A court in Russia's Vladimir region on September 12 began the trial of three former lawyers for late opposition politician Aleksei Navalny on extremism charges over their association with the Kremlin critic and his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK). FBK and Navalny’s other groups were labeled as extremist and banned in Russia in 2021. The trial of Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin, and Aleksei Liptser is being held behind closed doors. The lawyers were arrested in October 2023. Investigators say the lawyers smuggled Navalny's letters from prison, "assisting him to conduct extremist activities from behind bars." Two other former lawyers for Navalny, Aleksandra Fedulova and Olga Mikhailova, fled Russia last year. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

A military court in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk said on September 12 that Private Oleg Gorbachyov of the Russian armed forces was sentenced to eight years in prison for beating his wife to death.

According to Military Court No. 24, Gorbachyov attacked his wife at home in April, punching her at least 35 times.

The woman died of injuries sustained in the attack. The court did not specify why the punishment was the minimum allowed eight years in prison. The maximum sentence for such an offense is 15 years.

Since Russia launched its full-scale aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, Russian courts have given mitigated sentences to individuals who fought in the war in Ukraine.

The number of crimes in Russia committed by ex-military personnel, including former inmates recruited from prisons, has been on the rise since early 2023 as soldiers returned from duty in Ukraine.

Also on September 12, media reports in Russia's Far Eastern island of Sakhalin said police in the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk detained a person who participated in Russia's invasion of Ukraine on suspicion of attacking two persons with a knife and a stone.

The victims are hospitalized in serious condition, the reports said.

The reports identified the suspect as Vitaly Prisukhin, born in 1982 in the city of Kostroma, who might be the person who was sentenced to 16 years in prison for double murder in Kostroma in 2011.

The Vyorstka Telegram channel, citing Interior Ministry statistics, reported on September 11 that during the period between January and August this year, the number of serious and extremely serious crimes registered in Russia was the highest in the past 13 years.

In total, 403 537 such crimes were registered across Russia and Russia-occupied Ukrainian territories. The highest number of such crimes were registered in the Moscow, Krasnodar, and Rostov regions.

The Interior Ministry's Research Institute had predicted a sharp rise in serious and extremely serious crimes in 2023-2024, emphasizing factors such as men returning from the war in Ukraine and an increase in the number illegal firearms available on the black market since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called a Chinese-Brazilian peace proposal "destructive" that was created without the input of Kyiv.

Speaking in an interview with the Brazilian media outlet Metropoles, Zelenskiy said the proposal, announced last month by Beijing and Brazil, was "mostly pro-Russian" as it calls for a compromise from Ukraine, which has been fighting inside its own territory to repel invading Russian forces.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

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

"They say Ukraine must agree for compromise. What compromise? To give up its lands, forget that they are killing our people? What sort of compromise exactly? Compromise is something unacceptable here. You want us to forget murders, forget everything? I think this view is destructive," Zelenskiy said in the interview, published on September 12.

"How is it possible to propose something saying – this is our initiative, without even talking to us? And Russia immediately comes up and says we support the Brazil-Chinese proposal. We are not fools. Why do we need this theater?"

On August 1, China and Brazil jointly published a "six-point consensus" meant to bring about a lasting political solution to the war, launched by the Kremlin in February 2022.

The plan is a diplomatic outline that calls for cooling down fighting on the battlefield and a recognition that dialogue and negotiations are the only way to end the war.

Beijing has said the plan to end Russia's war against Ukraine has received a "positive response" from more than 110 countries.

But Zelenskiy sharply criticized the initiative in the interview, saying it "has nothing to do with justice, with values, this is, for sure, without taking into account Ukraine’s position and the issue of territorial integrity, of which both China and Brazil have been talking so much."

China has made a previous attempt to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, with a 12-point plan it put forward in February 2023 quickly dismissed by European leaders.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has strong working ties with China and has looked for his country to play a role in pushing for a peace process to end the war in Ukraine.

In July, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Ukraine would only engage Russia in peace talks when Moscow was "ready to negotiate in good faith," and added that "no such readiness is currently observed on the Russian side."

