U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted that "the path to diplomacy" is still open in the Middle East despite Israel's latest massive strike targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah's central headquarters in Lebanon, but he insisted Israel and Hezbollah must both "stop firing."

Elsewhere, Iran, Russia, and their allies condemned the strikes on a Beirut suburb -- which Israel TV said was aimed at Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah -- with Tehran calling it a "war crime."

The attacks against Hezbollah came as many world leaders -- including those from the Middle East -- were in New York for the annual UN General Assembly gathering on September 27.

They also came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned at the UN that his country would continue attacks against Hezbollah in its effort to "degrade" the militant group's capabilities.

The Israeli military acknowledged the attacks but did not directly confirm whether Nasrallah was the target, and his fate remained unknown and subject to widespread speculation in the hours following the action.

SEE ALSO:

Israel Targets Hezbollah Leader In Massive Beirut Attack

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati urged the global community to "stop" Israel from waging a "genocidal war" against Lebanon.

"This new Israeli aggression proves that the Israeli enemy doesn't care about all the international efforts and calls for a cease-fire," Mikati said.

In a news conference on the sidelines of the General Assembly, Blinken said, "The path to diplomacy may seem difficult to see at this moment, but it is there, and in our judgment, it is necessary. We will continue to work intensely."

"The most important thing to do through diplomacy is to try first to stop firing in both directions and then to use the time that we would have in such a cease-fire to see if we can reach a broader diplomatic agreement."

He added that Israel has a right to defend itself from Hezbollah, which has fired thousands of missiles inside Israeli territory with increased intensity since Israel's war in Gaza began. But he also added that the manner in which it defends itself is also important.

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Leaders from around the world commented on the escalation.

RUSSIA -- Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that the Middle East was at the precipice of a "full-blown" war following the strikes in Lebanon.

JORDAN -- Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told reporters, "It is time to face the truth, and the truth is unless Netanyahu is stopped, unless this government is stopped, war will encompass all of us."

SAUDI ARABIA -- Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said Israel's strikes had increased the risk of the situation tumbling out of control.

"We believe very, very, very strongly that a cease-fire is necessary, that the guns are not going to solve anything, that we need to move toward peace in our region, and that peace is firmly rooted in addressing the Palestinian issue," he said.

GERMANY -- Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said, "We must avoid Lebanon becoming the next Gaza. This cannot be in Israel's interest either, especially not in terms of security.”

IRAN -- The Iranian Embassy in Lebanon warned of a "dangerous escalation" in the region. "This reprehensible crime...represents a dangerous escalation that changes the rules of the game," it said.

President Masud Pezeshkian also condemned the attacks, calling it a "clear and undeniable war crime."

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and AP

Prosecutors asked a military court in Moscow on September 27 to sentence a man suspected of attempted murder of pro-Kremlin writer and political activist Zakhar Prilepin to life in prison.

Prosecutor Nadezhda Tikhonova also requested from the Second Western Military District Court that Aleksandr Permyakov pay a fine of 1.5 million rubles ($16,230).

Both Prilepin and Permyakov refused to take part in closing arguments.

Permyakov is a native of Ukraine's eastern region of Donetsk, parts of which have been occupied by Russian armed forces. It is not known how he pleaded.

Prilepin was wounded in a car bombing in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod on May 6 last year.

Prilepin’s driver, Aleksandr Shubin, died in the explosion, while Prilepin sustained unspecified injuries.

The Interior Ministry later said its officers detained Permyakov, stating the man confessed to the attack and was hired by Ukraine's intelligence.

Meanwhile, Russian media reports said Permyakov had previously fought alongside Russian-backed separatists in Donetsk against Ukrainian armed forces.

Once a left-wing dissident, Prilepin has become one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most outspoken supporters on the right and a backer of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It was not the first attack against prominent pro-Kremlin figures since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In August 2022, a car bombing on the outskirts of Moscow killed Daria Dugina, the daughter of prominent Kremlin-connected far-right ideologue Aleksandr Dugin. Russian authorities alleged Ukraine was behind the blast.

In April 2023, an explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg killed a popular military blogger, Vladlen Tatarsky. Officials once again blamed Ukrainian intelligence agencies for orchestrating it.

Prilepin became a Putin supporter in 2014, after Moscow illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. He was involved in the conflict in eastern Ukraine on the side of Russian-backed separatists. In 2022, he was sanctioned by the European Union for his support of Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine.

In 2020, Prilepin founded a political party, For the Truth, which Russian media reported was backed by the Kremlin. A year later, Prilepin's party merged with the nationalist A Just Russia party that has seats in the parliament.

A co-chairman of the newly formed party, Prilepin won a seat in the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, in the 2021 election, but gave it up.

The Security Service of Ukraine told Ukrainian media at the time that it could not confirm or deny involvement in the attack or other incidents inside of Russia.

With reporting by Mediazona

The U.S. Justice Department on September 27 unsealed criminal charges accusing three members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of hacking Donald Trump's presidential campaign and trying to disrupt the November 5 election. The indictment is the latest effort by the Biden administration to counter foreign efforts to interfere in the presidential election between Trump, a Republican, and his Democratic rival Vice President Kamala Harris. The U.S. Treasury Department also said it was imposing sanctions on seven members of the IRGC.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged Kyrgyz authorities to drop the prosecution of 11 current and former staff members from the anti-corruption investigative group Temirov Live and release those in custody.

The CPJ made the call after prosecutors asked a court in Bishkek on September 26 to convict the reporters on charges of "creating an organized criminal group" and "calling for mass riots," which the defendants and their supporters have rejected as politically motivated.

"The conviction of even a single one of the 11 Temirov Live investigative journalists on such clearly contrived and retaliatory charges would deal a further severe blow to Kyrgyzstan's international reputation," said CPJ's Europe and Central Asia program coordinator Gulnoza Said.

"Kyrgyz prosecutors should drop charges against 11 current and former members of Temirov Live, release those remaining in detention, and lift the travel bans against others. The government must stop its relentless campaign against the outlet and its founder, Bolot Temirov."

The journalists went on trial on June 7.

Four of them -- Makhabat Tajibek-kyzy, Azamat Ishenbekov, Aktilek Kaparov, and Aike Beishekeeva -- have been held in pretrial detention since January 16.

The other seven, Maksat Tajibek-uulu, Akyl Orozbekov, Jumabek Turdaliev, Joodar Buzumov, Saparbek Akunbekov, Saipidin Sultanaliev, and Tynystan Asypbekov, were transferred to house arrest amid an outcry from domestic and international human rights groups over the case.

The verdicts and sentences in the case are expected on October 3.

On the day prosecutors requested prison terms for the defendants, a ceremony was held in Prague at which one of the accused, Aike Beishekeeva, was named as the winner of the Gratias Tibi award of Prague-based Clovek v Tisni (People In Need) rights group.

The annual award is given to people younger than 30 for their contributions to defending human rights worldwide.

The founder of Temirov Live investigative group, journalist Bolot Temirov, was deported from Bishkek to Moscow in November 2022 after a court ruled that he illegally obtained Kyrgyz citizenship.

Temirov, who held Kyrgyz and Russian passports, rejected the accusation and insisted the probe against him was launched after he published the results of an investigation suggesting corruption among top Kyrgyz officials.

Kyrgyzstan's free press and civil society have traditionally been the most vibrant in Central Asia, but that has changed amid a deepening government crackdown.

In early April, President Sadyr Japarov signed into law a controversial bill that allows authorities to register organizations as "foreign representatives," which critics say mirrors a repressive Russian law on "foreign agents" similar to one Moscow uses to muzzle independent journalism and NGOs.

