U.S. President Joe Biden said on September 10 that his administration is "working out" a way to lift restrictions on Ukraine's use of long range weapons in its war against Russia. Biden responded that his administration is "working that out now" when asked if the United States would make the change. The United States has been reluctant to allow the use of weapons that it has supplied to strike targets deep inside in Russia over concern that it would escalate the conflict. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week urged Western nations to lift the restrictions, telling military and defense leaders gathered in Germany they should not restrain his country’s ability to battle the Kremlin’s forces. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said lifting the restriction would not be a game-changer in the war.

Members of several of Russia's ethnic groups held a demonstration on September 10 in Warsaw to remember ethnic Udmurt scholar and activist Albert Razin on the anniversary of his death by self-immolation in 2019.

Participants, including representatives of Tatarstan, Buryatia, Yakutia, and Circassia, held posters made by political refugee Nafis Kashapov, who refers to himself as a representative of "the government of Tatarstan in exile."

"Only after the collapse of Russia can peoples speak their native language," read one of the posters. The slogan was written in Russian, English, and Tatar.

Razin died after he lit himself on fire on September 10, 2019, outside the regional parliament in Izhevsk, capital of the Volga region of Udmurtia.

He was holding a placard reading: "If my language disappears tomorrow, I'm ready to breath my last today."

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Man Dies After Self-Immolation Protest Over Language Policies In Russia's Udmurtia

At the time of his death he was an associate professor, an honored scholar of Udmurtia, and an active participant in the national movement Udmurt Kenesh.

Razin, 79, was among a group of local experts who signed an open letter in June 2018 calling on the Udmurt parliament not to support a bill that canceled the mandatory teaching of indigenous languages in regions and republics where non-Russian ethnic groups are well-represented.

Officials insisted the change was not aimed at destroying linguistic diversity but would help save some languages from extinction by speeding up the process for approving orthography norms.

But activists considered it an existential threat to their cultures.

The demonstrators in Warsaw aimed to draw attention to the controversial language policy, which banned students from taking final exams in any language other than Russian.

In 2019, a commissioner with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe assessed that the opportunities for Tatars in Tatarstan to access the study of their language and culture remain quite limited despite Tatar also being an official language of Tatarstan. The commissioner told RFE/RL at the time that he was surprised that the Unified State Exam in Tatarstan was only offered in Russian.

Against this backdrop, a provision enshrined in 2020 in the Russian Constitution made Russian the language of the "state-forming people" of Russia. This amendment, proposed by President Vladimir Putin, was seen by experts and activists as reinforcement of the dominant position of both the Russian language and Russian identity.

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Russia's State Duma OKs Controversial Bill Allowing Government To Standardize Indigenous Languages

A member of the Belarusian opposition who took part in the demonstration in Warsaw told RFE/RL that Razin's suicide was a protest against Russian "imperialism."

"People learned about the tragedy that the Udmurt people and all other peoples who have the misfortune of being under the rule of imperial Moscow are experiencing," said Vyachaslau Siuchyk of the Belarusian opposition movement Together.

"That is why I considered it my duty to come to the action announced by the League of Free Nations. Moscow has long ago severed all ties between peoples who should unite," he said. "There should be no place for this evil empire in human civilization."

Kashapov said the Tatars, Bashkirs, Chuvashes and other non-Russian people inhabiting Russia are in the same tragic situation as the Udmurt people with respect to language.

"Russia is destroying their languages and culture. But the collapse of the Putin regime is inevitable. Streets, institutes, educational institutions will be named after Albert Razin," Kashapov predicted.

Ibragim Yaganov, a representative of the Circassian National Movement, told RFE/RL that language is "the storehouse" of any nation.

"When a nation loses its language…[it] loses its identity, he said.

Raisa Zubareva, an activist for the independence of Sakha in Yakutia, said she understood Razin's actions and how much he realized the full depth of the tragedy while at the same time feeling hopeless and great pain for the Udmurt people.

"Now we understand that only dismantling, only disintegration, and only independence will save our nations from this monster that swallows nations whole," she said.

Based on data from the Education Ministry, from 2016 to 2023, the proportion of schoolchildren who learn entirely in their native languages fell from 1.98 percent to 0.96 percent.

At the same time, the number of pupils who learn entirely in their native languages fell from 292,000 to 173,500, although the number of children in schools increased by 3.2 million over those seven years.

TBILISI -- The ruling Georgian Dream party on September 10 selected Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire and former prime minister, as its lead candidate for a parliamentary election on October 26.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, a close Ivanishvili ally, was designated the party's No. 2 candidate while Irakli Gharibashvili, chairman of the party and former prime minister, is third.