Russian TV journalist Nikolai Svanidze, who is credited as one of the founders of Russian television, died in Moscow on September 12. He was 69. Svandize had been seriously ill and had recently been diagnosed with cerebral ischemia. He was a critic of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and described it as an "unprovoked attack" on the same day that Moscow launched its offensive in February 2022. Months later, Russian President Vladimir Putin expelled Svanidze and other activists and journalists from the Human Rights Council, replacing them with people who had a pro-war tilt. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Russian Service, click here.

On August 6, Ukrainian forces crossed from the Sumy region into Russia and swiftly seized a significant part of the Sudzhansky district in the Kursk Oblast.

Over the ensuing weeks, Ukraine made a number of substantial and headline-grabbing gains in this Russian region, with even Moscow admitting that Kyiv had captured scores of settlements and occupied hundreds of square kilometers of territory.

In making the largest incursion onto Russian soil since World War II, Kyiv says its aims include pushing back Russian artillery, disrupting supply lines, and diverting forces from the frontline in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where Moscow has been making grinding gains in recent months.

Meanwhile, Russian forces have reportedly begun attacking Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region and have retaken some territory.

As fighting continues to rage in Kursk, RFE/RL’s Russian Service has been keeping track of Ukraine’s incursion with an interactive map of events that uses information compiled and verified from open sources, such as Twitter and Telegram.

The map provides details of major developments that have occurred during Kyiv’s surprise invasion, such as the destruction of three bridges on the Seym River or the mass exodus of ordinary Russians fleeing the fighting.

Click on each icon to view details of combat operations, civilian evacuations, damage to infrastructure, and other significant events as Kyiv’s military operation continues.

The map is updated daily to include the latest developments and any changes in territorial control.

Media reports say Britain, behind closed doors, has given Ukraine the green light to use its Storm Shadow missiles for long-range strikes deep into Russian territory as Moscow's troops again targeted energy facilities and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine's northeast overnight, injuring at least 14 people.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

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

According to The Guardian newspaper, government sources said a decision has already been made to allow Kyiv to use the British-made cruise missiles inside Russia, although the move has not been announced and is unlikely to be made public even when British Prime Minister Keir Starmer meets with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington on September 13.

British officials have not confirmed The Guardian report.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been pleading with Kyiv's allies for months to allow Ukraine to fire Western weapons, including long-range U.S. ATACMS and British Storm Shadows, deep into Russian territory to limit Moscow's ability to launch attacks.

Biden said earlier this week that his administration is "working out" a way to lift the restrictions, though he gave no specifics.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Antony Blinken hinted strongly during a trip to Kyiv on September 11 that the White House is on the verge of lifting restrictions on the usage of its long-range weapons.

"We're working with urgency to continue to ensure that Ukraine has what it needs to effectively defend itself," he said at a press conference after meeting with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha.

The Sumy regional military administration said Russia had used Shahed-type suicide drones in the overnight attack, with the mayor of the city of Konotop, Artem Semenikhin, saying on Telegram that the attacks had cut power in parts of the town and work was under way to restore electricity and water. He said energy infrastructure had suffered significant damage.

• RFE/RL

Recent media reports claim Russia has received Fath-360 missile systems from Iran, along with hundreds of missiles. Here is what that weapon system looks like, and how it could influence the war in Ukraine.

Russia has systematically targeted Ukraine's critical energy infrastructure, causing enormous damage and limiting electricity supply for the civilian population, prompting regular blackouts.

In return, Ukrainian drones have struck deeper inside Russia, damaging energy facilities critical for Moscow's military effort, mainly oil installations.

Blinken and Lammy left Ukraine after meeting with Ukrainian officials in Kyiv and announcing a new aid package.

Blinken announced more than $700 million in aid, much of it to bolster Ukraine's energy grid, while Lammy confirmed that his country would provide another 600 million pounds ($782 million) in assistance and loan guarantees.

An appeals court in Belgrade has annulled a decision to extradite Belarusian journalist and political activist Andrey Hnyot to Belarus, but the court said the case must be retried.

The decision of the High Court in Belgrade on Hnyot's extradition was made "based on an incomplete establishment of the facts, which led to a significant violation of criminal procedure rules," the Court of Appeals said in its ruling, which was published on its website on September 11.

Serbian authorities arrested Hnyot in October 2023 at the Belgrade airport on an Interpol warrant issued at the request of Belarusian authorities for alleged tax evasion.