The Afghan Embassy in London closed its doors as scheduled on September 27 after staff members were fired by the country’s de facto Taliban rulers looking to break ties with diplomats who had remained loyal to the ousted government.

The staff announced on September 8 that the move was "made based on the requirements of the host country's authorities," following similar action by other countries that had allowed the diplomatic outposts to operate despite lacking ties to the Taliban, which seized power from the Western-backed government in August 2021.

There was no official announcement on September 27 on the London closure, but a reporter for AFP saw a notice on the gate to the consular section reading: "The embassy of the Republic of Afghanistan is closed."

The reporter said no one answered the door but that the Afghan flag was still visible at the site.

British authorities said the closing of the embassy did not represent official recognition of the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan, which no country recognizes due to concerns over a woeful human rights record and other failures to live up to promises it made before taking power.

But London acknowledged there was "no alternative to engaging pragmatically with the current administration of Afghanistan."

Activities of Britain's mission to Afghanistan are carried out in the Qatari capital, Doha.

SEE ALSO:

Closure Of Afghan Embassies In Europe Paves Way For More Taliban Engagement

Experts have said the embassy closure in London -- along with others in the West -- are likely to pave the way for more engagement with the Taliban, which controls all of Afghanistan's territory and has increased its hold on power.

Afghan embassies in many nations continued to operate with diplomatic staff loyal to the previous government despite the Taliban takeover at home, angering the de facto rulers.

The Taliban announced in July that it was cutting ties with 14 such missions in Western countries and that it would not accept any consular documents they processed, a critical source of funding to keep them running.

The affected sites included those in Canada, Australia, France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Germany.

The Taliban "has repeatedly urged the Afghan political and consular in European countries to engage with Kabul to at least address consular service-related issues of Afghans and provide better services for Afghan citizens," the statement released by the group’s Foreign Ministry said on July 30.

Russia, Pakistan, and China host Afghan embassies working with approval of the Taliban-led government.

With reporting by AFP

Israeli launched a massive strike on what it said was Iran-allied Hezbollah's central headquarters in a Beirut suburb, with Israeli TV saying leader Hassan Nasrallah was the intended target, shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned at the UN that actions against the designated terrorist organization would not stop.

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, Israel’s army spokesman, on September 27 said the country’s forces targeted Hezbollah's main headquarters located under residential buildings amid reports of large explosions and fires at the site.

"Moments ago, the Israel Defense Forces carried out a precise strike on the Central Headquarters of the Hezbollah terror organization…taking the necessary action to protect our people so that Israeli families can live in their homes, safely and securely."

WATCH: Amateur video caught a huge blast in a suburb of Beirut as Israel said it had launched a strike targeting the headquarters of Hezbollah. Israeli TV said Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was the intended target.

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The Israeli military later said it had launched further attacks on Hezbollah sites following the earlier strikes on the headquarters as it continued to "degrade and dismantle" the group's capabilities.

Shortly after midnight, the Israeli military said it had launched fresh strikes on three additional buildings in south Beirut, claiming that Hezbollah had stored weapons at the sites, after urging residents to evacuate them.

Israel also said its warplanes were patrolling near the Beirut Airport and insisted it would not allow Iran to transfer weapons to Hezbollah through the facility.

Speculation was rife on Nasrallah's whereabouts and condition following the attack, although no official information was immediately available.

The Israeli military did not confirm that Nasrallah was the target of the attack.

A senior Israeli official told Reuters that it "was too early" to tell whether Nasrallah had been hit in the strike.

The official said it was "hoped" Israel would not have to conduct a ground operation in Lebanon but that it would not rule it out.

Led by Nasrallah, Hezbollah has developed close ties with other Iranian proxies and Tehran-backed armed groups, helping to train and arm their fighters.

Hezbollah-run Al-Manar TV reported at least four buildings were destroyed in the strikes, that there were heavy casualties, and that ambulances were headed to the site. The Lebanese Health Ministry said six people were killed and more than 90 were injured.

Video posted online indicated large areas of devastation.

Shahan Kandaharian, editor-in-chief of the Armenian-language Azdak daily in Beirut, reported hearing strong explosions.

"We learned that it was an air strike at Hezbollah's headquarters located in Beirut's southern suburb," he told RFE/RL's Armenian Service.

“The whole city was shaking. I was at the office and we could clearly hear the explosions. I heard 10 explosions, one following another," he added, adding it "was a very heavy strike."

Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said the United States did not have advance warning of the Israeli strike.

"The United States was not involved in this operation and we had no advanced warning," Singh told reporters.

Earlier, Netanyahu gave arch foe Iran a stark warning during his address to the United Nations General Assembly, saying there is "no place in Iran" that Israel can't reach if the Islamic republic continues to try and strike Israel.

He also said that “we’ll continue degrading Hezbollah until all our objectives are met."

As the Israeli prime minister began his speech, several delegations -- including Iran's -- walked out of the UNGA in protest while many who remained in the hall cheered or yelled angrily.

SEE ALSO:

What Is Hezbollah, The Iran-Backed Group Fighting Israel?

Netanyahu was preceded by speakers from Slovenia and Pakistan, both of whom called for him to stop the war in the Gaza Strip against Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

He said he didn't plan on giving a speech at the meeting this year but after hearing the "lies and slander leveled at my country by many of the speakers at this podium, I decided to come here and set the record straight."

Netanyahu then quickly turned his focus to Iran, which he blamed for "organizing" the current outbreak of violence in the Middle East.

"I have a message for the tyrants of Tehran: If you strike us, we will strike you," Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly.

"There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach, and that's true of the entire Middle East."

SEE ALSO:

Haunted By War: One Man's Fight For Survival As Israel Pounds Southern Lebanon

Netanyahu said the UN Security Council should reimpose sanctions on Tehran to ensure it doesn't get nuclear weapons, adding Israel will do "everything in its power" to prevent such a scenario.

"We're defending ourselves, but we're also defending you against a common enemy that through violence and terror seeks to destroy our way of life," he said in reference to Iran.

Netenyahu's speech came amid a diplomatic push by the United States, France, and other Western allies for a 21-day cease-fire after fighting across the Lebanon-Israel border intensified this week with Israel bombarding what it says are targets of Iran-backed Hezbollah, a militant group and political party that controls much of southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah, which Israel says has launched thousands of rockets at its territory over the past year, is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, while the European Union blacklists its armed wing but not its political party. Hezbollah’s political party has seats in the Lebanese parliament.

The intensified fighting has killed hundreds, according to Lebanese health officials, with aid agencies and governments on both sides saying tens of thousands more have been displaced.

Amid fears the conflict will spread across the entire Middle East, Washington has warned any further escalation would only make it harder for civilians on both sides to return home.

The White House has said the cease-fire proposal had been "coordinated" with Israel, but Netanyahu's office has said the prime minister has not responded to the proposal.

The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas fighters spilled across the border last October and killed some 1,200 people inside Israeli territory. Some 240 more people were taken back into the Gaza Strip as hostages.

Israel has launched a withering offensive against Hamas in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre.

In his speech to the UNGA, Netanyahu vowed "Hamas has got to go" and would have no role in the reconstruction of Gaza as he vowed to fight until "total victory."

With reporting by Reuters

A week after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said his country is nearing the "point of no return" with the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty (CSTO), Yerevan has boycotted a key meeting of foreign ministers of the alliance and its troops in the latest training exercises.

CSTO military maneuvers kicked off near Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, on September 26 with the participation of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.

