on Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Iran and its proxies against attacking his country and said Israel was already in a "in a multifront war against Iran's axis of evil."

"We believe that Iran is entitled to punish the aggressor within the framework of international law…. Iran will definitely and decisively take serious and deterrent measures by exercising its inherent right on the basis of international principles to ensure its security," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani told reporters in Tehran on August 5, according to the Tasnim news agency, which is linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

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What Hamas Leader's Killing Means For Talks Aimed At Ending Gaza War

"Iran believes that stability will be achieved with the punishment of the aggressor," he added.

Israel has not taken responsibility for Haniyeh's killing in the Iranian capital in what has become a major embarrassment to the authorities in Tehran.

Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu arrived in Tehran on August 5, according to Russian state media, for a working visit with senior Iranian officials, including President Masud Pezeshkian, who was sworn in less than a week ago.

The IRGC said on August 3 that a short-range projectile was behind the killing and accused the United States of supporting the attack, which it blamed on Israel. The IRGC said in a statement that a rocket with a 7-kilogram warhead was used to target the residence of Haniyeh, who was the political leader of Hamas.

Citing unnamed sources, The New York Times reported that the blast that killed Haniyeh was a bomb covertly smuggled two months ago into the guesthouse where Haniyeh was staying in Tehran.

Kanaani said the international community, and the United States in particular, had failed to help maintain stability in the region.

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How Will Rising Middle East Tensions Impact Afghanistan and Pakistan?

A day earlier, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pledged Washington's "iron-clad support" for Israel if Tehran were to launch an attack.

As calls for de-escalation continue from around the globe, Tehran has called for an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) over Haniyeh's assassination. The group, which consists of 57 states including all of Israel's neighbors, agreed to meet on August 7.

Tensions have been running high in the region since Hamas launched an attack on Israel on October 7 that killed some 1,200 people, with another 240 being taken hostage as Hamas fighters retreated back into the Gaza Strip.

In response, Israel launched a withering war against Hamas that, according to the Hamas-led Health Ministry, has left almost 40,000 people dead and hundreds of thousands homeless.

Then, on April 13, Iran attacked Israel with more than 300 drones and missiles -- which caused limited damage and casualties -- in response to a suspected Israeli air strike on the Iranian Embassy compound in Damascus on April 1 that killed seven Iranian commanders, including two generals.

Bulgaria's There Is Such A People (ITN) party on August 5 returned the mandate to form a government to President Rumen Radev -- the third party to do so since an inconclusive June 16 election. The move means Radev will have to schedule yet another parliamentary election within 60 days, most likely on October 6 or 13. The center-right GERB and centrist anticorruption We Continue the Change (PP-DB) political groupings earlier failed to form a government before the mandate was given to ITN on July 29. It will be the seventh general election in three years in the European Union's poorest country. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service, click here.

Police in Russia's northwestern region of Karelia detained blogger Aleksei Trunov for unknown reasons after searching his home on August 5. Trunov had planned to attend an event that day to commemorate thousands of victims of the Soviets' "Great Purge" campaign who are buried in Karelia's Sandarmokh area. In February, Trunov was convicted of discrediting Russia's military over online comments condemning the war in Ukraine and ordered to pay a fine. Also, on August 5, unknown individuals tried to forcibly enter the apartment of a pro-Ukrainian activist in Karelia, Andrei Litvin, whose colleagues say they have been unable to reach him by phone since the morning. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

At least one Russian warplane and ammunition storage facilities were destroyed in a Ukrainian strike on a Russian military base in the Rostov region, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) said on August 5.

"Space intelligence data show that a Su-34 fighter-bomber was destroyed as a result of fire damage to the military airfield at Morozovsk on August 3," HUR said in a statement on Telegram, adding that satellite imagery show two more Su-34 aircraft were likely damaged in the explosion of the aircraft ammunition storage facility.

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"Large areas of burnt ground can be seen in the satellite images," the message says.

The Morozovsk air base is located some 265 kilometers east of the front line.

Russia did not comment on HUR's claim, which comes after the General Staff of Ukraine's military said on August 3 that it had struck the Morozovsk airfield and oil depots in the Rostov region, without giving details.

This is the second time Ukraine has claimed to have struck Morozovsk. On April 5, Ukrainian sources told RFE/RL that at least six Russian military aircraft had been destroyed in a massive Ukrainian drone attack on the Morozovsk airfield, where Su-24, Su-24M, and Su-34 bombers had been reportedly stationed at the time.

That claim could not be independently confirmed.

The Ukrainian Air Force, meanwhile, reported that its air-defense systems shot down all 24 drones launched by Russia early on August 5 at seven Ukrainian regions -- Kyiv, Vinnytsya, Kirovohrad, Kharkiv, Sumy, Poltava, and Dnipropetrovsk.

In the northeastern Kharkiv region, infrastructure was damaged by falling debris, Governor Oleh Synyehubov said on Telegram.

On August 4, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy officially confirmed the arrival of the long-awaited F-16 fighter jets he has said are crucial to the defense of his country against invading Russian forces.

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"Now this is really a reality, a reality in our skies, F-16s in Ukraine," Zelenskiy said during ceremonies marking Air Force of Armed Forces Day in Ukraine, standing on the tarmac in front of the U.S.-made warplanes marked with Ukrainian symbols.