The list's top 10 also includes other party leaders, including party chairman Irakli Gharibashvili, who previously served as prime minister, and Olympic athletes Lasha Talakhadze, a weightlifter, and Geno Petriashvili, a freestyle wrestler.

Ivanishvili, who served as prime minister from 2012-2013, has been honorary chairman of the Georgian Dream party since December. He has played a major role in a political crisis surrounding Georgia's law on "foreign agents," which was pushed through by the government earlier this year despite large-scale protests.

In a speech in April, Ivanishvili lashed out against the West, saying the foreign agent law was necessary to defend Georgian sovereignty against attempts by a "global war party" to drag Georgia into confrontation with Russia.

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Defying Controversial 'Foreign-Agent' Law, Georgian NGOs Are Ready To Fight

The United States and other Western nations expressed concern about the law, which requires organizations that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as "agents of foreign influence."

Tens of thousands of Georgians demonstrated against the bill despite a brutal crackdown and violent retaliation. Most protesters referred to the bill as "the Russian law" because of its similarity to decade-old legislation in Russia that has contributed to a fierce clampdown on independent media and public dissent there.

The European Union reacted to the enactment of the bill by pausing EU accession negotiations, while the United States opted to launch a "comprehensive review" of relations with Georgia.

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili last month signed a decree announcing October 26 as the day for the parliamentary polls, calling the elections a choice between "being Russia's slave or cooperation with Europe."

Polls show that Georgian Dream remains the country's single most popular party ahead of the October election.

The Russian Investigative Committee said on September 10 that a court in the Perm region sentenced a man to 12 years for committing numerous violent crimes against his wife, including rape, robbery, and axing off her right hand. The man, whose identity was not disclosed, was found guilty of inflicting serious bodily harm for axing off her hand. A similar high-profile crime near Moscow in 2017 shocked Russians after a man axed off both his wife's hands. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Russia has been criticized for adopting a law in 2017 that decriminalized some forms of domestic violence, one of the country's most challenging decades-long problems. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Idel.Realities, click here.

The Tajik Embassy in Moscow on September 10 warned citizens against traveling to Russia for the time being, citing beefed-up security measures and increased document checks by Russian border guards. Last week, the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry put out a similar statement to its citizens citing the same reasons. Central Asian migrant workers and visitors have faced increased scrutiny from Russian authorities following a deadly terrorist attack at an entertainment center near Moscow in March that left more than 140 people dead and hundreds injured. Russia arrested 12 suspects, mostly from Tajikistan. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Tajik Service, click here.

The Minsk City Court on September 10 started the trial of Belarusian historian Ihar Melnikau on a charge of facilitating extremist activities. It is unclear what the charge stems from. The 44-year-old historian was arrested in January. If convicted, Melnikau would face up to seven years in prison. Former Belarusian presidential candidate Alyaksandr Milinkevich told RFE/RL that Melnikau's case appears to be connected to his work on historical ties between Belarus and Poland contradicting the stance of pro-Moscow historians and the concept formed during the Soviet era and promoted by authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka's government. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Belarus Service, click here.

Foreign nationals serving terms in Russian prisons have been asked to write requests to serve the remainder of their terms in their homeland following two recent hostage-taking crises at Russian penitentiaries, IStories said on September 10.

The news website cited rights defender Ivan Astashin and a source close to correctional colony No. 17 in Russia's Mordovia region as saying foreign nationals have been advised to officially request a transfer to their home country as prison administrators seek to avoid dramatic hostage-taking events similar to those in Rostov-on-Don and correctional colony No. 19 in the Volgograd region.

According to the sources one Belarusian, three Kyrgyz, one Polish, and two U.S. citizens who are serving terms on different charges at the penal colony in Mordovia are currently awaiting transfers to their homelands.

Also, a Ukrainian citizen serving a term at correctional colony No. 8 in the Russian region of Voronezh told Astashin he had been approached by a penitentiary official who recommended he request a transfer to Ukraine. The man has been in jail in Russia since before Russia launched its ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov told IStories that the transfers would most likely be made as deportations and not as extraditions as those would require special requests from other countries.

In late August, several inmates from Central Asia at correctional colony No.19 in the southwestern region of Volgograd took guards hostage, killing four of them. Officials said at the time that all the hostage-takers were liquidated.

The violence took place after six inmates at a detention center in the city of Rostov-on-Don took two guards hostage in June. Several hours later, Russian officials said the hostages were released and the hostage-takers killed.