He spent seven months in Belgrade Central Prison before being transferred to house arrest on June 5. The High Court in Belgrade on June 13 issued a ruling on the extradition that would send him back to Belarus, but the Court of Appeals reversed that.

The Court of Appeals said in its decision that the defense’s appeal "rightfully challenges the legality and correctness of the first-instance court’s decision."

The decision came after the Interpol warrant was revoked, but Hnyot remains in Belgrade under house arrest.

SEE ALSO:

Belarusian Activist Awaits Serbian Verdict On His Extradition, 'Torture,' And 'Death'

He told RFE/RL that while it is good news that he will not be extradited, his "prisoner" status has not changed.

"I am not given freedom. I am kept like a criminal in a home prison, and I am not guilty of anything. The Court of Appeals actually confirmed it," he said.

He said that while under house arrest, he is only allowed to leave his apartment for one hour a day and is unable to work and lead a normal life. He has had trouble paying his rent and buying food and medicine, he said, emphasizing that he lives off donations from supporters, as he has no savings.

The Court of Appeals' decision is "a very formal compromise solution, convenient for anyone but me," he said.

Hnyot describes the charges against him as "false," claiming it is part of a "systematic mechanism of persecuting" political opponents of the regime in Minsk.

Hnyot is one of thousands of Belarusian citizens who participated in mass protests in 2020 challenging the election victory of authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

Hnyot is the founder of the Free Association of Athletes (SOS BY), which is considered an extremist organization in Belarus. In an open letter signed by more than 2,000 Belarusian athletes and sports representatives, SOS BY called for the annulment of the election, Lukashenka's resignation, and freedom for all arrested during the postelection protests.

The Court of Appeals said that the High Court provided "unacceptable reasons" and "unclear explanations" for the suspicion that Hnyot committed the criminal offense he is accused of in Belarus.

The Court of Appeals further stated that the first-instance ruling by the High Court claims that Hnyot committed a criminal offense in Belarus as if it were already a settled matter. This violated the presumption of innocence, which ultimately goes against Serbia’s legal order as the requested country.

A small group of Afghan women took to the streets of Kabul on September 11 in a rare protest to demand their rights and call on the international community to denounce Taliban rule. More than 10 women participated in the demonstration, advocating for the restoration of basic freedoms that have been severely curtailed under the Taliban-led government since the group seized power three years ago. The protest was organized by the Afghan Women's History Transformation Movement. Ruqiya Sa'i, head of the movement, said the women ended the protest after 30 minutes because of the possibility of a violent attack by the Taliban. The severe restrictions on women ban education beyond the sixth grade and bar them from working in many offices. To read the full story by RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi, click here.

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Russians and an American blasted off on September 11 for an express trip to the International Space Station. The space capsule atop a towering rocket set off from Russia’s space launch facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, and was scheduled to dock with the space station three hours later, in contrast to some missions that last for days. The mission commander is Aleksei Ovchinin, with Russian compatriot Ivan Vagner and American Donald Pettit in the crew. The rocket blasted off without obvious problems, and the Soyuz entered orbit eight minutes after liftoff.

Grand Mufti of Tajikistan Saidmukarram Abdulqodirzoda was attacked in the capital city, Dushanbe, on September 11 in the city’s central mosque. The press office of Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry said Abdulqodirzoda, the state-selected head of Tajikistan’s Muslims, was injured but is in stable condition. The press office said the attacker injured the mufti "with a cutting tool out of a sense of hooliganism." The attacker is currently under arrest and no motive has been determined. Abdulqodirzoda is 61 years old and has been the chairman of the Council of Scholars of the Islamic Center, the only fatwa-issuing body in Tajikistan, since 2010. To read the full story by RFE/RL's Tajik Service, click here.

Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has pardoned noted sinologist Konstantin Syroyezhkin, who was released on parole in April after serving more than half of the 10-year prison term he was handed in 2019 on high treason charges.

Syroyezhkin said on September 11 that the Kazakh presidential commission on clemencies had approved his application for a pardon, which means his parole restrictions are now lifted.

The 68-year-old Syroyezhkin was sentenced on October 7, 2019.