Zelenskiy did not specify how many F-16s were currently in Ukraine but said the air force "has already begun to use them for our country."

Kyrgyz prosecutors asked a Bishkek court to sentence Maya Alieva, who is the mother of late criminal kingpin Kamchy Kolbaev (aka Kamchybek Asanbek), to 10 years in prison on a charge of money laundering, lawyer Baktybek Jumashev told RFE/RL on August 5. Kolbaev, who was killed during a police operation in Bishkek in October 2023, was a leader of the so-called Brothers' Circle, a Eurasian drug-trafficking network. In 2014, the U.S. State Department offered a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to the disruption of the financial mechanisms of Kolbaev's criminal network. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, click here.

The European Union has added 28 Belarusians to its sanctions list for their role in the "ongoing internal repression and human rights violations" in the country.

The listings "include various members of the judiciary, namely prosecutors and numerous judges who have issued politically motivated sentences, including against citizens who protested the fraudulent presidential elections of 2020, or who simply voiced their opinions" against the regime of authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka, the European Council said in a statement on August 5.

Also placed on the list were two deputy chiefs of the Interior Ministry's Main Department for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption (HUBAZiK). HUBAZiK is one of the main bodies responsible for political persecution in Belarus, "including arbitrary and unlawful arrests and ill-treatment, including torture, of activists and members of civil society," the statement added.

The Crisis In Belarus

Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.

Rights groups say tens of thousands of Belarusians have been subjected to "political repression" since Lukashenka claimed victory in a presidential vote in 2020 that the West and opposition politicians said was rigged.

Lukashenka, who has ruled the country with an iron fist since 1994, has refused to negotiate with the opposition, whose leaders have mostly been arrested or forced to leave the country.

The European Council said in its statement that a group of "longtime supporters" of Lukashenka who had "benefitted" from the regime are also targeted in the latest round of sanctions, which now apply to 261 individuals and 37 entities.

The director-general of the biggest state news agency, the Belarusian Telegraph Agency (BelTA), Iryna Akulovich, as well as the former director, Dzmitry Zhuk, were placed on the list, as well as the host of the Senate television program on the STV channel and the chairman of the Youth Council at the National Assembly of Belarus, Mikita Rachylouski.

"These regime propagandists willingly provided the Belarusian public with false information about repression perpetrated by the state authorities, spread disinformation produced by both Belarusian and Russian authorities, and promoted hatred towards democratic opposition and civil society," the statement said.

Those placed on the sanctions list are subject to an asset freeze in the EU, while the bloc's citizens and companies are forbidden from making funds available to them. Individuals are also subject to a travel ban, which prevents them from entering or transiting through EU members.

Uzbekistan's Interior Ministry said on August 4 that its officers detained 30 individuals, including 12 foreigners, in Tashkent on suspicion of organizing illegal online gambling operations. According to the ministry, investigators confiscated 12 payment cards, 34 telephone SIM cards, 37 laptops, $1,400 cash, an Internet router, and seven mobile phones from the suspects. The ministry added that the suspects rented an apartment in the Uzbek capital, where only in the last three months they allegedly illegally generated $900,000. If convicted, the suspects face up to seven years in prison. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Uzbek Service, click here.

More than 50,000 people have been detained for political reasons after mass protests broke out following the August 2020 presidential election, said Leonid Sudalenko, a member of Belarusian human rights center Vyasna and a former political prisoner. Calculations made by Vyasna concluded that at least 5,472 people have been convicted in politically motivated criminal cases, Sudalenko said. The protests were triggered by the results of the election that gave strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka a sixth term in office despite extensive evidence of fraud. The United States, the European Union, and several other countries have refused to acknowledge Lukashenka as the winner. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

Mali's military rulers have cut diplomatic ties with Ukraine over the alleged involvement of Kyiv in an attack by rebels that resulted in the killing of dozens of Malian soldiers and Russian mercenaries.

Armed groups in Mali's predominantly Tuareg north said they killed at least 47 government soldiers and 84 Russian Wagner mercenaries in fighting last month near the West African country's border with Algeria.

Following the rebels' announcement, Andrey Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine's Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR), told state radio, without confirming Kyiv's involvement, that the rebels "received all the necessary information they needed" to defeat the Russian mercenaries fighting alongside Malian troops.

In a statement, the military government in Bamako accused Ukraine of supporting terrorism and violating Mali's sovereignty.

"The actions taken by the Ukrainian authorities violate the sovereignty of Mali, go beyond the scope of foreign interference, which is already condemnable in itself, and constitute a clear aggression by Mali and support for international terrorism," the Malian government said in a statement late on August 4.

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In a related development, Senegal's Foreign Ministry also summoned Ukrainian Ambassador Yuriy Pyvovarov over a post on the embassy's Facebook page in which the Ukrainian diplomat allegedly expressed support for the Tuareg in Mali.

Mali, where military authorities seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021, is battling a years-long insurgency. It has said Russian forces there are not Wagner mercenaries but trainers who are helping local troops with equipment bought from Russia.

Mali's military rulers have accused Tuareg and Islamist groups of collaborating, but in its statement, the rebel groups under the umbrella of the Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security and Development (CSP-PSD), said they had fought alone "exclusively from the beginning to the end" of the recent clashes.