The exercises, at least third military drills Armenian armed forces skip since October last year amid an ongoing rift in Yerevan-Moscow relations, started the same day Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan boycotted the meeting of CSTO foreign ministers on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York City.

Russian-Armenian relations have worsened significantly over the past two years after Yerevan accused Russian troops deployed in and around the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh of not doing enough to stop a lightning offensive launched by Baku in September 2023.

The clash ended with Azerbaijan's regaining control over the region after it was under ethnic Armenian control for three decades.

SEE ALSO:

Armenians, Azerbaijanis Still Dreaming Of Home A Year After Karabakh Recaptured

Since last year, Pashinian has said Yerevan's "full reliance on Moscow on security matters was a mistake" and reoriented foreign policy westward, including participation last year in joint Armenian-U.S. military exercises.

That position has only seemed to harden since.

"There is an expression: the 'point of no return,' and if we haven't crossed it, there is a high probability that we will cross that point," Pashinian said last week at the Second Global Armenian Summit in the country's capital.

In May, Armenia stopped financial contributions to the CSTO, widely viewed as a Russian-led counter to NATO.

The same month, Pashinian and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed that Russian border guards will withdraw from several regions of Armenia though they will continue to be deployed on the Armenian-Turkish and Armenian-Iranian border.

Pashinian and other Armenian leaders have said they are only "diversifying" their foreign and security policies because of what they call Russia’s failure to honor its security commitments to the South Caucasus country.

But Armenia also has boycotted high-level meetings, military exercises, and other activities of the CSTO since.

President Maia Sandu has dismissed the chief of Moldova's military as the country prepares to hold a crucial presidential election and a referendum on joining the European Union.

The move came a week after Moldova's Defense Ministry proposed that Brigadier General Eduard Ohladciuc be relieved of his position as Chief of National Army General Staff and commander of Moldova's military due to the expiry of his military service contract.

He had been appointed to the position in November 2021.

When contacted by RFE/RL, the ministry declined to say who would replace Ohladciuc and when his replacement will take over the position.

Former Defense Minister Anatol Salaru told RFE/RL that important personnel dismissals are usually discussed beforehand with the country's political leadership.

Salaru added that the name of the person who will take over the vacant position is usually known well in advance since the military "cannot remain without leadership for long."

Moldovan political analyst Andrei Curararu told RFE/RL that the reappointment or dismissal of the army chief depends not only on his performance but also on the president's "political considerations."

Under the U.S.-educated Sandu, Moldova -- one of Europe's poorest countries and a former Soviet republic where Russia maintained strong influence after Chisinau became independent more than three decades ago -- has experienced an about-face toward the West since she defeated Moscow-backed incumbent Igor Dodon in November 2020.

SEE ALSO:

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After the start of Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Sandu's government sided firmly with the European Union, condemning Moscow's war of aggression and admitting tens of thousands of refugees from neighboring Ukraine.

Chisinau eventually secured an invitation in 2022 to join the EU and started membership negotiations with the 27-member bloc in June.

Sandu, who is facing a crucial test for her reelection on October 20, has proposed holding the EU referendum simultaneously with the presidential poll.

Her administration has embarked on an effort to limit Moscow's still powerful influence in the country ahead of the polls.

Last month, Ohladciuc's predecessor, Igor Gorgan, was charged with treason and spying for Russia.

Analyst Curararu told RFE/RL that the Defense Ministry is currently undergoing a process of removing "potential intelligence sources working for Russia" and are looking for a new army chief who could manage this process faster and more efficiently.

In a separate development, Moldova's Intelligence and Security Service (SIS) banned seven mostly Russian news siteson September 26, including that of state news agency RIA Novosti, which it said posed "national security risks" for Chisinau.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban has found himself in the eye of a rare domestic political storm after his closest aide triggered scathing criticism from Hungary's opposition for suggesting Budapest wouldn't have fought to repel a Russian invasion as Ukraine has.

Balazs Orban, the nationalist prime minister's political director and not a relative, told the Mandiner website on September 26 that Ukraine's decision to resist Moscow's full-scale invasion was "irresponsible" and drew a parallel with the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary that was met by armed popular resistance and then mercilessly crushed.

"Considering 1956, we would have probably not done what [Ukrainian] President [Volodymyr] Zelenskiy did 2 1/2 years ago, as it is irresponsible, as we can see that he led his country into a defensive war, many lives were lost and territories lost," Balazs Orban, who is also a member of Hungary's parliament, said.

"Again, it's their right, it's their sovereign decision, they had the right to do it. But if we had been asked, we would not have advised it based on what happened in 1956," he added.

Some 2,500 to 3,000 Hungarians, mostly armed civilians, were killed during the fighting between October 23 and November 4, 1956, against overwhelmingly superior Soviet troops that had intervened to crush Imre Nagy's reformist government.

Hundreds of thousands of Hungarians fled into exile in the aftermath of the fighting, which came to symbolize communist-ruled Hungary's aspiration for freedom until the fall of communism in 1989.

In a video posted on his Facebook page late on September 26, Balazs Orban said that his words were "deliberately misinterpreted" and that "the heroes of 1956 are national heroes and their memory is sacred."

But his explanation fell on deaf ears with the opposition.

Peter Magyar, the leader of the center-right Tisza opposition party, immediately called for Balazs Orban's resignation.

“With these words, Balazs Orban has humiliated the memory of thousands of Hungarian freedom fighters, hundreds of whom -- unlike Balazs Orban -- were ready to sacrifice their lives for the freedom and independence of their country,” Magyar said on Facebook.

"Orban, the political director of the prime minister, has no place in Hungarian public life after today’s scandalous and traitorous statements," Magyar added.

“The Orban government would hand Hungary over to the Russians without a fight,” the leader of the center-left Democratic Coalition, former Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, wrote in a Facebook post.

The prime minister, whose cozy relationship with President Vladimir Putin, his refusal to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as well as his attacks on the rule of law and accusations of corruption have turned Hungary into the European Union's black sheep, rushed to put out the fire ignited by his aide.

In his weekly address on national radio, Viktor Orban said on September 27 that it was important to speak "very carefully and clearly" on sensitive matters.

"Now, my political director made an ambiguous statement which is a mistake, as our community stands on the basis of the 1956 revolution, has grown from it," said Orban, who has been touting himself as a defender of national sovereignty.

Hungary under Orban has also alienated its NATO allies by refusing to join sanctions against Russia and maintaining strong economic relations with Moscow. It has also refused to send arms to Ukraine, with which it shares a common border.

The Moscow City Court has placed a 72-year-old U.S. citizen in pretrial detention after prosecutors accused him of joining Ukrainian armed forces that are fighting to repel invading Russian troops, a charge that could see him imprisoned for at least seven years.

State media reported on September 27 that Stephen Hubbard, a native of Michigan, moved to the city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine in 2014, where he lived with a local woman who later left him.

As his trial opened on September 27, prosecutors requested that the court keep Hubbard in detention, claiming that he poses a flight risk and may "continue criminal activities" if released.

The judge agreed with the prosecutors' request and ruled that Hubbard must stay in pretrial detention until at least March 26, 2025.

Hubbard's previous pretrial restrictions remain unknown as there were no reports or official statements about his arrest or how he ended up in Moscow.

"We are aware of the reports of the arrest of an American citizen. Due to privacy restrictions we are unable to comment any further," the U.S. Embassy in Moscow said in a statement.