Details of the charges were not made public, but some local media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, reported at the time that Syroyezhkin was accused of passing classified information to Chinese nationals for cash.

Some reports at the time of his conviction also said Syroyezhkin was stripped off his Kazakh citizenship and banned from residing in Kazakhstan for five years after his release.

Kazakh authorities were reluctant to officially announce his arrest more than five years ago, but questions about Syroyezhkin's whereabouts began circulating in the media after he failed to show up at two conferences in Kazakhstan.

Syroyezhkin was born in the southeastern Kazakh city of Almaty, which between 1927 and 1997 was the capital and remains its largest city.

In 1981, Syroyezhkin graduated from the Highest School of the Soviet KGB in Moscow with a specialization on China.

From 2006 until his arrest in 2019, Syroyezhkin worked as a leading expert and analyst at the presidential Institute for Strategic Research.

Syroyezhkin is the author of more than 1,000 analytical and research works on China and Kazakh-Chinese relations, written in Russian, Chinese, and English.

When current Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, who is a trained sinologist as well, served as prime minister, Syroyezhkin was his adviser on Kazakh-Chinese relations, including during talks on delimiting and demarcating the Kazakh-Chinese border.

With reporting by Informburo.kz

Russian forces have begun attacking Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region and have retaken some territory, pro-Moscow war bloggers and Ukrainian military analysts said on September 11.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

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

The attacks, which some sources characterized as a counteroffensive, are against the western flank of Ukrainian forces that took control of part of the Kursk region after launching a surprise incursion into Russian territory last month.

Ukrainian open-source intelligence resource DeepState said on Telegram that the Russian military "began active assault operations, ferrying armored vehicles first across the Sejm, and then across smaller rivers."

It said another blow took place in the town of Korenevo, which DeepState said was lost recently.

The same information has been shared by the Rybar channel, which is connected to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Major General Apti Alaudinov, commander of the Akhmat special forces fighting in Kursk, said that Russian troops had gone on the offensive and taken back control of about 10 settlements, TASS reported.

"The situation is good for us," said Alaudinov, according to TASS. "We continue to hold off and eliminate the enemy in our direction here. Enemy forces have sustained very heavy casualties and are coming to realize that it would be hard to hold this land," Alaudinov was quoted as saying.

Some Russian fighters claim to have restored Russian control over the village of Snagost and several other settlements, but this has yet to be independently confirmed.

The Ukrainian side has not reported a change in the situation in the Kursk region.

The Russian attacks have not threatened the city of Sudzha, which is central to the logistics of the Ukrainian group in the Kursk region. Sudzha is 40 kilometers from the village of Snagost.

Ukraine’s top military commander, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskiy, said last week that Russia was planning a new attack on Ukraine from the Kursk region before the start of the incursion.

Syrskiy said that he considered the incursion a success because it reduced the threat of Russia carrying out the attack and took the fight to the enemy.

“We moved the fighting to the enemy's territory so that he could feel what we feel every day," he said in an interview with CNN.

Kyiv claims to have seized control of more than 1,200 square kilometers of Russian territory since its forces launched the incursion on August 6. According to Syrskiy, Moscow has transferred tens of thousands of troops to the region, including some of its best airborne assault units.

It was previously reported that the operation was aimed at improving Kyiv's position in the event of peace negotiations. Analysts also suggest that the operation is aimed at conveying to the Russians the seriousness of the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

With reporting by Reuters and TASS

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev unveiled a memorial to honor Crimean Tatar victims of genocide in Kyiv's Peace Park on September 11. Zelenskiy called the memorial "a symbol of our unity and willingness to restore justice...that also reminds us of three tragic stages in the history of Crimean Tatars -- the annexation of Crimea by the Russian empire in 1783, the deportation of Crimean Tatars (by the Soviets to Central Asia) in 1944, and the occupation in 2014." Since seizing Crimea in 2014, Russia has jailed dozens of Crimean Tatars who opposed Moscow's rule. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, click here.

The Vyasna human rights center said on September 11 that political prisoner Andrey Buday, who is serving a 15-year prison term on terrorism charges that he and his supporters reject, has been charged with "blatantly disobeying prison guards' orders."

According to Vyasna, Buday's trial on the new charge will start on September 23.