The Tuareg people are a traditionally nomadic Berber ethnic group that live in parts of the western Sahara. Many have complained of being persecuted by the Malian military government.

Wagner was involved in some of the fiercest fighting of Russia's war in Ukraine, but its fate was put into question when founder Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash in August 2023, two months after leading a brief mutiny against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Wagner mercenaries who did not sign contracts with Russia's Defense Ministry after the mutiny are believed to have gone to Africa.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters

KYIV -- President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on August 4 welcomed the arrival of the long-awaited F-16 fighter jets he has said are crucial to the defense of his country against invading Russian forces.

"Now this is really a reality, a reality in our skies, F-16s in Ukraine," Zelenskiy said during ceremonies marking Air Force of Armed Forces Day in Ukraine, standing on the tarmac in front of the sophisticated warplanes marked with Ukrainian symbols.

"We have held hundreds of meetings and negotiations to strengthen the capabilities of our aviation, to strengthen the capabilities of our air defense, our defense forces," he said.

"We often heard in response, 'This is impossible.' But still we made our ambition possible."

Zelenskiy thanked Kyiv's partners -- specifically the Netherlands and the United States -- for their help in providing the F-16s to Ukraine.

He did not specify how many F-16s were currently in Ukraine but said the air force "has already begun to use them for our country."

"I cannot yet say in detail what tasks will be performed or have already been performed by our first F-16 aircraft.... So far, there are a number of pilots in Ukraine who have already been trained. But this is not enough," Zelenskiy added.

The event was held at an undisclosed location, for security reasons.

Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukrainian authorities have been asking the West to provide modern F-16 fighter jets. In 2023, several countries, with the consent of the United States, agreed to transfer such aircraft to Kyiv.

On July 31, Bloomberg reported that the first F-16s had arrived, with other reports putting the number at six, provided by the Netherlands.

Zelenskiy also instructed diplomats to organize a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council, at which he plans to discuss the possibility of organizing alliance countries bordering Ukraine into a coalition to help shoot down Russian missiles, although he acknowledged it would be a "difficult" proposition for some allies.

Meanwhile, Russia claimed that its forces seized the eastern Ukrainian village of Novoselivka Persha, as Ukrainian authorities ordered the evacuation of civilians from areas of heavy Russian shelling in the Donetsk region.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Moscow had "liberated the settlement," the latest in a string of villages in the eastern region that the Kremlin has claimed in recent weeks. Some of the villages consist of just a few streets.

Donetsk is one of four regions in eastern and southern Ukraine that Russia claimed to have annexed in 2022, just months into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In a Telegram post, regional Governor Vadym Filashkin said Russian forces continued to "destroy the cities and villages of these communities with aerial bombs every day, forcing the decision to evacuate children with their parents or other legal representatives" from several villages in the area.

"In total, we have to evacuate 744 children and their families from four communities to safer regions of Ukraine," he said.

"Another high-profile day in the Donetsk region is another example of Russian atrocities," he added.

Elsewhere, the Ukrainian armed forces downed five drones as Russia launched a wave of missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles at several Ukrainian regions in the early hours of August 4.

Ukrainian Air Force commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on Facebook that five Iranian-made Shahed-type drones had been intercepted in the Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, and Zaporizhzhya regions.

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The drones were launched from an air base in Russia's Krasnodar region.

Russia also fired two S-300 antiaircraft guided missiles and two Kh-59 guided missiles, the Ukrainians said.

Separately, the governor of Russia's western Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said an elderly woman had died in Ukrainian drone attacks on the city of Shebekino.

Ukrainian drones also targeted the villages of Saltykovo and Petrovka, according to Gladkov, who said a bus and a car were damaged but nobody was hurt.

RFE/RL is not able to independently verify combat reports inside Russia.

In Ukraine, Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on August 4 that 15 people, including a child, were injured in Russian shelling a day earlier.

Despite strong evidence to the contrary, Russia maintains it does not target civilians in its war against Ukraine.

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission has reported that at least 11,284 Ukrainian civilians have been killed by hostile actions since Russia invaded in February 2022, emphasizing that the real figure is likely to be much higher.

In Russia, the authorities have started sending out text messages to encourage people to enlist with the Defense Ministry and "immediately" receive 800,000 rubles ($9,400) after signing a contract.

Russian media first reported on the ministry's plan to launch an SMS campaign to recruit soldiers in June.

In addition to the sign-up fee, regional governors have the authority to pay soldiers from their regions extra cash to maintain competition for recruitment. Reports say the extra payments range from 1.12 million rubles ($13,200) in the Komi region to 1.7 million rubles ($20,000) in the Leningrad region.

Russia is trying to encourage enlistment to bolster its numbers in its war against Ukraine without formally declaring a mobilization, which could cause discontent.

In December, ahead of the presidential election in March, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised that there would be no new mobilization announcements since there were already "half a million" soldiers on the front lines.

On the diplomatic front, Ukraine said Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba will visit three African countries in the coming days as Kyiv looks to bolster support on that continent.

Kuleba is scheduled to visit Malawi, Zambia, and Mauritius on August 4-8, the Foreign Ministry said.