In late May 2022, three months after Russia launched its ongoing full-scale aggression against Ukraine, Telegram channels and media outlets close to the Russian government published a video with a man claiming to be Stephen James Hubbard, who said then that he and his partner moved to the town of Izyum in the Kharkiv region, where he witnessed Ukrainian armed forces "shelling Izyum for propaganda purposes and to create panic among local residents."

It was not clear in what circumstances and where the video was taken, but a woman with the Facebook profile of Trisha Hubbard Fox said in a May 27 post that her brother, Stephen James Hubbard, was "kidnapped in Ukraine nearly three years ago" and that there were two videos of him bound and being beaten by "Russian Chechen rebel soldiers."

SEE ALSO:

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

Moscow has been accused of targeting U.S. citizens by detaining them on trumped-up charges to later use as bargaining chips in talks to bring back Russians convicted of crimes in the United States and other Western nations.

Several U.S. citizens remain behind bars in Russia after a prisoner swap on August 1 involving 16 people that Moscow agreed to free in exchange for eight Russians convicted of crimes and serving prison terms in the United States and Europe.

U.S. citizens -- RFE/RL journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan were among those released by Russia.

With reporting by TASS and RIA Novosti

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had "very meaningful" discussions with former U.S. leader Donald Trump amid tensions over what critics call the ex-president's pro-Russia stance.

"A very meaningful meeting with Donald Trump," Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram following the September 27 talks at Trump Tower in New York.

"I presented him with the Victory Plan. It set out in detail the situation in Ukraine and the consequences of the war for our people. We discussed many details."

"We have a common view that the war in Ukraine must be stopped. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin cannot win. The Ukrainians must win," Zelenskiy added.

Standing next to Zelenskiy prior to the talks, Trump said that if elected in November, "We're going to work with both parties" to end the war in Ukraine.

"[I] have a very good relationship [with Zelenskiy], and I also have a very good relationship, as you know, with President Putin," Trump said.

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.

"I think if we win [in November], I think we're going to get it resolved very quickly," he added.

Prior to the meeting, U.S. media had speculated the session might not take place after Trump took offense to Zelenskiy's comments in a magazine interview that stated Trump "doesn't really know how to stop the war."

"The fact that we’re even together today is a very good sign," Trump said as the two arrived at a conference room at Trump Tower.

Zelenskiy met with Trump after holding talks with U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in Washington as Russia keeps pounding Ukraine with deadly strikes.

Relations between Zelenskiy, who is looking to shore up support for his war effort, and Trump are cool, and the meeting comes after the former U.S. president and current Republican presidential candidate reiterated his doubts that Ukraine can repel Russia's unprovoked invasion and win the war.

In a debate with Harris, Trump refused to say whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war.

Trump has also said that Ukraine should cut a deal to end the war and suggested that Kyiv should have made concessions to Russia in the months before Moscow's invasion, saying that "any deal -- the worst deal -- would’ve been better than what we have now."

On September 26, Biden welcomed Zelenskiy to the White House on September 26 after announcing billions in military aid for Kyiv and insisting again that Russia "will not prevail" in its invasion of Ukraine.

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Zelenskiy presented Biden with what he has referred to as his "victory plan" and again requested that the United States lift restrictions on the use of long-range weapons it has provided to strike deep inside Russia at military targets.

Few details are known about the "victory plan" put together by Zelenskiy, who has been on an intensive diplomatic mission since he arrived in the United States for the annual UN General Assembly earlier this week.

Zelenskiy has indicated he would again seek permission to use long-range missiles to strike military targets deep inside Russia to prevent attacks on its cities and infrastructure, a move Ukraine's allies are divided upon.

"Russia will not prevail. Ukraine will prevail, and we'll continue to stand by you every step of the way," Biden said as he hosted Zelenskiy in the Oval Office after thanking him for presenting his plan.

"We deeply appreciate that Ukraine and America have stood side by side," said Zelenskiy, dressed in a dark green military-style outfit.

Zelenskiy later shared his "victory plan" with Harris at the White House. Harris told Zelenskiy that her support for the people of Ukraine was unwavering.

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Harris also took a swipe at her opponent in the upcoming presidential elections, saying that Trump's suggestions about Ukraine cutting a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war were not proposals for peace but "proposals for surrender."

Biden earlier on September 26 announced more than $8 billion in military aid for Kyiv and repeated in a statement that the United States will "provide Ukraine with the support it needs to win this war."

The package includes for the first time a system called Joint Standoff Weapon -- a precision-guided glide bomb with a range of up to 130 kilometers launched from fighter aircraft -- as well as an additional Patriot air-defense battery and hundreds more Patriot missiles and AMRAAMs (advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles).

The United States, Ukraine's main supporter, and Western allies have given Kyiv billions of dollars in military aid and other assistance while also slapping several rounds of sanctions on Moscow.

Zelenskiy also met with U.S. lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol. After the meeting, Senator Lindsey Graham (Republican-South Carolina) said the Ukrainian president asked for only one thing: permission to use U.S. weapons to strike "legitimate military targets" deep inside Russia.

Zelenskiy told senators he planned to hit specific targets, including air bases, that the Russian military uses in its attacks on Ukraine.

In the latest massive Russian drone attack on September 27, three people were killed and another 11, including a child, were wounded in Ukraine's Danube port of Izmayil, Odesa regional Governor Oleh Kiper reported.

Izmayil is a critical hub for Ukraine's grain exports located on the border with NATO member Romania, and has been repeatedly targeted by Russian strikes.

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How NATO AWACS Reconnaissance Planes Keep An Eye On Russian Forces

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Romanian authorities in the Tulcea region just across the border from Izmayil issued an alert for the public, warning that drones had been located close to the frontier.

Later, Romania's Defense Ministry said in statement that its national airspace was likely breached for under 3 minutes by a Russian drone.

The ministry said it had scrambled two F-16 fighters belonging to the Romanian Air Force, which were later joined by two F-18 warplanes belonging to fellow NATO member Spain. All four fighter planes returned safely to their air bases in southeastern Romania, the ministry said.

At least eight transgender people have been arrested and around a dozen others were detained in Belarus since August, the transgender support organization TG House Belarus told RFE/RL on September 26.

According to a representative of TG House Belarus, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the crackdown on the LGBT community began in late August and intensified in early September. The source estimated that 15-20 LGBT individuals were arrested during this period.

The organization confirmed that at least eight transgender people were among those detained, most of whom were charged with hooliganism. Additionally, two people face criminal charges for dissemination of pornography.

The arrests occurred in several cities across Belarus. Detainees were often subjected to beatings, psychological pressure, and verbal abuse, according to the TG House Belarus representative.

Several individuals have since fled Belarus due to the escalating persecution.

"We believe this is connected to the preparation of an LGBT propaganda law that is likely to be passed soon and is currently under review," the TG House Belarus representative said.

"The groundwork for this was laid earlier in April when the Ministry of Culture passed a resolution classifying any LGBT expressions as pornography."

The legislation appears to mirror a move in Russia, where President Vladimir Putin's administration pushes what it claims are "traditional values."

In Belarus, homosexuality was decriminalized in 1994, but same-sex marriages are not recognized in the deeply conservative country and there are no antidiscriminatory measures in place to protect the rights of the LGBT community.

In 2023, the independent gay rights group ILGA-Europe said Belarus placed 45th out of 49 countries in its annual review of the human rights situation of LGBT people in Europe and Central Asia, noting that "pro-government propagandists regularly called for the persecution of LGBT activists and the closure of LGBT organisations."

The United States on September 26 imposed sanctions on an alleged Russian money-laundering operation that caters to cybercriminals around the world and unsealed indictments against two Russian nationals for their alleged involvement in the operation.