Buday and five other members of the journalism advocacy group Busly Lyatsyat (Storks Are Flying) were handed lengthy prison terms in late September 2022 on terrorism charges that rights activists have called politically motivated.

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.

Buday was sentenced to 15 years, Alyaksey Hamez to 14 1/2 years, Alyaksey Ivanisau to 14 years, Alyaksandr Muravyou and Alyaksandr Sidarenka to 12 years each, and Mikalay Biblis to 8 1/2 years in prison.

The six men were found guilty of being members of Busly Lyatsyat, which was officially declared a terrorist organization and banned in Belarus in November 2021.

They were also convicted of participating in activities disrupting social order, conducting a terrorist act against a state official, premeditated damage to private property, incitement of hatred, and public calls for international sanctions against Belarus.

The trial was linked to the unprecedented mass protests challenging the results of an August 2020 presidential election that proclaimed authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka as the winner.

Rights activists and opposition politicians say the poll was rigged to extend Lukashenka's rule.

Thousands were detained during nationwide protests and there were credible reports of torture and ill-treatment by security forces. Several people died during the crackdown.

Many of Belarus's opposition leaders have been arrested or forced to leave the country, while Lukashenka has refused to negotiate with the opposition.

The United States, the European Union, and several other countries have refused to acknowledge Lukashenka as the winner of the vote and imposed several rounds of sanctions on him and his regime, citing election fraud and the police crackdown.

Miroslava Reginskaya, the wife of imprisoned Russian nationalist Igor Girkin (aka Strelkov), has rejected reports saying her husband was released and allowed to join the Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.

Reginskaya wrote on Telegram on September 11 that Girkin's request to be sent to fight in Ukraine had been rejected twice.

She cited a letter from her husband saying that in the rejection letters, officials wrote that "we do not need colonels."

Girkin was sentenced to four years in prison in January on a charge of making public calls for extremist activities.

In April, Reginskaya and Girkin's lawyers said the former leader of Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine had received written consent from a Russian military unit that it would make him a commander of one of its platoons, adding that Girkin planned to join Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.

Russian law does not allow those convicted of extremism to sign contracts with the Defense Ministry, but several reports in recent weeks said Girkin might have been recruited from prison to the war in Ukraine.

The 53-year-old was arrested in July 2023 after strongly criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin online for his handling of the Ukraine invasion. He accused the Kremlin leader of "cowardly mediocrity" and described him as a "nonentity."

He also called out then-Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu for making "mistakes" in the invasion and accused him and Putin of "incompetence."

Girkin last year even called on Putin to transfer power to "someone truly capable and responsible."

A former officer of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), Girkin has also argued for a total military mobilization to ensure Russian victory in the war.

Girkin was a key commander of the separatists in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region in 2014 and helped Russia occupy Ukraine's Crimea that year.

In November 2022, a court in the Netherlands sentenced Girkin and two other defendants to life in prison in absentia in the case of the 2014 shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine. All 298 people onboard died in the attack.

In February, international investigators said there were "strong indications" that Putin was personally involved in the incident.

The Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was blown out of the sky on July 17, 2014, over territory held by the separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The victims came from more than a dozen countries, although more than two-thirds were Dutch.

Russia has denied any involvement in the downing of the plane.

Iran's new president, Masud Pezeshkian, kicked off a three-day visit to neighboring Iraq on September 11 on what is his first foreign trip since taking office in late July.

Expanding relations with neighbors is Iran’s state policy, and Pezeshkian has vowed to deliver.

Pezeshkian, who speaks fluent Kurdish, will also make history by becoming the first Iranian president to visit Iraqi Kurdistan.

While the government in Tehran has had good relations with the authorities in Irbil, ties have often been tested over the semiautonomous Iraqi region's hosting of outlawed opposition Iranian Kurdish groups.

Baghdad and Irbil recently started implementing a security agreement signed last year with Tehran to move the groups away from the border with Iran and disarm them.

"It was a very good opportunity to visit the friend and brother country of Iraq in my first foreign trip as the president of Iran," Pezeshkian said in Baghdad.

"We need to implement security cooperation agreements between the two countries in order to deal with terrorists and enemies," he added.