Israel is already in a "multifront war" with Iran and its proxies, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting on August 4, as the United States and allies prepared to defend Israel from an expected counterstrike and prevent an even more destructive regional conflict. Tensions have soared following nearly 10 months of war in Gaza and the killing last week of a senior Hizballah commander in Lebanon and the top political leader of Hamas -- deemed a terrorist organization by the U.S. and EU -- in Iran. Tehran and its allies have blamed Israel and threatened retaliation. Hamas says it has begun discussions on choosing a new leader.

Tawain's Lin Yu-ting on August 4 was declared the winner of a women's boxing match over Bulgaria's Svetlana Kamenova Staneva -- prompting anger from the "indignant" Bulgarian coach, who claimed the gender controversy at the Paris Games influenced the judges' decision.

The action further heightened the debate brewing at the Paris Olympics and has raised questions from various boxing federations, including those of Hungary and Bulgaria, after two boxers who were disqualified from the World Championships last year were allowed to compete in Paris and went on to defeat their countries' participants.

Tawain's Lin and Algeria's Imane Khelif have been at the center of the storm, which came under sharper focus on August 1 when Khelif won her opening bout against Angela Carini of Italy, who tearfully pulled out of the fight after sustaining a series of crushing blows in the first 46 seconds of the bout.

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Lin and Khelif were disqualified at the 2023 World Championships after failing unspecified International Boxing Association (IBA) gender-eligibility rules but were allowed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to compete in Paris.

Both have reached the semifinals of their weight classes.

In the 57-kilogram quarterfinal match on August 4, Lin held back and attempted to strike Staneva from distance, according to Reuters. She received a warning from the referee for elbowing and twice went to the canvas after appearing to be tripped by the Bulgarian.

Lin, a two-time world champion, won the match by unanimous decision as all five judges marked her as the better fighter in the second and third rounds. Lin is now assured of winning at least a bronze medal.

Borislav Georgiev, the Bulgarian coach, claimed the gender debate influenced the judges into awarding Lin the win over Staneva.

"You could see that [Lin] did not want to fight," Georgiev said. "She was running all the time. She was playing dirty as hell, the very first round was for an official warning for an elbow."

"In general, I am indignant at the circus that is taking place. They have decided to make them champions and that's it," he added.

"I expected it, but I hope there are reasonable and honest people who will watch the game and support women's sports."

"We had the qualities and we were sure we would beat [Lin]. They just didn't let us," the coach said. Staneva did not immediately comment.

The 34-year-old Staneva had also lost to Lin at the World Championships, but that result was overturned and declared a no contest after Lin was disqualified.

IOC President Thomas Bach repeated on August 4 that there "was never any doubt" that Khelif and Lin were women and had every right to compete at the Paris Olympics.

The IOC alleged that the IBA gender tests were flawed and illegitimate.

Asked if the support of IOC leaders for the fighters might have helped sway the judges, Georgiev said: "100 percent. If your bosses are supporting something, you also work to support it. There's no other way."

Following the match, Lin did not mention the controversy and said she had stopped looking at social media before she began her Olympic quest.

Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan's first female president, wrote "Let's cheer for Lin Yu-ting together" in a Facebook post before the bout.

With reporting by Reuters and AP

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, who arrived in Tehran on August 4 on a rare visit to discuss rising tensions in the Middle East, said he was not carrying a message from Israel to Tehran, but he nevertheless pleaded for "peace, stability, and security" in the troubled region.

"I did not come to Tehran to convey a message from Israel to Iran or vice versa," Safadi was quoted by the Palestinian news agency Sama and Al-Jazeera as saying.

Jordan has generally good relations with neighboring Israel.

"My visit to Iran is to consult on the serious escalation in the region and to engage in a frank and clear discussion about overcoming the differences between the two countries with honesty and transparency," Safadi told a Tehran news conference alongside his Iranian counterpart, acting Foreign Minister Ali Baqeri Kani.

Safadi and Baqeri Kani spoke on the phone twice in the past two days to discuss developments in the Middle East after the assassination in Tehran of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the U.S.- and EU-designated Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

Safadi's trip to Iran was the first by a Jordanian foreign minister since March 2015.

Fears that the Gaza war could turn into a wider regional conflict have intensified as Iran and its Lebanese Hizballah ally have vowed to avenge deadly strikes in Tehran and Beirut that Iran has blamed on Israel.

In Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran and its proxies against attacking his country and said that Israel was already in a "in a multifront war against Iran's axis of evil."

"I reiterate and tell our enemies: We will respond and we will exact a heavy price for any act of aggression against us, from whatever quarter," Netanyahu told his cabinet, according by his office.

After the meeting in Tehran, the Jordanian foreign minister said in a statement that Amman wants the Middle East region to be peaceful, secure, and stable and wants to see an end to the tensions.

Safadi also called for an end to the Gaza war and the continuation of negotiations for the recognition of the Palestinian state.

The statement called the assassination of Haniyeh an "escalatory step" and warned that a regional war would have a "devastating impact on all."

Israel has not taken responsibility for Haniyeh's killilng in the Iranian capital in what has become a major embarrassment to the authorities in Tehran.