In both cases, the hostage-takers claimed they were members of the Islamic State extremist group.

A court in Uzbekistan's southeastern city of Samarkand on September 10 sentenced local blogger Bahodur Hasanov to 10 days in jail on charges of hooliganism and insulting a person. Hasanov's father told RFE/RL that the court also ordered Hasanov to pay a fine of 2,500 soms (about $200). Hasanov rejects the charges. His relatives say the case against him is retaliation by local officials for his reports about social and economic challenges faced by local residents and corruption among the authorities. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Tajik Service, click here.

Nine Pakistan MPs from jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan's party were among more than 30 people remanded in custody on September 10 under a new law restricting protests. It comes two days after thousands of supporters of Khan's Pakistan Tehrik-e Insaf (PTI) party gathered in the capital, Islamabad, on September 8 for a rally that was broken up with tear gas. The party has faced a sweeping crackdown since Khan was jailed in August 2023 on a series of charges that he says are politically motivated and designed to keep him from power. The MPs appeared at an anti-terrorism court in Islamabad where a judge remanded them in custody for eight days, AFP reported. They are accused of violating the recently passed Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Act 2024, according to a charge sheet seen by AFP in court.

The United States on September 10 issued new sanctions on Iran in response to Tehran's military support to Russia, including the alleged recent delivery of ballistic missiles, for use in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S. Treasury Department designated 10 individuals and six entities based in Iran and Russia for sanctions and identified four vessels as blocked property that the Treasury Department said are enabling Iran’s delivery of weapons components and weapons systems to Russia. The weapons that the United States said were transferred include drones and close-range ballistic missiles (CRBMs).

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"In late 2023, Iran and Russia signed a contract for the supply of hundreds of missiles. In the summer of 2024, Russian military personnel were trained on the use of Iran’s Project 360 CBRMs by Iranian personnel," the Treasury Department said in a statement, adding that Russia received the first shipment of CBRMs from Iran earlier this month.

The announcement came after the United States and key European allies accused Iran of a dangerous escalation in a pattern of malign activity that threatens European security by supplying the short-range ballistic missiles to Russia.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his British counterpart, David Lammy, officially accused Iran of the missile transfers earlier on September 10 in London.

"Russia has now received shipments of these [Iranian] ballistic missiles and will likely use them within weeks in Ukraine against Ukrainians," Blinken said.

The Kremlin has yet to comment on Blinken's statement. A day earlier it declined to directly refute the accusation about Iranian-supplied missiles and instead highlighted its cooperation with Tehran, saying it was developing dialogue in all areas. Tehran has denied supplying missiles to Moscow.

After Blinken and Lammy's statements, the German Foreign Ministry called out Iran for its support of Russia's "war of aggression," noting that Iranian missiles could as a result be striking European soil.

It shared a joint German, French, and British statement condemning the transfers, calling them "an escalation by both Iran and Russia" and "a direct threat to European security."

Experts agree that short-range ballistic missiles could be a boost to Moscow's war effort in neighboring Ukraine, which already benefits from Iranian drone supplies and technology.

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The U.S. Treasury Department's statement said Iran Air -- the country's flagship airline -- was one of the entities designated for sanctions. It said its actions against the airline and other entities, individuals, and vessels were "concurrent" with actions announced by international partners.

"Iran Air has a history of transporting goods on behalf of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics," the department said. "Iran has also provided freight shipping services to Russia, including shipments of electronics and aircraft parts."

Iran-based Azadegan Transportation Co., another IRGC-affiliated company critical to the logistics operations of the IRGC, is another of the entities hit by U.S. sanctions, which freeze any assets the individuals and entities hold in U.S. jurisdiction and bar any transactions with U.S. persons.

Peter Stano, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, said the transfer of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia represents a further military escalation and will be met with a "strong response" from the European Union.

The EU's diplomatic service has already presented EU members with "a substantial set of decisive and targeted measures" against Iran in response to the transfer, Stano said.

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How Would Iran Benefit From Exporting Ballistic Missiles To Russia?

"A delivery of ballistic missiles will likely assist Russia's escalatory bombing campaign against Ukrainian civilians, cities and civilian infrastructure, further increasing civilian casualties and destruction," Stano said.

Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's chief of staff, said new sanctions against Iran over the missile deliveries would be a "positive step" but said it was not enough.

"We also need authorization to use Western weapons against military targets on Russian territory, the provision of longer-range missiles, and the enhancement of our air-defense systems," Yermak said on X.