The neighbors have strong economic relations, and Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani told reporters during a joint news conference with Pezeshkian that the two countries signed 14 memorandums of understanding to boost relations.

Pezeshkian will also visit Basra, Iraq's economic hub, which Iran hopes to link to the town of Shalamcheh just across the border via rail as part of a larger railway project connecting Iran to Syria.

Pezeshkian and Sudani also discussed the war in Gaza, with the latter telling reporters at a joint press conference that both leaders opposed any expansion of the war between Israel and Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union.

With reporting by AFP and AP

A Russian military court on September 11 sentenced former Russian opposition lawmaker Ilya Ponomaryov, who opposed the Kremlin's war in Ukraine, to 10 years in prison on charges of justifying terrorism and spreading false information about Russia's military. The 48-year-old Ponomaryov was the only deputy in the State Duma to vote against Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. He fled Russia for the United States in 2014 and later moved to Kyiv, where he has lived since obtaining citizenship. To read the original story by Current Time, click here.

Kosovar authorities have indicted 45 people over their alleged roles in an attack last year by ethnic Serbs that left one police officer dead in the village of Banjska.

Prosecutor Naim Abazi said on September 11 that among those indicted is Milan Radoicic, the fugitive former vice president of the Serbian List party accused of leading and organizing the September 2023 attack. He is believed to be in Serbia.

The names of the others indicted in the case have not been released.

SEE ALSO:

Extradition To Kosovo Of Monastery Attack Suspect 'Impossible,' Serbian FM Says

Abazi said those indicted had different roles within their criminal group "ranging from organizing and directing terrorist activities to financing and money laundering."

He said the investigation had been the most complex that his office had ever conducted and required intensive investigation involving both national and international law enforcement agencies.

"We have conducted approximately 66 interviews with witnesses and defendants, analyzed around 120 electronic devices, about 1,266 weapons and other equipment, and obtained hundreds of documents containing critical evidence for this case," Abazi said.

Abazi thanked the United States and the European Union for cooperating with Kosovar authorities, which he said helped bring strong indictments against the 45 individuals.

"Given that the Republic of Kosovo unfortunately did not have laboratories available to examine most of this evidence and required international legal assistance from various countries, it can be said that this indictment was filed in an extremely short time frame," Ehat Miftaraj, executive director of the nongovernmental Kosovo Law Institute, told RFE/RL.

Miftaraj added that details on the indictment are still needed "to know whether the indictment also addresses acts related to state aggression against the Republic of Kosovo, or if it is solely about a well-organized criminal group led by Radoicic that carried out the actions specified in the indictment."

During the attack, around 30 ethnic Serb gunmen ambushed a police patrol in Banjska, a village near the border with Serbia, killing Sergeant Afrim Bunjaku, an ethnic Albanian Kosovar police officer.

SEE ALSO:

Who Was Behind The Deadly Attack At The Orthodox Monastery In Kosovo?

The attackers then made a stand in an Orthodox monastery and exchanged fire with Kosovar forces. Three gunmen were ultimately killed.

Radoicic, who claimed the attack, stepped down from his position in the Serbian List party days after the incident.

Nenad Stefanovic, chief prosecutor of the Prosecutor-General's Office in Serbia, played down the indictment of Radoicic.

"From the perspective of the legal order of the Republic of Serbia, the indictment by the provisional institutions in Pristina against Milan Radoicic and others is of no importance," Radio Television of Serbia quoted Stefanovic as saying.

The attack came months after talks backed by Washington and Brussels between Kosovo and Serbia collapsed, and relations between the bitter neighbors and rivals have only deteriorated further.

Belgrade and its ally Russia still refuse to recognize Kosovo's sovereignty since a 2008 declaration of independence that followed a decade of UN administration after a bloody ethnically fueled war.

A court in the Belarusian city of Brest on September 11 began the trial of seven men charged with "taking part in mass unrest" for their participation in rallies in 2020 over the official results of the presidential poll that pronounced authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka as the winner. Syarhey Filimonau, Ihar Varanovich, Alyaksandr Shtyk, Uladzislau Piskunovich, Vital Hira, Yauhen Melnichuk, and Dzmitry Posnikau face up to eight years in prison each if found guilty. Thousands have been detained over the protests against the election results, and rights groups have documented cases of torture and ill-treatment by security forces. Several people died during the crackdown. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Belarus Service, click here.

Asanali Suieubaev, a founding member of the unregistered Algha, Qazaqstan (Forward, Kazakhstan) political party, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on September 10 on a charge of distributing illegal drugs that he rejects as politically motivated. Suieubaev's lawyer, Meiirzhan Dosqaraev, told RFE/RL on September 11 that the case against his client had been "trumped up" after he publicly accused former President Nursultan Nazarbaev of corruption in November 2023. Also in November, the chairman of Algha, Qazaqstan, Marat Zhylanbaev, was sentenced to seven years in prison on extremism charges that he also rejected as politically motivated. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kazakh Service, click here.

A court in Russia's southwestern region of Volgograd on September 11 sentenced a former Wagner mercenary group fighter to eight years in prison for beating his wife to death. Sergei Neverov was serving a prison term he was handed in 2019 for robbery and a series of thefts when he was recruited by Wagner to fight in Ukraine in 2022. He was pardoned after he returned from the war in March 2023. The number of crimes in Russia committed by former Wagner recruits and other ex-military personnel has been on the rise since early 2023 as soldiers returned from duty. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Caucasus.Realities, click here.

At least three people were killed in separate incidents in the Bajaur district of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, the local police force has confirmed to RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal. Unidentified gunmen killed a police officer and a health worker after shooting at a group carrying out polio vaccinations before fleeing the scene. Earlier, a soldier was killed while sweeping for land mines near the village of Niman Khan. There has been a rise in armed attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over the past two years and protests have been held to demand the authorities take action. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal, click here.

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- A group of Kazakh activists has announced the creation of "a platform" to oppose a government plan for the construction of a nuclear power plant as a nationwide referendum on the issue next month nears.

Environmentalists Qaisha Atakhanova, Gulsim Kakimzhanova, and Vadim Ni, energy expert Aset Nauryzbaev, and political analyst Asel Iztaeva told journalists in the Central Asian country's largest city, Almaty, on September 10 that they had created a group called There is No Need for NNP.

The activists said the goal of their group is to show what they called the opinion of the majority in Kazakhstan, who are openly against the plant's construction.

They also stressed that if a plant is constructed in partnership with a foreign country -- four companies are currently on the shortlist -- Kazakhstan could lose some of its sovereignty.

"All companies that may be involved in the project are foreign state companies. There are no private companies among them, and the money will be allocated by the corresponding governments," Ni said.

"And it will not be us who will choose one of them. Other nations have been invited. Because of that, I would say, it is not just a political issue, it is about geopolitics.... This is the nature of nuclear energy issues. It is tied to powerful nations."

Talks of building a nuclear power station in Kazakhstan have been circulating for years, leading to questions regarding what countries would be involved in the project.

China's CNNC, South Korea's KHNP, France's EDF, and Russia's Rosatom have been named in media reports as possible constructors of a nuclear power plant.

Kazakh officials have avoided commenting directly, saying the decision would be made after the October 6 referendum.

Shortly before launching its ongoing invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia proposed that its Rosatom nuclear agency be Kazakhstan's main partner in such a project.

Many Kazakhs publicly reject the idea of Rosatom's involvement, citing the legacy of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster and Russia's occupation of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Ukraine as examples of Moscow's attitude toward nuclear safety.

Also on September 10, a court in Almaty fined activist Abzal Dostiyarov for a YouTube clip questioning the plan for a nationwide referendum on the plant's construction.

Dostiyarov was found guilty of violating the law on holding public polls and ordered to pay a 55,350-tenge ($115) fine.

Dostiyarov insisted he is innocent, saying the video clip in question from a week earlier was not a poll.

Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev last week announced plans for a nationwide referendum on October 6 to gauge public support for the construction of a nuclear power plant.

Many Kazakhs expect the referendum to succeed, given the country's tightly controlled political environment.

But the push to build a new nuclear facility has been met by significant opposition despite apparent efforts to silence dissent on the issue. In recent weeks, several activists known for their stance against such a project have been prevented from attending public debates on the matter.