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What Hamas Leader's Killing Means For Talks Aimed At Ending Gaza War

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said on August 3 that a short-range projectile was behind the killing and accused the United States of supporting the attack, which it blamed on Israel.

The IRGC said in a statement that a rocket with a 7-kilogram warhead was used to target the residence of Haniyeh, who was the political leader of Hamas.

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Iran Says 'Short-Range Projectile' Used In Assassination Of Haniyeh

Citing unnamed sources, The New York TImes reported that the blast that killed Haniyeh was a bomb covertly smuggled two months ago into the guesthouse where Haniyeh was staying in Tehran.

Separately, French President Emmanuel Macron and Jordan's King Abdullah II on August 4 agreed in a phone call that an escalation of military actions in the Middle East must be avoided "at all costs," the French presidency said.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and dpa

A state of emergency has been declared in the Russian Far East region of Buryatia due to severe flooding. More than 100 people have been evacuated from the Zaigraevsky and Mukhorshibirsky districts. Dozens of people have also been evacuated from neighboring Transbaikalia region. In Buryata, several bridges were washed away after the Khonkholoi dam burst due to heavy rainfall and rising water levels. To read the full story by Current Time, click here.

The Georgian authorities are planning to extradite Afgan Sadiqov, an Azerbaijani journalist who was detained in Tbilisi on August 3. Sadiqov, who runs the news outlet Azel.TV, has said he and his family were not allowed to leave Georgia last month. Georgia's Interior Ministry said Sadiqov was wanted in Azerbaijan for "extortion" and issuing "threats." Sadiqov has been arrested in Baku several times since 2016 and served more than a year in prison for his reporting. In 2020, after Sadiqov was sentenced to seven years in prison, the Committee To Protect Journalists demanded his release and called the charges against him "fabricated." To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Georgian Service, click here.

Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s leading human rights official, has appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations to investigate an image widely shared online on August 3 that he said likely showed a Ukrainian prisoner of war killed and dismembered by Russian forces.

"A photo appeared on the Internet, probably with the body of a Ukrainian prisoner whose head and limbs were cut off by the Russians,” said Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights commissioner, on Telegram.

He said the behavior was a violation of the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war and inhumane.

"I would like to note that in accordance with the norms of international humanitarian law, no prisoner of war can be subjected to physical mutilation, violence, or murder," he said.

Lubinets urgently appealed to the ICRC and the UN "to record another human rights violation by the terrorist country, as well as to the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies to verify the identity of the murdered prisoner and the fact of this crime."

He said prisoners of war "are in the hands of an enemy state, and it is responsible for their treatment, that is, the responsibility for killing and maiming lies not only with Russian soldiers, but with the Russian Federation itself."

Spreading such images on social media is meant to intimidate Ukrainians, both civilians and military, he added.

Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Andriy Kostin said an urgent investigation had been launched.

"Russia consistently repeats the crimes of the Nazis, defiantly showing utter contempt for all norms of the civilized world," he said on Telegram.

A United Nations commission of inquiry on Ukraine said in a report published in March that it had documented credible allegations of executions of at least 32 Ukrainian POWs in 12 separate incidents from December 2023 to February, and that it had independently verified three of the incidents.

Russia denies torture or other forms of maltreatment of POWs.

With reporting by Reuters

Ukraine has won its first gold medal of the Paris Olympics by defeating South Korea in the final of the women's team saber fencing on August 3. The Ukrainian team, which included individual bronze medalist Olha Kharlan, recovered from six points down to beat South Korea 45-42. South Korea took silver and Japan claimed the bronze medal. Ukraine had two medals before the final: a silver in shooting from Serhiy Kulish and the bronze that Kharlan won on July 29 in the women's saber competition.

Boxer Imane Khelif of Algeria beat Hungary's Luca Anna Hamori by unanimous decision in a welterweight quarterfinal fight at the Paris Games on August 3 to ensure Algeria's first Olympic boxing medal since 2000.

But the victory only heightened a controversy that has been brewing at the Paris Olympics and has raised questions from various boxing federations, including those of Hungary and Bulgaria, after two boxers who were disqualified from the World Championships last year were allowed to compete.

Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting have been at the center of the controversy, which came under sharper focus on August 1 when Khelif won her opening bout against Angela Carini of Italy, who tearfully pulled out of the fight after sustaining a series of crushing blows in the first 46 seconds of the bout.

In her bout against Hamori, Khelif let fly flurries of lightning-quick punches to win the first two rounds on every judge's score card as a number of Algerian fans cheered her on while waving the country's flag. Khelif won 5-0 on a unanimous points decision.

The pair hugged after the final bell, but prior to the bout Hamori had expressed her displeasure at having to fight Khelif, and Hungary's boxing federation said it had contacted the International Olympic Committee to object to the Algerian’s participation.

The Bulgarian Olympic Committee said it also had voiced concerns over Khelif's and Lin's presence at the tournament during a meeting with the IOC's Medical and Scientific Commission on July 27.

Both Khelif and Lin were disqualified from the 2023 World Championships after failing the International Boxing Association's (IBA) eligibility rule that bars athletes with male XY chromosomes competing in women's events.

The boxing tournament in Paris is being organized by the IOC, which stripped the IBA of international recognition in 2023 over governance and finance issues.