The Wall Street Journal and other U.S. media have quoted anonymous sources asserting that the Iranian missiles have come at a crucial juncture in the 36-month-old full-scale invasion.

Support for Ukraine in its defense against Russia's invasion is one of the main agenda items during Blinken's London visit, which was to include a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Reiterating ongoing U.S. and U.K. support for Kyiv, Blinken and Lammy announced their plans to travel this week to Ukraine in what Lammy called "the first joint visit of this kind for well over a decade."

"This is a troubling action that we're seeing from Iran," Lammy said. "It is definitely a significant escalation and we are coordinating."

The Blinken-Lammy meeting came with the secretary of Iran's Security Council, Ali Akbar Ahmadian, in Russia for a meeting later this week of security officials from countries in the BRICS grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa and other major emerging economies.

Lammy said the United States and the United Kingdom are "completely aligned on the need to tackle Iran's malign activity in the region and beyond."

"We're seeing a disturbing pattern of greater Iranian support for the Kremlin's illegal group, and we discussed today our shared commitment to holding Tehran to account for their undermining of global stability," Lammy said.

Blinken said the alleged Iranian supply of short-range ballistic missiles gives Russia added capability and flexibility, and would free up Moscow to devote other resources to longer-range targets in the ongoing war on Ukraine.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP

Hungary's government on September 10 welcomed a deal reached by energy company MOL aimed at guaranteeing the supply of Russian oil through Ukraine after Kyiv restricted transit. In July, Hungary and Slovakia accused Kyiv of endangering their energy security by barring Russian energy giant LUKoil from using the Ukrainian section of the Druzhba pipeline. But MOL announced on September 9 that it had reached a "sustainable solution" securing the transportation of oil to the two countries by concluding agreements with suppliers and pipeline operators. As part of the deal, MOL said it would "take over ownership of the affected volumes of crude oil at the Belarus-Ukraine border" from September 9. It added that the updated arrangements complies with EU sanctions.

A Kazakh activist has been fined for a YouTube clip questioning government plans for a nationwide referendum on the construction of a nuclear power plant.

Abzal Dostiyarov streamed the session of the Auezov district court in Almaty on September 10 at which he was found guilty of violating the law on public polling and ordered to pay a 55,350-tenge ($115) fine.

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

"I reject the charge. There were opinions of our subscribers compiled under our video. It was not a poll for all the citizens of the country, it was just feedback," Dostiyarov said. He alleged that the court's ruling was politically motivated.

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

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

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Amid Government Push, Russia Looms Large Over Kazakh Nuclear Power Debate

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

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

Hours before his decree was made public on September 2, President Toqaev reiterated his support for the plant's construction.

There has been no official information about a proposed site, but a public debate was held last year in the village of Ulken on the shore of Lake Balkhash, in the southeastern region of Almaty, on the possibility of constructing a nuclear power station there.

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

Kazakh officials avoided answers, saying the decision would be made after a referendum.

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

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

On September 3, the chairwoman of Kazakhstan's Central Commission on Referendums, Sabila Mustafina, said 15.5 billion tenges ($32.5 million) has been requested to conduct the referendum.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on September 10 expressed hopes for a second peace summit that could dramatically increase the number of national countries from a similar gathering in Switzerland three months ago aimed at ending the current war with Russia.

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At his first press conference since a government shakeup last week, Shmyhal told journalists that he hoped the next peace summit could be organized by the end of the year and attract at least 150 countries.

In one of the most public pushes for a cease-fire since the two-and-a-half-year-old defense against a full-scale Russian invasion began in early 2022, Kyiv pressed for a Swiss summit in June where 80 countries called for the territorial integrity of Ukraine to be the foundation of any eventual peace deal.

Russian officials, whom Kyiv has accused of being unprepared and unserious about possible peace talks, were not invited to that gathering.

China, which has backed Russia diplomatically since its "no limits" partnership with Moscow was inked in the weeks before Russian troops rolled en masse into Ukraine, declined to attend.

Before the Swiss event, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued harsh terms for a cease-fire that included the full handover of four regions Russia claimed to annex in 2022.

Russian invasion forces are said to control about one-fifth of Ukraine, including the Crimean Peninsula occupied and annexed in 2014. It has repeatedly organized internationally unrecognized elections in occupied parts of Ukraine, including last weekend.

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Wartime Imitation: Russia Holds Illegitimate Elections In Occupied Crimea

Ukraine has claimed control of around 1,200 square kilometers of Russian territory since a surprise incursion into Russia's southern Kursk region was launched in early August.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last week that "we don't need their land" but that the incursion allows for potential bargaining chips in the form of captured land and troops.