Nuclear power-related projects have been a controversial issue in Kazakhstan, where the environment was severely impacted by operations at the Soviet-era Semipalatinsk nuclear test site from 1949 to 1991, and the Baikonur spaceport, which is still operated by Moscow.

Bashkir activist Zagir Mukhamedyarov has fled Russia and entered the United States via Mexico fearing arrest. The 27-year-old activist told RFE/RL on September 10 via a video link from an immigration center in the state of Louisiana, where he awaits a court decision regarding his application for political asylum, that he had to leave Russia amid a wave of arrests of Bashkir campaigners who had taken part in mass rallies protesting the imprisonment of noted Bashkir activist Fail Alsynov in mid-January. Mukhamedyarov was among the protesters. Several participants in the rallies have been handed lengthy prison terms on charges of mass unrest and assaulting police officers. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Idel.Realities, click here.

KYIV -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his British counterpart, David Lammy, announced new aid packages for Ukraine after arriving on September 11 in Kyiv on a joint visit that comes as Ukraine pushes its Western allies to drop restrictions that are keeping it from using long-range weaponry deep inside Russia.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

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

Both Blinken and Lammy said the conflict had reached a "critical" juncture, with Russian forces maintaining attacks on Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and continuing their use of missiles, glide bombs, and drones against Ukrainian cities.

Blinken announced more than $700 million in aid, much of it to bolster Ukraine's energy grid, while Lammy confirmed that his country would provide another 600 million pounds ($782 million) in assistance and loan guarantees.

As Blinken and Lammy arrived from Poland by train, there were reports that Russian forces have begun attacking Ukrainian troops and retaking territory in Kursk a little more than a month after Ukraine launched a surprise incursion into the Russian region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been pleading with Kyiv's allies for months to allow Ukraine to fire Western weapons, including long-range U.S. ATACMS and British Storm Shadows, deep into Russian territory to limit Moscow's ability to launch attacks.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said he and Zelenskiy had had "detailed and productive" talks with Blinken and Lammy. Sybiha told reporters at a joint news conference that he and his two counterparts had discussed the supply of weapons and air defenses.

Zelenskiy last week told military and defense leaders they should not restrain his country’s ability to battle the Kremlin’s forces.

U.S. President Joe Biden said on September 10 that his administration is "working out" a way to lift the restrictions, though he gave no specifics.

Blinken said he would bring the discussion he had with Zelenskiy about missiles “back to Washington" to brief Biden, who is scheduled to meet British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on September 13. They will “no doubt” talk about the issue during that meeting, Blinken said.

He told the news conference that the United States has "adjusted and adapted as needs have changed, as the battlefield has changed. And I have no doubt that we’ll continue to do that as this evolves.”

Zelenskiy said he hoped to speak to Biden later this month, noting that U.S. military and financial support is crucial.

“We rely heavily on it, and frankly, we can’t prevail without it,” Zelenskiy said.

Ukrainian air defenses intercepted 20 Shahed-type suicide drones launched by Russia in the early hours of September 11, according to the Ukrainian armed forces.

The military said Russia fired 25 Shahed drones, an Iskander ballistic missile, two S-300 antiaircraft guided missiles, and six Kh-31p anti-radar missiles overnight.

The projectiles targeted the Kyiv, Kherson, Cherkasy, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, and Poltava regions.

Dnipropetrovsk Governor Serhiy Lysak said two people were wounded and hospitalized as a result of the Russian attack. He said the strikes also caused destruction and a fire in one of the businesses in the Kamian district.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the other regions.

Blinken said earlier that Russia is "ramping up its attacks on cities, on people, in particular targeting the energy infrastructure...all in advance of the coldest months," adding that the tactics are part of President Vladimir Putin’s "winter playbook."

He told the news conference that $325 million of the more than $700 million in aid for Ukraine will help repair and restore Ukraine’s power generation facilities, provide emergency backup power, and strengthen the physical security of energy infrastructure. About $290 million will go toward food, water, shelter, health care, and education programs for Ukrainians in need in the country and refugees outside the country. The remaining $102 million will be used for mine-removal activities, he said.

"Our support will not wane, our unity will not break," Blinken said. "Putin will not outlast the coalition of countries committed to Ukraine's success, and he is certainly not going to outlast the Ukrainian people."

With reporting by AP and AFP