In Paris, Lin won 5-0 on points on August 2 against Sitora Turdibekova of Ukzbekistan. She faces Svetlana Kamenova Staneva of Bulgaria in a featherweight quarterfinal on August 4.

Khelif will face Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand in the welterweight semifinal on August 6. She beat Suwannapheng at the World Championships in 2023 before being disqualified.

IOC president Thomas Bach said on August 3 that there "was never any doubt" that Khelif and Lin were women who had every right to compete at the Paris Olympics.

"We have two boxers who are born as women, who have been raised as women, who have passports as women and who have competed for many years as women. This is the clear definition of a woman," Bach told a news conference.

He also refused to take part in a “cultural war,” adding that social media “hate speech” is “totally unacceptable."

The online outrage has included comments from former U.S. President Donald Trump, author J.K. Rowling, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who have falsely claimed that Khelif is a man or is transgender.

But other commentators have said the controversy is different from previous ones involving runners because boxing is a contact sport and women are put in danger when facing opponents with male traits such as much larger muscles and power.

Bach left open the possibility of changes at future Olympics when it comes to such controversies.

"What we see now is that some want to own the definition of who is a woman and there I can only invite them to come up with a scientific base of a new definition of who is a woman and how someone being born, raised and having a passport as a woman cannot be considered a woman,” he said.

Khelif's coach said the controversy has been difficult for Khelif.

"She has suffered a lot -- as a child and now as a champion. She has suffered so much during these games," Mohamed Chaoua said. "Where is the humanity? Where are the associations for women's rights? She is a victim."

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, dpa, and AP

Ukraine's military said on August 3 that it had sunk a submarine in Russian-controlled Sevastopol, attacked a southern Russian airfield, and targeted oil depots and fuel and lubricant storage facilities in a number of regions.

"A Russian submarine went to the bottom of the Black Sea," the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said on X, naming the vessel as the B-237 Rostov-on-Don attack submarine.

The military's General Staff said the attack on the Crimean port also significantly damaged four launchers of the S-400 anti-aircraft Triumf defense system.

There was no immediate comment from Russia on the attack.

Earlier, on the night of August 2, dozens of drones were launched against targets in at least three Russian regions, setting two oil storage facilities ablaze, Russian authorities reported.

Rostov regional Governor Vasily Golubev reported that 55 “Ukrainian drones” had attacked his region overnight, damaging “storage facilities in the Kamensky and Morozovsky districts.” He said no casualties had been reported.

A military airfield in the region’s Morozovsky district has been the target of drone strikes in the past. Video posted by the Astra Telegram channel purported to show fires at the airfield and at an oil-storage facility in the Kamensky district.

Ukraine’s military said on August 3 that it destroyed antiaircraft weaponry and “enemy aviation equipment” at the Morozovsky airfield and had carried out the strikes against the oil facilities.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region, reported that an oil reservoir there had been destroyed by a drone strike, but no casualties were reported. He said the fire had been extinguished.

In the Oryol region, Governor Andrei Klychkov wrote on Telegram that three drones had been destroyed while “two drones fell on a residential building.” He said no casualties were reported.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported that 36 drones had been intercepted overnight, 17 in the Oryol region, nine in the Belgorod region, and eight in the Kursk region. Small numbers of drones were reportedly intercepted over the Ryazan region, Krasnodar Krai, the Voronezh region, and the Sea of Azov.

RFE/RL is not able to independently verify combat reports inside Russia.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military reported that 29 Russian drones were launched against the country overnight and 24 were shot down.

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Ukrainian authorities also reported that five civilians were killed and 22 injured in Russian shelling in the Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Kherson regions.

Despite strong evidence to the contrary, Russia maintains it does not target civilians in its war against Ukraine. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission has reported that at least 11,284 Ukrainian civilians have been killed by hostile actions since Russia invaded in February 2022, emphasizing that the real figure is likely to be much higher.

With reporting by Reuters

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said on August 3 that a short-range projectile was behind the killing of Ismail Haniyeh and accused the United States of supporting the attack, which it has blamed on Israel.

The IRGC said in a statement that a rocket with a 7-kilogram warhead was used to target the residence of Haniyeh, who was the political leader of Hamas, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and EU.

The IRGC said that, according to its investigation, the rocket also caused heavy damage when it hit Haniyeh’s residence in Tehran on July 31, but the statement didn't include details of the location from which it was fired, the type of projectile, or the identity of the person or persons who fired it.

Haniyeh was in Iran to attend the inauguration ceremony of President Masud Pezeshkian.

The statement said the action was designed and carried out by Israel with the “support” of the U.S. government. It also reiterated a call for retaliation.

Haniyeh’s killing has triggered fears of an escalation in the region where tensions have already been high since the start of the war in Gaza.

SEE ALSO:

What Hamas Leader's Killing Means For Talks Aimed At Ending Gaza War

The Israeli government has yet to comment officially, but a photo of Haniyeh with a stamp on his forehead saying "Eliminated" was posted on the Government Press Office's Facebook page. The post, which was later deleted without explanation, did not specifically claim the strike was carried out by Israel.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on August 1 said that Washington was "not aware of or involved in" Haniyeh’s assassination and wouldn’t speculate on the impact it might have on the region.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas over the group’s October 7 attack inside Israel's territory that killed 1,200 people. Around 250 others were taken hostage, some of whom have since been released.