Zelenskiy has repeatedly pushed back against reports of international pressure that might encourage Kyiv to give up hope of regaining control of all its territory in exchange for peace.

Russian media on September 10 quoted former Russian Defense Minister and current Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu as saying the Kursk attack was intended to distract Moscow from its goals in eastern Ukraine. But, he said, Russian forces are continuing their offensive.

At the press conference in Kyiv, Shmyhal said Ukraine significantly boosted its weapons production on the previous year and hoped to produce 1 million drones -- a critical tool to resist larger Russian forces -- by the end of the year.

"In the first eight months of 2024, we have doubled our weapons production compared to 2023. We are making progress. Drone production continues to grow," he was quoted as saying.

Shmyhal also touted the relative success of the Ukrainian economy in the form of 3.7 percent growth in the second quarter and modest inflation.

He claimed that Ukrainian exports were nearing prewar levels.

But Shmyhal acknowledged that talks with the monitoring mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were "difficult" and rife with challenges.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

A Russian saxophonist known for his anti-war stance has been transferred from a detention center to a prison infirmary in Samara after reports of an extension of his pretrial detention exposed a serious medical condition. During the hearing on August 28, Andrei Shabanov, who suffers from autoimmune diseases and a serious spinal condition, accused the judge of ignoring his health. He removed his shirt, revealing severe lesions all over his body. Shabanov was arrested in April and charged with making online calls for terrorism, which he and his supporters deny. The charge stems from Shabanov's online posts condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Idel.Realities, click here.

Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic said on September 10 that no one will simply take Anglo-American multinational Rio Tinto "at its word" and the state will instead seek documented guarantees ahead of work on a recently revived -- and fiercely contentious -- plan to create Europe's biggest lithium mine in that Balkan country.

Vucevic's comments followed a weekend meeting with citizens by Rio Tinto representatives and President Aleksandar Vucic, who has been one of the multibillion-dollar Jadar project's most vocal supporters since a memorandum of understanding was inked between Rio Tinto and the Serbian government in 2017.

Vucevic, who became prime minister in early May, said the Serbian state won't allow lithium mining without guarantees that water and public health will be protected.

"For the first three or four hours, people asked questions," Vucevic said of the weekend forum. "For the first time, we heard Rio Tinto's answers. We faced arguments. The situation is much clearer and better when there is communication."

Vucevic said the Serbian public still hadn't gotten answers to many questions. "If we preserve nature and people, only then can we think about the economic benefit," he said.

The project's permits were revoked by a previous government in 2022 under intense public pressure over land sales and environmental concerns from the mine, before a Constitutional Court decision reversed the stoppage in July and the government quickly revived its preparations.

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Protests Flare Up In Serbian Towns Over Reversal On Huge Lithium Mine

Public anger in the heavily polluted former Yugoslav republic re-erupted and significant protests have continued despite what demonstrators complain is a refusal by Serbian state television to adequately cover the outcry.

Rio Tinto, which has faced backlash over alleged failures at other projects around the world, says Jadar could provide nearly 60,000 tons of lithium a year and thus meet about one-fifth of the needs for Europe's electric-vehicle production.

The company has previously told RFE/RL's Balkan Service that "domestic and international experts have confirmed that the 'Jadar' project can be implemented safely and in accordance with the highest standards of environmental protection."

In a notable indication of support for a project seen as furthering the bloc's climate and energy-independence goals, German and EU officials traveled to Belgrade in conjunction with a memorandum of understanding on "a strategic partnership on sustainable raw materials, battery value chains, and electric vehicles."

Lithium is used in batteries for electric cars, smartphones, and laptops.

The European Union mostly depends on China for its lithium, which it classifies as a critical raw material.

Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic last week lamented that "we have already lost two years -- we could have been first in this race," but said it could take another two years for Rio Tinto to secure the proper permits for construction of the mine.

She said an environmental impact study was essential to any further progress.

