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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SEE ALSO:

Iranians Decry The Demise Of Republicanism After Cabinet Controversy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

With reporting by Interfax and TASS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The detention of Pavel Durov, the Russian-born co-founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, was extended again until August 28, a source told the AFP news agency. Durov was detained at Le Bourget airport outside Paris on August 24 and held for questioning. France's OFMIN, an office tasked with preventing violence against minors, has reportedly issued an arrest warrant for Durov in a preliminary investigation into alleged offenses, including fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organized crime, and the promotion of terrorism. Under French legislation, after 96 hours Durov must either be released or be charged.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SEE ALSO:

Explainer: The Dark Side Of Telegram

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SEE ALSO:

Russian Officials Reportedly Told To Delete Work Messages From Telegram

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

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

With reporting by AFP

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“New negotiations are needed,” Araqchi added.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Ukraine's global allies to take "decisive action" after Russia launched a massive drone and missile attack on Kyiv and other cities across the country that damaged vital utilities.

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 Russian strikes targeted several Ukrainian cities early on August 26, killing at least seven people and wounding 47 others, according to Ukrainian officials.

Firefighters extinguished 22 fires as 740 rescuers and 176 pieces of equipment were deployed across the country to respond to the consequences of shelling, the Ukraine's Emergency Service said on Telegram.

Late on August 26, another strike hit the city of Kryviy Rih in the Dnipropetrovsk region. A missile hit a hotel where many civilians were staying, according to Ukrainian media. Local politician Oleksandr Vilkul was quoted as saying "the news is bad."

Zelenskiy, in a video message posted on X, said the "vile" attacks, involving more than 100 missiles and around 100 drones, showed the West's restrictions keeping Ukraine from using long-range weapons to strike deep inside Russian territory must be lifted.

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

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

The United States also voiced outrage over the major Russian assault.

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms Russia's continued war against Ukraine and its efforts to plunge the Ukrainian people into darkness as the fall sets upon us," White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters, calling the assault "outrageous."

NATO also strongly condemned attacks against Ukrainian civilians and civilian infrastructure, noting that Poland said an "object," most likely a drone, entered its airspace and possibly landed on Polish territory.

SEE ALSO:

Poland Says Russian Drone Likely Entered Its Airspace During Attack On Ukraine

"Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian drone fragments and missiles have been found on allied territory on several occasions," NATO spokeswoman Farah Dakhlallah said. "While we have no information indicating an intentional attack by Russia against allies, these acts are irresponsible and potentially dangerous."

The aerial attack was the largest in weeks from Moscow and comes as Ukrainian forces are advancing as they mount a major offensive into the Kursk region of Russia.

Kyiv's mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said water and power supplies in parts of the capital had been disrupted as Russia launched its large-scale attack during the morning rush hour.

Zelenskiy said there was "a lot of damage in the energy sector," and Ukraine’s state-run energy authority Ukrenerho said that it was introducing emergency power outages.

One person was reportedly killed and a residential building was damaged in the northwestern city of Lutsk, according to the city’s mayor, Ihor Polischuk.

Two people who were killed in the Zaporizhzhya and Dnipropetrovsk regions were among the seven killed, according to local authorities.

In the Poltava region, five people were wounded after an industrial facility was struck. Three explosions were reported in the Vinnytsia region.

WATCH: One person was killed as a missile hit a cottage area on the outskirts of the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro early on August 26. It was a day when Ukraine woke up to a barrage of Russian air attacks.

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Ukraine’s Air Force Command had warned citizens not to ignore air raid alerts after it had detected 11 Russian Tu-95MS bombers taking off.

The Air Force Command added that it had detected drone movements in Chernihiv, Sumy, Cherkasy, Mykolayiv, Kharkiv and Kyiv.

Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleschukv said Ukraine shot down 201 "air targets" -- 102 missiles and 99 attack drones. This was out of 236 missiles and drones fired. The assault included three Kinzhal missiles, six Iskander missiles, and 28 Kalibr cruise missiles launched from Russian ships in the Black Sea, Oleschukv said.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed that 20 Ukrainian drones had been destroyed overnight.

The governor of Russia’s Saratov region, Roman Busargin, said drones had targeted the cities of Saratov and Engels and damaged two residential buildings.

He said the damage was caused by falling debris after air defenses shot down the drones.

Russian news agencies said four women were injured in Saratov, with one woman hospitalized. No casualties were reported in Engels.

Engels and Saratov are located on the opposite banks of the Volga River, with a strategic bomber military base located around 12 kilometers from where the drones were intercepted. Saratov is around 900 km from the Ukrainian border.

Quoting the airport’s press office, news agencies said flights were restricted at the regional Saratov airport.

RFE/RL could not independently verify the reports.

Ukraine and Russia insist that they do not target civilians in their attacks but infrastructure critical to war efforts.

With reporting by Reuters

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SEE ALSO:

Israel And Hizballah Edge Closer To Conflict Neither Side Desires

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

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

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

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

A Moscow court issued an arrest warrant on August 26 for Aleksandra Frolova, a self-exiled member of late opposition politician Aleksei Navalny's team. Three days earlier, the same court issued a warrant for Nina Volokhonskaya, a self-exiled producer at the Navalny LIVE YouTube channel. In mid-August, Frolova and Volokhonskaya were added to Russia's wanted list for allegedly taking part in the activities of an extremist group. Navalny's organizations and projects were labeled as extremist and banned in Russia in June 2021. If arrested and convicted, the two women face up to six years in prison. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigations said on August 25 that it had launched a probe into an illegal border-crossing by a lawmaker who fled the country after he was informed he was suspected of attacking citizens. Also on August 25, the Prosecutor-General's Office said a lawmaker was suspected of attacking a law enforcement official and a military officer, attempting to steal a firearm, hooliganism, and inflicting bodily harm on a person. Media reports identified the lawmaker as Artem Dmytruk, who publicly criticized the incursion by Ukrainian armed forces into Russia's Kursk region, as well as Kyiv's move to ban the Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, click here.

BISHKEK -- The Birinchi Mai district court in Bishkek told RFE/RL on August 26 that it had extended until at least October 26 the pretrial detention of Raimbek Matraimov, the former deputy chief of Kyrgyzstan’s Customs Service who was at the center of a high-profile corruption scandal involving the funneling of close to $1 billion out of the country.

Matraimov and three of his brothers -- Tilek, Ruslan, and Islambek -- were extradited to Kyrgyzstan in March from Azerbaijan, where they were in hiding.

Raimbek, the most notorious of the brothers, was charged with money laundering and the abduction and illegal incarceration of unnamed individuals as part of the 2020-21 corruption scandal.

In February 2021, a Bishkek court ordered pretrial custody for Matraimov in connection with the corruption charges. He received a mitigated sentence that involved fines amounting to just a few thousand dollars but no jail time.

The court justified the move by saying that Matraimov had paid back around $24 million that disappeared through corruption schemes he oversaw.

In November last year, the chairman of the state security service, Kamchybek Tashiev, accused Matraimov and crime boss Kamchy Kolbaev (aka Kamchybek Asanbek), who was added by Washington to a list of major global drug-trafficking suspects in 2011, of "forming a mafia in Kyrgyzstan."

Matraimov left Kyrgyzstan in October 2023 after Kolbaev was killed in a special security operation in Bishkek. In January, the Kyrgyz Interior Ministry said Matraimov was added to the wanted list of Kyrgyzstan's State Committee for National Security.

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Kyrgyzstan's Former Kingmaker Matraimov Brought Home As Enemy Of The State

In 2019, an investigation by RFE/RL, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and Kloop implicated Matraimov in a corruption scheme involving the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars out of Kyrgyzstan.

In March 2024, a court in neighboring Uzbekistan sentenced a close associate of Kolbaev, influential Uzbek crime boss Salim Abduvaliev, to six years in prison on charges of illegally possessing and transporting arms and explosives.

Abduvaliev is believed to have ties with top Uzbek officials and leaders of the so-called Brothers' Circle, a Eurasian drug-trafficking network that included Kolbaev.

Pakistani officials say at least 37 people have been killed in several apparently coordinated attacks in the southwestern Balochistan Province, where security forces have long struggled against sectarian, separatist, and ethnic violence.

Shahid Rind, a spokesman for the Balochistan provincial government, told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal on August 26 that “terrorists” had killed people in three separate attacks in the province. In addition to civilians, several soldiers, law enforcement officers, and militants were killed, officials said.

In the deadliest attack, dozens of gunmen killed 23 passengers traveling on a bus in the Musakhail district. Officials said the armed group blocked the road, forced passengers off the bus and fatally shot the victims -- all men -- after checking their identification documents. They set several vehicles on fire before fleeing the scene.

The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), which has been designated as a global terrorist organization by the United States, claimed in a statement sent to the AFP news agency that it had launched an operation "on highways across Balochistan," insisting that it had only targeted security personnel.

The Pakistani authorities have not explicitly accused a specific group of carrying out the attack.

Rind told Radio Mashaal that casualties included both civilians and security personnel, but did not provide the overall number of deaths.

However, the Public Relations Department of the Pakistani Army said in a statement on August 26 that 10 soldiers and four law enforcement officers were killed.

The army also claimed that it killed a total of 21 militants, but this number has not been independently confirmed.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the “terrorist attack” and vowed that the perpetrators would be found and punished.

Eight people were killed in another attack in the Kalat district and six others were shot dead in the Bolan district, Rind said.

SEE ALSO:

What's Behind The Deadly Surge Of Violence In Pakistan's Balochistan?

Balochistan is a vast and resource-rich province but remains woefully underdeveloped and impoverished.

The BLA is the largest armed group operating in the province and it is allied with the Baloch Liberation Front, another major Baluch separatist group in the province.

Balochistan has been rocked by a slew of militant attacks since the start of the year, with first three months seeing 62 attacks. In 2023, Baluch militants carried out 110 attacks, according to the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies, an Islamabad-based think tank.