Some of the hostages have died while in Gaza as Israel carries out a massive military operation that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians as the Israeli military pursues the goal of eliminating Hamas.

After 10 Olympic Games and 36 years, Nino Salukvadze says she's finally done. The pistol shooter from Georgia has been ever-present at the Summer Olympics since Seoul 1988, when she competed for what was still the Soviet Union. At the 2024 Olympics, she became the first female athlete ever to compete at the games 10 times. Salukvadze considered retiring after her first Olympics 36 years ago, after she'd won gold and silver medals as a 19-year-old. She nearly walked away in the 1990s, when she struggled to support her family financially in newly independent Georgia. She announced her retirement after the Tokyo Games in 2021. This time, though, she says she is done “for sure."

"Today I'm crying for the first time since...I don't even know where to begin," Alsu Kurmasheva wrote in her first letter from captivity.

It was October 2023 and just a few days after she had been taken into pretrial detention in Kazan, the regional capital of her native Tatarstan.

It was a care package that made her weep. "Everything touched me," she wrote about the things she had received: the brush and the coffee with the halva (sesame-seed-and-honey paste). "I wasn't expecting any letters or packages.... And when everything arrived unexpectedly, I couldn't [stop the tears]."

Kurmasheva, a 47-year-old mother of two and a journalist for RFE/RL, spent 288 days in Russian detention before her release on August 1, as part of one of the largest prisoner swaps involving the United States and Russia since the end of the Cold War.

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Moscow Swaps American Journalists, Top Dissidents For Convicted Criminals

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During her time in prison, Kurmasheva chronicled her experiences in letters to friends and relatives, provided by the journalist’s family to RFE/RL's Idel.Realities. Her letters from prison show a woman attempting to come to terms with her new life behind bars. But they also show a woman who remained grateful, despite the harsh conditions, and who was still able to find beauty and joy in the smallest things.

Gentle Humor

In the early days of her detention, Kurmasheva spent her time reading, writing, and practicing yoga. With gentle humor, she described her attempts to stay active even with the restrictions of prison. "Today we were taken out for a walk to a four-by-six-meter area,” she wrote. “We ran 40 laps to get at least close to a 1,000-meter run. Then there was stretching and squats. The caretaker was very surprised. Apparently, this happens rarely."

After her October 2023 arrest, Kurmasheva was first charged with failing to register as a "foreign agent" under a punitive Russian law that targets journalists, civil society activists, and others.

WATCH: Alsu Kurmasheva's Husband On Her Release From A Russian Prison

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'Overwhelmed With Emotions': Husband Of RFE/RL Journalist Alsu Kurmasheva On Her Release From Russian Prison

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As the weeks turned into months, and as the outside temperatures dropped below freezing, Kurmasheva wrote about the harsh realities of prison life: the overcrowded cells, where new inmates could arrive in the middle of the night; the constant battle against the bitter cold.

"I'm OK more or less. At least everyone has their own bed and the amount of people [in the cell] is as it should be," Kurmasheva wrote. "I am glad that I managed to sleep a little longer today, something better."

'Do It Now'

Sometimes there was a particular urgency about her letters, a sense that when you had lost so much, your only choice was to focus on the present, the here and now. "Everything you do is the most necessary and important thing right now," Kurmasheva wrote to her family. "Whether you drink coffee or make a hole in the wall with a hammer drill to attach a wardrobe, do it now."

By December 2023, Kurmasheva was facing more charges of distributing "fake" news about Russia's armed forces. Those charges stemmed from a book, Saying No To War. 40 Stories Of Russians Who Oppose The Russian Invasion Of Ukraine, which was published in November 2022 by RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service.

SEE ALSO:

Who Are The 24 Prisoners Who Were Swapped In U.S.-Russia Deal?

Separated from her family over the holidays, it was hard for Kurmasheva to always keep her spirits up. "I can't even believe that it will already be two months [in prison]," she wrote in December 2023. "Every minute remains a scar on me and on you."

In January, Kazan's coldest month, her letters show flashes of indignation. "No one will give me back the three months of my life that I spent in the wrong place," she wrote. "I am responsible for my family. For my young children, for my elderly mother." It was her mother's ailing health that had prompted Kurmasheva's decision to return to Russia in May 2023.

'I Have Changed'

After the Christmas and New Year's holidays, Kurmasheva started to notice some differences. "I have changed, you have changed, your letters have changed," she wrote to her family. "After a long break, I received dozens of letters that you wrote during the holidays. They are so open, you entrusted me with your fears, you decided not to 'forget' about everything." It was, she said, "priceless."

The winter was particularly bleak in prison. But Kurmasheva's letters -- the ones she wrote and the many more that she read -- were a lifeline, a connection to the outside world. "It's all so sweet. Somehow even unbelievable," she wrote. "They all took a month to be delivered, but they arrived." Not receiving letters, she said, was very, very hard.

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'They Remain In Torturous Conditions': The Prisoners Left Behind In Russia After Historic Exchange 

Despite the harshness of prison life and the chronic pain of being separated from her family, in her letters, Kurmasheva tried to remain hopeful.