A local court in the Moscow region on September 9 sentenced an engineer at a military factory in the city of Dubna to three years in prison for writing pro-Ukrainian messages on key chains. The court found Sergei Krasyuk guilty of discrediting the Russian military by writing "Glory to Ukraine," "Ukraine Will Prevail," and "Putin is a Thief" on key chains used for mobile-phone storage boxes. The OVD-Info group, which monitors arrests and trials of anti-war activists, says at least 1,033 probes have been launched against individuals thought to have publicly condemned the war against Ukraine. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

A court of appeals in St. Petersburg on September 9 rejected an appeal filed by physicist Anatoly Maslov against the 14-year prison sentence he was handed in May on a high treason charge. The 77-year-old expert in the field of fluid gas was arrested in 2022 on suspicion of passing classified information to a foreign country. Maslov rejects the charge. At least 12 scientists have been arrested in Russia on treason charges since 2018, mostly for activities considered a normal part of scientific work, such as publishing papers internationally, collaborating with colleagues from other countries, and attending international conferences. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Andriy Kostin accused an unnamed Russian Air Force commander of ordering a devastating air strike on a children's hospital in Kyiv in July, during a September 10 visit to the scene of the tragedy alongside the International Criminal Court's (ICC) visiting top prosecutor.

ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan told journalists near the heavily damaged Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital that a Kh-101 cruise missile appeared to have been identified as the projectile in the attack.

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But Khan stopped short of assigning culpability for the bombing, which killed dozens of people and shocked the international community despite two years of scenes of suffering and death from Russia's grinding 2-year-old invasion.

Khan is in Ukraine to bolster his intergovernmental court's pursuit of justice for alleged Russian war crimes that have produced international warrants for senior Russian leaders all the way up to President Vladimir Putin.

Kostin hinted at the identity of the Russian commander that Kyiv believes ordered the bombardment that struck Okhmatdyt only by saying the ICC had already issued an international arrest warrant for the suspect.

The ICC agreed in March to Khan's request for warrants over unspecified energy and other attacks against Sergei Ivanovich Kobylash, whom it identified as "a lieutenant general in the Russian armed forces who at the relevant time was commander of the long-range aviation of the Aerospace Force," and Viktor Nikolayevich Sokolov, "an admiral in the Russian Navy, who at the relevant time was commander of the Black Sea Fleet."

"We are continuing the investigation to find other people responsible for the strike on Okhmatdyt," Kostin said on September 10.

Kostin added that the Kh-101 cruise missile that struck Okhmatdyt had been fired from a Russian bomber.

Khan has homed in on possible war crimes since early in the full-scale invasion, announcing an investigation in March 2022 of potential crimes spanning back beyond Russia's covert invasion of Ukraine in early 2014.

He and other ICC officials have made multiple visits to Ukraine since February 2022.

In February 2023, Khan launched criminal warrants for Putin and Russia's commissioner for children's rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, over the unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia from occupied areas of Ukraine.

The ICC has since issued the Kobylash and Sokolov warrants for actions that it said constituted war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Russia has denied targeting civilians despite near-constant attacks on Ukrainian population centers.

Moscow is not a party to the 1998 Rome Statute that established the ICC and has accused the court of being a "puppet body" serving narrow Western interests.

Ukraine is also not among the 120-plus Rome Statute signatories, but Kyiv has accepted ICC jurisdiction in past cases on its territory.

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Explainer: Putin's Mongolia Visit Shows Limits Of International Criminal Court

Other targets of ICC warrants include Israel's leadership and current and former leaders of Hamas, the U.S.- and EU-designated terrorist organization whose incursion from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel on October 7 killed at least 1,200 people, many of them civilians, sparking a yearlong Israeli military response that has devastated Gaza and its residents, and threatened a broader conflict.

In addition to pursuing senior Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes, Khan has sought warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yaov Gallant over the Israeli military response in the Gaza Strip where 2 million Palestinians resided.

Armenia became the 124th state party to the Rome Statute in February, months after archfoe Azerbaijan's lightning offensive forced the capitulation of ethnic Armenian forces who had controlled the internationally recognized Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh for decades.

The Azerbaijani takeover prompted some 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee the region and elicited accusations in Yerevan of war crimes.

With reporting by Reuters

Ukrainian officials said on September 10 that a widespread Russian drone-and-missile attack had targeted Kyiv and critical infrastructure in Ukraine's northeast in addition to other regions, while Russian officials said an overnight swarm of attack drones from Ukraine killed a woman near the capital and grounded flights at three Moscow airports.

Moscow region Governor Andrei Vorobyov said a 46-year-old woman was killed and four others injured in the town of Ramenskoye when drones struck multistory buildings in the Moscow region.

Dozens of residents were evacuated from a heavily damaged apartment block, officials said.

• RFE/RL
• Kurt Vinion
• AP
• Reuters

On September 10, Ukraine launched its largest drone strike yet on the Moscow region, killing one woman, damaging dozens of homes, and causing the diversion of nearly 50 flights from Moscow-area airports. The attack represents a significant escalation in the ongoing conflict.

Local media quoted Russian defense sources as saying air defense units had destroyed 144 Ukrainian drones over nine Russian regions overnight.

Russia's national aviation authority Rosaviyatsiya said that following the drone attacks, flights had been suspended at three of Moscow's international airports -- Domodedovo, Zhukovsky, and Vnukovo -- for safety reasons.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

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A few hours later the airports were said to be operating normally.

The Ukrainian Air Force, meanwhile, said Russia attacked overnight with two missiles and at least 46 drones. It said it had shot down 38 of the drones.

The military administration in the Ukrainian capital said its air defenses had shot down all of the UAVs headed for Kyiv after an air alert that began around 4 a.m. local time and lasted about two hours.

Kyiv officials said there had been no damage in the city.

In Ukraine's northwestern Sumy region, the military administration said Russian forces had attacked critical infrastructure facilities but said air defenses had blunted the attack.

RFE/RL could not immediately verify the claims by either side.

A major feature of Moscow's offensive since the early months of its 36-month-old full-scale invasion, Russian missile and rocket attacks on population centers and power and other infrastructure throughout the country have been increasingly countered with cross-border drone attacks by Ukraine.

With reporting by Reuters

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin on September 9 discussed the upcoming BRICS summit with Sergei Shoigu, formerly Russia's defense minister, who now serves as the secretary of the Security Council.

President Vladimir Putin invited Serbia to attend the BRICS summit, which is scheduled to be held on October 22-24 in the Russian city of Kazan.

Vulin, who was criticized for traveling to Russia last week and meeting with Putin on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok, met with Shoigu in Moscow after Putin invited Serbia to take part in a meeting in St. Petersburg of high security representatives of BRICS and partner countries organized by Russia's Security Council ahead of the summit.

BRICS unites Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa and has expanded since its founding to include other major emerging economies including the United Arab Emirates and Iran.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on September 5 that Serbia would have "important guests from abroad" during the BRICS summit in October and said he would not be able to attend. A day later he said he would decide by the middle of next month whether to accept Putin’s invitation.

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Vucic's Delicate Balancing Act

Vulin thanked Shoigu for the invitation to participate in the St. Petersburg meeting. He and Shoigu also discussed "a wide range of topics of common interest to Serbia and the Russian Federation," the Serbian government said in a statement.

One of the topics was the situation in Kosovo, which Vulin said at the meeting was "on the verge of conflict" and thanked Russia for respecting Serbia's territorial integrity. Serbia does not recognize Kosovo's independence, and Russia supports Belgrade's position.

The latest tensions involved border crossings between Serbia and Kosovo that were closed over the weekend after blockades on the Serbian side organized in response to decisions by the government of Kosovo to close parallel Serbian institutions in the north of the country. The border crossings reopened on September 7 after the activists took down their blockades.

SEE ALSO:

Kosovo Reopens Border Crossings After Serbian Activists End Blockades

Vulin told Putin during their September 4 meeting in Vladivostok that Serbia will "never become a NATO member, will never impose sanctions on the Russian Federation, and will never allow any anti-Russian actions to be carried out from its territory."

EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano responded by saying that maintaining or increasing ties with Russia amid its full-scale war in Ukraine “is not compatible with EU values and is not compatible with the EU accession process."

Police in Islamabad have launched a crackdown against the central leadership of former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehrik-e Insaf party. Police conducted raids to carry out the arrest of various party leaders. Those arrested included the chairman of the party, Gohar Ali Khan, central leader and member of parliament Sher Afzal Marwat, and party General Secretary Omar Ayub. The arrests came a day after Khan's party held a rally near Islamabad to demand his release. Khan is the main rival of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Rally participants vowed to use force if Khan isn't released within two weeks. Khan has been imprisoned since August 2023, and remains a popular figure despite a series of criminal cases against him.

Kazakhstan's Supreme Court on September 9 refused to hear an appeal filed by the leader of the Democratic Party of Kazakhstan, Zhanbolat Mamai, against a parole-like six-year prison setence, citing "lack of reasons" for the appeal. Mamai was sentenced in April 2023, and a court of appeals in June upheld the ruling. Mamai, his supporters, and a rights group have insisted the case is politically motivated. The charges are related to the unprecedented mass protests in January 2022 that turned deadly. Mamai has been trying to register his party for years, but claims he is being prevented from doing so by the government. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kazakh Service, click here.

The Afghan Embassy in London is being shut down after its diplomats were dismissed by the country's Taliban rulers, Britain's Foreign Office said on September 9.

A Foreign Office statement e-mailed to RFE/RL said the embassy "is being closed following the dismissal of its staff by the Taliban." Britain does not recognize the Taliban-led government.

But the Afghan ambassador said the decision was made "based on the requirements of the host country's authorities." Zalmai Rassoul said on X that the embassy would shut its doors on September 27 "at the official request of the host country."

Neither the U.K. government nor the ambassador said what would happen to the embassy's staff, but a source at the Afghan Embassy who spoke with RFE/RL said the British government had given embassy staff 90 days to leave the country or apply for political asylum.

The source said the British Foreign Office also said that the embassy building would not be handed over to the Taliban and that the British government would not allow any Afghan political representation or consulate to operate until a recognized government was established in Afghanistan.

The Taliban-led government had asked the embassy staff to interact with the Foreign Office, but the embassy staff refused, and as a result, the embassy's services were declared invalid by the Taliban.

The news has worried Afghans living in Britain, who fear problems without the diplomatic services.

"After this, we Afghans will face many challenges because Afghans need to renew their passports, identity cards, and other documents," Sayed Shah Kharoti and Malik, two Afghans living in London, told RFE/RL.

Diplomats who served under Afghanistan's former Western-backed government were left in limbo when the Taliban seized Kabul and returned to power in August 2021. Many embassies in Europe and beyond have continued to operate.

In another indication that this could be changing, the Afghan Embassy in Oslo announced on September 9 that it will cease its activities as of September 12 and hand over the embassy building, which is the property of Afghanistan, to the Norwegian Foreign Ministry.

SEE ALSO:

Taliban Cuts Ties With 14 Afghan Diplomatic Missions Abroad

The Taliban administration announced in July that it no longer recognized diplomatic missions set up by the former Western-backed government and that documents issued by embassies in Britain and 13 other mostly European countries were invalid.

Many Taliban leaders are under sanctions, and no country officially recognizes them as Afghanistan's legitimate rulers, though some countries retain active diplomatic missions in Afghanistan, including Pakistan, Turkey, Qatar, and China.

SEE ALSO:

Which Countries Have Relations With The Taliban's Unrecognized Government?

Afghanistan has sent Taliban-approved diplomats to some of those countries, including Pakistan and China.

Britain and other Western countries are grappling with how to provide humanitarian aid Afghans without recognizing the Taliban-led government, which has dramatically curtailed education, employment, and personal freedom for women and girls.

With reporting by AP

A former salesman for a manufacturer of laser welding machines was arrested on September 9 on charges that he conspired to evade U.S. export-control laws in order to sell his company's products to a division of the Russian state nuclear company Rosatom. Sam Bhambhani was charged in an indictment with working with a Russian citizen who resold laser equipment to the Russian government. It alleges they used falsified export documents to conceal the true end-user of the machines from the U.S. government. The indictment was filed in federal court in Boston. The equipment was sold from 2015 to 2021 to a subsidiary of Rosatom in Yekaterinburg, Russia, that produced components for nuclear munitions and various civilian goods, according to the indictment. A lawyer for Bhambhani did not respond to a request for comment, according to Reuters.

Two more former convicts recruited by the Wagner mercenary group have been handed lengthy prison terms for murders in Siberia.

A court in the Siberian region of Khakassia on September 9 sentenced a former Wagner Group mercenary pulled from prison to fight in Ukraine to eight years in prison for shooting a man to death for questioning his parking.

Andrei Ashcheulov was serving an 18-year prison term for leading a criminal group when he was recruited by Wagner to fight in Ukraine in 2023.

He was pardoned after he returned from the war.

Also on September 9, a court in the Siberian region of Omsk sentenced another former inmate and Wagner recruit, Sergei Kozlov, who killed his pregnant 18-year-old girlfriend in October 2023.

The Omsk regional court also ordered the 36-year-old Kozlov to pay 12 million rubles ($11,060) to his victim's family.

In 2021, Kozlov was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison for attacking a woman and her daughter with an ax. In 2022, he was recruited by Wagner and went to fight in Ukraine.

A year ago, he returned from the war.

In a report in July, the Agentstvo Telegram channel said that as of October 4, 2023, 27 people had been killed in 20 incidents by former military personnel who returned home from the war in Ukraine.

According to Agentstvo, 12 of the registered deadly incidents involved former Wagner mercenaries.

Courts in Russia tend to hand mitigated sentences to such persons, citing their "patriotism" and "contributions" they made to Russia's war against Ukraine.

Wagner's late leader and founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said in late June 2023 that 32,000 former inmates recruited by his group from prison had returned home after being granted clemency as part of their remuneration for fighting in Ukraine.