The Justice Department and the State Department said their actions in coordination with Dutch partners shut down the "prolific" money-laundering operation known as Cryptex and recovered millions of dollars in cryptocurrency.

"Today's actions highlight the Department’s continued disruption of malicious cyber actors and their criminal ecosystem," said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.

The two Russians named in the indictment, Sergei Ivanov and Timur Shakhmametov, are charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, money laundering using stolen credit and debit card information, and other charges.

Neither the Justice Department nor the State Department's statements say where the two are located. The State Department announced rewards of up to $10 million each for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Ivanov or Shakhmametov.

Ivanov's services have been used by cybercrime marketplaces, ransomware groups, and hackers responsible for significant data breaches of major U.S. companies, the Justice Department said.

Cryptex advertises its virtual currency services in Russian and has received over $51.2 million in funds derived from ransomware attacks, the Treasury Department said.

Ivanov also allegedly created and operated Russian payment and exchange services UAPS, PinPays, and PM2BTC, which the Justice Department said provided money-transfer and -laundering services directly to criminals.

Ivanov operated for nearly two decades as a professional cyber-money-launderer, advertising his services to other cybercriminals on exclusive Russian-speaking criminal forums, the Justice Department said.

In a coordinated action, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Ivanov and Cryptex, which it said is based in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines but operating in Russia.

The Treasury Department also identified PM2BTC as a "primary money-laundering concern" in connection with Russian illicit finance.

PM2BTC has long-standing ties to Russian or Russian-affiliated financial institutions that are under U.S. sanctions or other restrictions, according to the Treasury Department.

"The United States and our international partners remain resolute in our commitment to prevent cybercrime facilitators like PM2BTC and Cryptex from operating with impunity," said Bradley Smith, acting undersecretary for the Treasury Department’s terrorism and financial intelligence unit.

Individuals visiting the sites now see a message indicating that the site has been seized by the federal government. The seizure prevents the owners and third parties from using the sites for money laundering, the Justice Department said.

It also said law enforcement authorities in the Netherlands seized the servers hosting PM2BTC and Cryptex. Those servers have been taken offline, and the Dutch have seized cryptocurrency from those servers worth more than $7 million.

The State Department is also offering rewards of up to $1 million each for information identifying the leaders of PM2BTC and stolen credit-card marketplaces PinPays and Joker's Stash.

The UN General Assembly on September 26 marked the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons with a long debate on nuclear disarmament that coincidentally came just one day after Russian President Vladimir Putin caused alarm by proposing revisions to his country's nuclear doctrine.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres cited Russia at the start of the session, telling delegations that the United Nations must call on Russia "to return to the nuclear arms disarmament process."

Since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has withdrawn from two important nuclear treaties, raising concerns about the use of nuclear weapons in the conflict.

Putin further raised concerns on September 25 when he unveiled a new version of the Russian nuclear doctrine. The revised version of the document would allow the use of nuclear weapons against nonnuclear states when they are supported by nuclear powers.

The new text "proposes that aggression against Russia by any non-nuclear-weapon state, but with the participation or support of a nuclear-weapon state, should be considered as a joint attack on the Russian Federation."

SEE ALSO:

Putin Rattles The Nuclear Saber Again. Bluster? Probably, Experts Say.

Throughout the UNGA session it was apparent that the nations of the world were unequivocally against Putin's updated doctrine.

Putin's comments came just one day before the 10th annual International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, which was designated by the United Nations to promote nonproliferation, disarmament, and the subsequent elimination of nuclear weapons.

"Achieving global nuclear disarmament is the highest disarmament priority of the United Nations," the organization said on its website detailing the designation of September 26 as International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.

Despite the efforts of the world body, more than 12,000 nuclear weapons remain in the eight declared nuclear countries -- Russia, China, the United States, Britain, France, India, Pakistan, and North Korea. Israel is believed to possess nuclear weapons but operates on a policy of nondisclosure.

During the high-level meeting, representatives of all 193 UN member states were given an opportunity to speak on nuclear disarmament. Many of the delegates joined Guterres in arguing for the total elimination of nuclear weapons, who told the meeting they "deliver no real security or stability."

The U.S. representative Mallory Stewart, assistant secretary at the Bureau of Arms Control, Deterrence, and Stability, said that the United States was "ready to engage constructively with Russia on bilateral arms control."

At the same time, she highlighted Putin's withdrawal from key agreements and his rejection of "dialogue and transparency." In 2023, Putin both revoked Russian ratification of a global nuclear test ban treaty and suspended the New START nuclear treaty with the United States.

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Is This The End Of Nuclear Arms Control?

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Putin has often touted Russia's nuclear arsenal and has issued warning about the use of nuclear weapons if Russia's national sovereignty were to ever be threatened.

Stewart also spoke on the deterrence and security provided by the U.S. nuclear arsenal, which she said extends to U.S. allies, thus eliminating the need for others to pursue nuclear programs of their own.

Delegates from South Africa and Libya, which are among the few countries that had nuclear weapons programs and chose to disband them, also spoke, calling for nuclear weapons to be given up entirely by all countries. In outlining their own choices, they hoped to show to other nuclear nations the feasibility of eliminating their nuclear weapons.

Acting Libyan Foreign Minister Al-Taher Salem al-Baour asked nuclear weapons states to "do what other countries...have done" in getting rid nuclear weapons, calling them "weapons of destruction with no beneficial value."

While several other delegates called for the total elimination of nuclear weapons, Fijian President Wiliame Katonivere said the climate of distrust was evident and that the existence of nuclear weapons would only lead to suffering.

Many of the other speakers saw that progress achieved directly after the Cold War was slowly melting away, and Guterres was the most blunt about this, saying that the "risk of nuclear war is at heights not seen since the Cold War era."

U.S. President Joe Biden welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to the White House on September 26 after announcing billions in military aid for Kyiv, insisting again that Russia "will not prevail" in its invasion of Ukraine.

Zelenskiy presented Biden with what he has referred to as his "victory plan" and again requested that the United States lift restrictions on the use of long-range weapons it has provided to strike deep inside Russia at military targets.

"Russia will not prevail. Ukraine will prevail, and we'll continue to stand by you every step of the way," Biden said as he hosted Zelenskiy in the Oval Office after thanking him for presenting his plan.

"We deeply appreciate that Ukraine and America have stood side by side," said Zelenskiy, dressed in a dark green military-style outfit.

Biden, Zelenskiy Meet, Discuss New Aid Package For Ukraine

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Zelenskiy also met with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party's nominee for president, later at the White House and shared his "victory plan" with her.

Harris told Zelenskiy that her support for the people of Ukraine was unwavering.

"The Ukrainian people are bravely defending their homes and their homeland, their freedom and their democracy against a brutal dictator," Harris told Zelenskiy at the White House.

She also said that calls for Ukraine to cede territory to Russia were "dangerous and unacceptable." She added that suggestions from Republican candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, Senator J.D. Vance (Republican-Ohio), that Ukraine should cut a deal to end the war were not proposals for peace but "proposals for surrender."

Trump has said Ukraine should have made concessions to Putin in the months before Russia's invasion. At a campaign rally in North Carolina on September 25 he said, "Any deal -- the worst deal -- would’ve been better than what we have now."

Biden earlier on September 26 announced more than $8 billion in military aid for Kyiv and repeated in a statement that the United States will "provide Ukraine with the support it needs to win this war."

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 package includes for the first time a system called Joint Standoff Weapon -- a precision-guided glide bomb with a range of up to 130 kilometers launched from fighter aircraft -- as well as an additional Patriot air-defense battery and hundreds more Patriot missiles and AMRAAMs (advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles).

Biden, who is leaving office in January, said the training for Ukrainian F-16 pilots in the United States will also be expanded, including the training of an additional 18 pilots next year.

He said Washington and its partners were taking steps to disrupt a global cryptocurrency network used by Russia to evade sanctions and launder money, without elaborating.

Biden added he has called a top-level meeting of the 50 or so members of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Germany next month to better coordinate efforts to back Ukraine's defense against Russian aggression.

Zelenskiy thanked Biden in a message on X. "I am grateful to [U.S. President] Joe Biden, U.S. Congress and its both parties, Republicans and Democrats, as well as the entire American people for today's announcement," he wrote.

Zelenskiy is looking to shore up support for his war effort ahead of the U.S. presidential election pitting Harris against Trump, who announced he would meet Zelenskiy on September 27 in New York after a separate meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The United States, Ukraine's main supporter, and Western allies have given Kyiv billions of dollars in military aid and other assistance while also slapping several rounds of sanctions on Moscow.

Few details are known about the "so-called victory plan" put together by Zelenskiy, who has been on an intensive diplomatic mission since he arrived for the annual UN General Assembly earlier this week.

Zelenskiy has said the plan will be a "bridge" toward ending the conflict, while media reports said it would ask for stepped-up U.S. military and financial backing and security guarantees, as well as further sanctions on Russia.

SEE ALSO:

A Critical Trip For Zelenskiy As Battlefield Worsens And U.S. Election Looms

People close to Zelenskiy have said the main security guarantee that Kyiv is pursuing is NATO membership, a longtime demand that has been met with skepticism by the United States and its allies.

Zelenskiy has also indicated he will again seek permission to use long-range missiles to strike military targets deep inside Russia to prevent attacks on its cities and infrastructure, a move Ukraine's allies are divided upon.

The White House played down Ukraine's hopes that Zelensky's visit would achieve that goal.

"I'm not expecting there to be any new announcements on this particular action or a decision coming out of this meeting," White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

Senator Lindsey Graham (Republican-South Carolina) said earlier that failing to allow the change in strategy would be a mistake.

After meeting with Zelenskiy at the U.S. Capitol on September 26, Graham said the Ukrainian president asked for only one thing: permission to use U.S. weapons to strike "legitimate military targets" inside Russia.

Graham said he believes that actions taken this week likely will determine the outcome of the war and that outcome will be "dire" for Ukraine if there is no change in the military strategy.

"If you continue the policy of holding Ukraine back because you are worried about escalation, you will doom them to lose," Graham told reporters after meeting Zelenskiy.

The Ukrainians "don't need just nice statements anymore. They need the capability to get [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to the table. And that will only come when you can hurt Putin militarily." If Biden really wants Ukraine to prevail, he must allow Zelenskiy to execute his plan, he added.

Zelenskiy told senators the plan is to hit specific targets, including air bases, that the Russian military uses in its attacks on Ukraine. Zelenskiy believes that attacking those targets would give him leverage to get Putin to negotiate, and Graham said he believes that too.

As the diplomatic efforts took place, Ukraine felt the brunt of Russian attacks on September 25 and 26. At least eight people were killed and 44 wounded, regional officials reported.

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'It Was A Miracle': How A Ukrainian Man Survived A Russian Glide Bomb

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A child was wounded in Kyiv as the Ukrainian capital and more than 10 other regions came under a wave of Russian strikes early on September 26.

Vadym Filashkin, the governor of Donetsk, said four people were killed and 19 were wounded across the region whose civilian areas were shelled 28 times.

In Kherson, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said, two people were killed and 14 were wounded. A 62-year-old woman was killed in a rocket attack in the Odesa region, according to Governor Oleh Kiper, while one person died in Russian shelling of the Sumy region.

Overnight shelling of the southern Zaporizhzhya region wounded eight people, one seriously, Governor Ivan Fedorov reported.

Separately, Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces had captured Ukrayinsk, a town in Donetsk some 30 kilometers south of Pokrovsk, a key hub that has been in Moscow's crosshairs for the past few months.

At least 15 policemen were injured, two of them seriously, in an explosion inside a police station in northwestern Pakistan. The evening explosion on September 26 took place in the arms storage of the police station in Swabi district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, one officer told RFE/RL by phone. But another officer, who was at the scene, said the number of injured policemen could be as high as 30. There was no claim of responsibility. In April 2023, 17 people were killed in two explosions inside the office of the counterterrorism police in the Swat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The province has experienced a rise in attacks tied to Islamic militarism.

Moldova's Intelligence and Security Service (SIS) has banned seven mostly Russian news sites, including that of state news agency RIA Novosti, which it said posed "national security risks" for Chisinau.

The SIS on September 25 ordered Moldovan electronic communications providers to block access to five Russian sites -- Ng.ru, Gazetacrimea.ru, Crimea.gov.ru, Crimea.ria.ru, and Crimea24tv.ru in addition to RIA Novosti's Ria.ru site.

The seventh site that was ordered blocked by SIS is Nuacum.eu, which describes itself as the voice of a movement called Nu. Nu Acum (No. Not Now).

The site, which has been urging Moldovans to vote against joining the European Union in a referendum scheduled for next month arguing that the move is premature, features as its main driving force ex-Economy Minister Octavian Calmic.

Moldova's pro-Western president, Maia Sandu, who is running for reelection on October 20, has proposed holding the EU referendum simultaneously with the presidential election.

Under the U.S.-educated Sandu, Moldova -- one of Europe's poorest countries and a former Soviet republic where Russia maintained strong influence after Chisinau became independent more than three decades ago -- has experienced an about-face toward the West since she defeated Moscow-backed incumbent Igor Dodon in November 2020.

After the start of Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Chisinau positioned itself firmly with the West, condemning Moscow's war of aggression and admitting tens of thousands of refugees from neighboring Ukraine.

Chisinau eventually secured an invitation to join the EU in 2022 and started membership negotiations with the 27-member bloc in June.

The Russian Embassy in Moldova, which has in the past called the blocking of Russian sites "a subjective and politicized move," has not commented on the SIS decision to block the seven sites.

In June, the United States, Canada, and Britain issued a joint statement warning of Russia's plans to influence the presidential election and to dispute a result running counter to the Kremlin's interests.

The U.S. State Department has warned about Russia's attempt to influence the election.

"In defense of our shared democratic values, we are taking this step to warn our democratic partners and Allies that Russian actors are carrying out a plot to influence the outcomes of Moldova's fall 2024 presidential election," the State Department said in a statement.

"They intend to incite protests in Moldova should a pro-Russia candidate not win. They seek to foment negative public perceptions of Western governments and Moldova’s incumbent leadership, while degrading public confidence in Moldova’s ability to secure itself and maintain rule of law."

Ahead of last year's local elections, the SIS ordered the blocking of dozens of sites that it said were posing a "danger" to Moldova's news environment.

After RFE/RL found that the "blocked" sites continued to be accessible, experts said the method used by Moldovan authorities -- DNS blocking -- was inefficient.

Moldovan lawmakers earlier this year passed a law that established the institutions that have the right to block access to "criminal sites," namely the Foreign Ministry and the SIS.

A military court in Moscow on September 26 sentenced Russian actor Aleksei Panin, who currently resides in the United States, to six years in prison in absentia on a charge of justifying terrorism. The charge stems from Panin expressing support on social media in October 2022 for an explosion that seriously damaged the Kerch bridge connecting Ukraine's Russian-occupied Crimea region with Russia's Taman Peninsula. In May, Panin was added to Russia's list of extremists and terrorists. Panin has openly criticized Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

A recent incident at a school in Uzbekistan between a teacher and a sixth-grader who asked her why she didn't speak Russian in a Russian class has led to heated statements between Russian and Uzbek officials.

The incident took place at a school in the capital, Tashkent, on September 23. A female teacher in a Russian class pulled a student's ear and slapped his face after he asked her why she was not speaking Russian.

A video of the incident went viral on the Internet and sparked strong reactions from Russians on social media.

On September 25, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in an interview that Russia "has requested official explanations from the Uzbek side" regarding the incident.

"An urgent request has been sent to the Uzbek side to legally assess the material in the media and, if the case if proven, to undertake measures against the person for the cruelty imposed on the child," Zakharova said.

Alisher Qodirov, deputy chairman of the Uzbek parliament and leader of the Milliy Tiklanish (National Revival) Democratic Party, on September 26 wrote on Telegram that "it would be better for [Russia] to deal with their own affairs full of problems than to deal with our internal issues."

"The violation of rights of an Uzbek child at a school in Uzbekistan will be investigated in accordance with Uzbek laws. There is no advantage to stir up noise out of the blue," Qodirov wrote.

Although only about 2 percent of the 35 million people in Uzbekistan are ethnic Russians, the Russian language is still taught in schools across the country.

Uzbekistan and other former Soviet republics have been cautious about the Russian language in their countries after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

One of Moscow's main justifications for its aggression has been the "protection of Russian-speaking population of Ukraine" from the "Nazi government." Ukraine's government was democratically elected and does not include any far-right parties.

In early September, Qodirov proposed banning all Soviet symbols and ideology in his country in response to a court decision in the southeastern Uzbek city of Samarkand to hand a parole-like sentence to a local man after he worked with a pro-Soviet Russian group in calling for the restoration of the Soviet Union.

A relative of the late leader of the short-lived Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Dzhokhar Dudayev, was reportedly abducted and detained in the Russian North Caucasus region after he posted Dudayev's picture on Instagram.

A source in Chechnya told RFE/RL on condition of anonymity that Lom-Ali Idigov, a son of Dudayev's cousin, was still in custody in Grozny.

The source added that Chechen authorities refused to comment or explain why Idigov was detained.

The disappearance of Idigov was first reported by the Chechen opposition Telegram channel 1ADAT on September 25.

It said the "abduction" took place eight days earlier as he returned home in the village of Katayama near Grozny. Idigov had been in Moscow, where he periodically travels for business.

According to the Telegram channel, Idigov has been held in police custody without being charged with any crimes but that it came after he posted Dudayev's photo on Instagram.

Dudayev, a major general in the Soviet Air Force, was elected Chechnya's president in October 1991, less than two months before the Soviet Union collapsed, and eventually proclaimed Chechnya's independence under the name of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.

Chechnya was then officially an autonomous republic within the Russian Federation and Moscow did not recognize its independence, launching the devastating First Chechen War in December 1994.

In April 1996, a Russian missile killed Dudayev 30 kilometers from Grozny after Russian security services intercepted his satellite phone's signal while he was talking with then-Russian lawmaker Konstantin Borovoi.

The current Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, claims his father, Akhmat Kadyrov, was the first Chechen president and suppresses any mention of Dudayev in public or private.

Once a supporter of Dudayev, Akhmat Kadyrov, left pro-independence forces and started supporting Russia's federal forces and officials in autumn 1999.

In 2000, Akhmat Kadyrov became Chechnya's pro-Moscow leader. Since he was killed in a bombing attack in Grozny in May 2004, Ramzan Kadyrov has led Chechnya within the Russian Federation with an iron grip.

Pakistan's military said on September 26 that the country has signed a contract to sell JF-17 Block III fighter jets to Azerbaijan. The aircraft is co-produced by the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex and developed jointly with China, with whom Islamabad has grown increasingly close as ties with its traditional military ally, the United States, have weakened over the last few years. The military did not provide the cost or quantity of jets agreed to, but said in a statement that the sale was part of Islamabad's efforts to enhance defense cooperation with friendly countries and bolster the air-power capabilities of Azerbaijan. Pakistan is also a close ally of Turkey, which backed Azerbaijan in its standoff with Armenia when clashes erupted between the two South Caucasus countries last year, resuming decades-old hostilities.

Kyrgyz prosecutors have asked a court in Bishkek to sentence to six years in prison each of 11 former and current reporters for the Temirov Live investigative group on charges the journalists and rights groups have rejected as politically motivated.

Prosecutor Adilet Ubukeev asked the Lenin district court to convict and sentence the journalists on September 26.

Kyrgyz human rights defender Rita Karasartova decried the move, calling the prosecutors' demand "ridiculous."

"They demand six years in prison for each journalist. For what? Is journalism a crime?" she said after the court hearing.

"Is it a crime to compile journalistic materials, investigate, publish the investigation results, write about it? Is it a crime to criticize authorities?" Karasartova added while calling for the immediate release of all 11 journalists.

The journalists went on trial on June 7.

Four of them -- Makhabat Tajibek-kyzy, Azamat Ishenbekov, Aktilek Kaparov, and Aike Beishekeeva -- have been held in pretrial detention since January 16.

The other seven, Maksat Tajibek-uulu, Akyl Orozbekov, Jumabek Turdaliev, Joodar Buzumov, Saparbek Akunbekov, Saipidin Sultanaliev, and Tynystan Asypbekov, were transferred to house arrest amid an outcry from domestic and international human rights groups over the case.

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International Rights Groups Urge Bishkek To Reverse Decision To Liquidate Kloop Media

The Austrian-based International Press Institute also condemned the prosecutors' request and called on the Central Asian nation's authorities to "immediately release the journalists."

Rights groups and watchdogs have also decried the treatment of the journalists while in detention.

In April, the Kyrgyz Ombudsman's Institute said guards physically attacked Tajibek-kyzy and two of her cellmates in detention center No.1 in Bishkek.

Prosecutors said at the time that they launched a preliminary investigation into Tajibek-kyzy's complaint.

Tajibek-kyzy is the wife of prominent investigative journalist Bolot Temirov, the founder of Temirov Live who was deported to Moscow in November 2022 after a court ruled that he illegally obtained Kyrgyz citizenship.

Temirov, who held Kyrgyz and Russian passports, rejected the accusation and insisted the probe against him was launched after he published the results of an investigation suggesting corruption among top Kyrgyz officials.

Kyrgyzstan's free press and civil society have traditionally been the most vibrant in Central Asia, but that has changed amid a deepening government crackdown.

In early April, President Sadyr Japarov signed into law a controversial bill that allows authorities to register organizations as "foreign representatives," which critics say mirrors a repressive Russian law on "foreign agents" similar to one Moscow uses to muzzle independent journalism and NGOs.

German lawmakers have expressed concerns over a recent report by a Belarusian website that activists jailed by Minsk on administrative charges in 2020 were sent to work at onion plantations belonging to a company led by a German lawmaker who belongs to the far-right populist Alternative for Germany party (AfD).

According to the report, issued by Reform.news on September 24, Jorg Dornau owns an onion plantation in the Lida district of western Belarus where jailed Belarusians were paid 5 euros ($5.60) per day on a voluntary basis to work.

Kerstin Koeditz, a lawmaker in the Saxony parliament, told RFE/RL on September 26 that if the allegations are found to be true, Dornau must resign.

"This sort of business conduct may damage Germany's reputation and uncover old wounds from the fascism times of our eastern neighbors," Koeditz said.

Neither Dornau nor AfD party officials would comment on the situation when contacted by RFE/RL.

Despite being hounded by scandals, AfD, bolstered by support from disenchanted younger voters, has performed well in recent European and state elections.

The Reform.news report quoted a Belarusian man who said he worked at Dornau's onion farm in Lida while serving a 15-day jail term for liking a post on social media.

The farm belongs to Zybulka-Bel Ltd. company that was established by Dornau and Yury Kunitsky, a German citizen from the former Soviet Union.

The company was set up in October 2020, the same time as when the country's authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka's regime was violently arresting thousands of protesters who challenged the official results of an August 2020 presidential election that handed him victory despite opposition and Western claims the poll rigged.

Since then he has continued to put Belarusian behind bars for even the slightest hint of dissent.

The Reform.news report said that inmates worked at the onion fields on the basis of an agreement Dornau signed with the Center for the Isolation of Offenders in Lida.

Juliane Pfeil , a member of the Saxony parliament, told RFE/RL that Dornau had failed to fill out all necessary forms with questions regarding a separate report in April by a German newspaper Welt am Sonntag about Dornau's business in Belarus.

"Such behavior leads one to think that there is something more behind this," Pfeil said, adding Dornau has already been fined three months' pay, 20,862 euros ($23,302), for failing to fully disclose his business dealings in Belarus.

It is not illegal for German lawmakers to have private businesses in countries such as Belarus. However, lawmakers must be transparent in reporting incomes.

Roderich Kiesewetter, a member of the German Bundestag representing the Christian Democratic Union, told RFE/RL that if the allegations are proven, Dornau must face criminal prosecution.

"AfD has always been close and had ties with the dictatorships in Russia and Belarus. There were trips by party members to Belarus, and, in general, AfD is Russia's mediator in Germany, constantly involved in the destruction of the democratic state order," Kiesewetter said.

In reference to the report, the self-exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya told the Tagesspiegel newspaper it is "immoral to cooperate with Lukashenka's regime and its repressive institutions."

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on September 25 of taking billions of dollars from the United States while at the same time refusing to "make a deal" to end Russia’s full-scale invasion.

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.

Trump, who has been highly critical of the aid Washington has disbursed to Kyiv, said Ukraine should have made concessions to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the months before Russia's February 2022 attack.

"Any deal -- the worst deal -- would’ve been better than what we have now," Trump said. "If they made a bad deal, it would’ve been much better. They would’ve given up a little bit and everybody would be living, and every building would be built, and every tower would be aging for another 2,000 years.”

Trump made the remark at a campaign rally in North Carolina as Zelenskiy attended the UN General Assembly in New York ahead of a visit on September 26 to Washington, where U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to announce an additional aid package.

Trump has frequently claimed that Russia never would have invaded Ukraine if he had been U.S. president and that he would swiftly put an end to the war if he returned to the White House. But he has not presented any concrete explanation of how he would accomplish that.

In a debate earlier this month with Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump refused to say whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war.

Russia and Ukraine held several negotiations before the full-scale invasion was launched in February 2022, but Kyiv rejected the demands put forth by Moscow, which included recognizing Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea and separatist-controlled entities in Luhansk and Donetsk.

Trump’s comments in North Carolina appeared to be in response to Zelenskiy’s comments in an interview with The New Yorker in which he said Trump “doesn’t really know how to stop the war even if he might think he knows how.”

Trump noted that Zelenskiy was in the United States and said he was making “little nasty aspersions toward your favorite president, me."

He also described Ukraine as a country in ruins outside of Kyiv that is short on soldiers and questioned whether it had any bargaining chips left to negotiate an end to the war.

“What deal can we make? It’s demolished,” he added. “The people are dead. The country is in rubble.”

Zelenskiy said he would present Biden with what he calls a victory plan for the war that is expected to include a request for permission to use long-range weapons provided by the United States to strike Russian targets.

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At UN, Zelenskiy Claims Russia Plans Attacks On Ukraine's Nuclear Plants

There had been reports that a face-to-face meeting between Trump and Zelenskiy would take place in New York, but the meeting was expected to be scrapped, according to U.S. media.

The White House said Biden launched a joint declaration of support for Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction involving more than 30 countries, including the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations, and the European Union.

Biden, Zelenskiy, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen gathered with other world leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in a strong display of unity for Ukraine.

"We're committed to providing Ukraine with the resources that it needs to build back stronger than before.... You're not alone in this fight," Biden said in launching the joint declaration.

A copy of the document distributed by the White House said it was Russia's responsibility under international law to pay for damages it had caused in Ukraine.

"We reaffirm that, consistent with all applicable laws and our respective legal systems, Russia’s sovereign assets in our jurisdictions will remain immobilized until Russia ends its aggression and pays for the damage it has caused to Ukraine," it said.

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A Critical Trip For Zelenskiy As Battlefield Worsens And U.S. Election Looms

Biden said more U.S. actions to accelerate support for Ukraine will be announced on September 26.

In his remarks, Zelenskiy mentioned the U.S. Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II and said: "Today we are laying the foundation for a similar architecture of recovery."

Meanwhile, the U.S State Department announced on September 25 that Washington will provide $375 million in additional military aid to Ukraine.

The package includes high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) and mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles, as well as Javelin and tube-launched, optically-tracked, wire-guided (TOW) missiles.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

WASHINGTON -- The speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Mike Johnson (Republican-Louisiana), has called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to fire his ambassador to the United States after Zelenskiy took part in a tour of a manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania, which is seen as a battleground state in the upcoming U.S presidential election.

Johnson said in a letter to Zelenskiy on September 25 that Ambassador Oksana Markarova organized the tour of a Pennsylvania arms plant that produces munitions critical for Ukraine’s country's war effort.

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The Scranton Army Ammunition Plant is one of only two sites in the United States that produce 155-millimeter artillery shells, which are among the most important aspects of U.S. military aid to Ukraine with more than 3 million shipped to the country.

Zelenskiy visited the plant on September 22 ahead of his meetings this week at the United Nations in New York and with President Joe Biden in Washington.

Pennsylvania is one of the most important of seven swing states that will determine the U.S. election on November 5. U.S. aid to Ukraine has become an issue in the election after Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives held up the last aid package for six months in part because they said the money could be better spent at home.

Democrats argued that most of the aid is spent on military equipment manufactured in the United States and therefore protects and creates American jobs.

Johnson said the tour was led by a top political surrogate for Vice President Kamala Harris and “purposely excluded Republicans.” He did not identify that person, but Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat and vocal supporter of Harris, took part in the tour.

Johnson added that Republicans have lost trust in the ambassador’s “ability to fairly and effectively serve as a diplomat in this country” and demanded that Zelenskiy immediately remove her from her position.

“As you have said, Ukrainians have tried to avoid being ‘captured by American domestic politics, and ‘influencing the choices of the American people’ ahead of the November election,” Johnson said in the letter. “Clearly that objective was abandoned this week when Ambassador Markarova organized an event in which you toured an American manufacturing site.”

He claimed the tour intentionally failed to include a single Republican, making it a “clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats.”

The Ukrainian Embassy to the United States did not return a call from RFE/RL requesting comment.

Johnson added that support for ending Russia’s war against Ukraine “continues to be bipartisan,” but he said U.S.-Ukrainian relations are “tested and needlessly tarnished when the candidates at the top of the Republican presidential ticket are targeted in the media by officials in your government.”