"Where do I get my strength from?" she wondered in one letter, just as everything was "steadily becoming more unbearable." Even though she might not know the answer to that question, she did know exactly what she had to do with that strength: She had to make sure she didn't waste it.

On July 19, the Supreme Court of Tatarstan found Kurmasheva guilty of disseminating "military fakes" and sentenced her to six and a half years in prison. The trial was limited to two court sessions and was held behind closed doors.

Less than two weeks later, on August 1, Kurmasheva was released and flown to a military base outside Washington, D.C., where she was greeted by her family and U.S. President Joe Biden.

In one of the last letters before her release, Kurmasheva wrote, "My greatest wish is to leave here alive and well." And she knew that this "part of [her] life" would one day be history.

Russian classical pianist and anti-war activist Pavel Kushnir has died in pretrial custody in the city of Birobidzhan, the capital of Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Oblast, at the age of 39, friends and supporters reported. Kushnir died on July 27 of the consequences of a dry hunger strike that he launched to protest Moscow's war against Ukraine. Kushnir was detained in late May and was under investigation on suspicion of issuing public calls for terrorism. In 2023, Kushnir became a soloist with the Birobidzhan Regional Orchestra. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Russian Service, click here.

Ivan Litvinovich of Belarus has become the first athlete competing as a neutral at the Paris Olympics to win a gold medal. Litvinovich won the men's trampoline final on August 2. The 23-year-old, who also won the event at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, finished more than a full point ahead of his nearest competitor, Wang Zisai of China, who took silver. Another Chinese trampolinist, Yan Langyu, won bronze. After initially banning Russian and Belarusian athletes from world sports following Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the International Olympic Committee adjusted its regulations to allow their participation under a neutral banner subject to strict conditions and excluding team events. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Belarus Service, click here.

Three of the Russian activists freed in a prisoner swap orchestrated by the United States and Russia thanked all those who helped secure their release and cautioned against believing that all Russians support the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Vladimir Kara-Murza, Andrei Pivovarov, and Ilya Yashin, who were imprisoned in Russia for expressing their opposition to the war, spoke on August 2 at a news conference in Bonn, Germany, a day after being freed in the historic exchange.

All three said they would continue to keep fighting for a free and democratic Russia and would also work to secure freedom for the hundreds of political prisoners still held in Russia.

“These are our fellow citizens who, like all of us, oppose the cruel, criminal, aggressive war that the Putin regime unleashed against Ukraine,” Kara-Murza said.

The Kremlin critic -- who had been serving a 25-year prison sentence under harsh conditions, including months of solitary confinement -- said that, before he was suddenly moved out of his Siberian prison, he was asked multiple times to request clemency from President Vladimir Putin, but he refused, telling the penal authorities he did not consider Putin to be the legitimate president of Russia. He also called Putin a "dictator, usurper, and murderer."

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A few days later he was told his comments had been recorded on video and he was told to write an explanation, which he did, accusing Putin outright of being responsible for the deaths of Boris Nemtsov in 2015, opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, who died in a Russian prison in February, and thousands of Ukrainians who have died in the war, including children. After signing the paper he said he expected to be shot dead.

He said it was "very difficult to shake [the feeling] of absolute surrealism of what was happening" when he found out he was being freed.

Kara-Murza, a dual Russian-British citizen, said 16 lives had been saved in the prisoner swap, which also freed U.S. citizens Alsu Kurmasheva, Evan Gershkovich, and Paul Whelan, who arrived in the United States late on August 1 to be reunited with family members.

To win their release, the United States and several of its allies released eight Russian citizens who had been convicted of various crimes, including murder. FSB Colonel Vadim Krasikov, who was serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 killing of a former Chechen fighter in Berlin, was the most high-profile among the eight.

Kara-Murza said the difference between dictatorships and democracies is that in a democracy human life is sacred. He also urged the world to distinguish between Russia's people and its president.

"There are many people in Russia who are against the war, who don't believe Kremlin propaganda," said Kara-Murza.

Pivovarov also thanked everyone who helped in facilitating the exchange and cautioned against associating the Russian people with the government's policies. He said the task for him and the other freed dissidents was to "make our country free and democratic, and get all political prisoners released."

Yashin expressed a different view, saying he was bitter about being deported and had stated his wish to return to Russia after landing in Turkey.

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Kurmasheva, Gershkovich, Whelan Back In U.S. After Prisoner Swap With Russia

"I did not give my consent to being sent outside of Russia," he told reporters in an address in which the anger often showed on his face. "What happened on August 1 is not an exchange. This is my expulsion from Russia against my will. My first wish in Ankara was to buy a ticket and go back to Russia."

But he said an FSB officer told him that if he returned to Russia "your days will end like Navalny's."

He said he was also told there would be no more prisoner swaps if he returned.

Describing himself as a “Russian patriot,” Yashin said he would continue his political activity and his work for a free Russia, though he said he didn't yet know how.

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The Prisoner Swap: What's In It For Putin?

Yashin also acknowledged that the prisoner exchange represented a "difficult dilemma," adding that it encourages Putin to take more hostages."

But Pivovarov said the prisoner swap saved those released from death, while Kara-Murza said that until August 1 he was certain he would die in a Russian jail. He added that he knows that someday he will return to Russia and that the day will come when Russia is free.

With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters