BELGRADE -- Thousands of LGBT supporters turned out on September 7 for a Pride march in Belgrade, where organizers said their demands that the government pass laws to recognize same-sex unions and gender identity remain their top priorities.

Marchers waved rainbow flags as they walked along a route secured by a heavy police presence behind a colorful banner with the phrase "Pride Means People" in Serbian. Several beat drums, while others held posters with phrases such as, “No one is free until everyone is free,” and, “Love wins.”

Subscribe To RFE/RL's 'The Rundown'

Get a curated digest of all our essential news, features, and analysis, plus our best visual journalism, in your inbox every day. The Rundown keeps you up-to-date on Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine and developments across our vast coverage area. Sign up here.

One poster called for people in Serbia’s LGBT community to have the same rights as Ana Brnabic, the former prime minister and current parliament speaker, who is openly lesbian.

Filip Vulovic, one of the organizers of the march, said participants wanted it to be “equal and loud."

The march ended without any incidents after passing by the Serbian parliament building and the building that houses the presidency, pointing out the discrimination and violence faced by LGBT people.

Four government ministers, including Tanja Miscevic, who is in charge of Serbia's EU integration, took part. In a statement, Miscevic said the government is discussing the Law On Same-Sex Unions in the context of the experiences of other countries that have introduced similar laws.

"It is a matter of protection of a part of citizens who must be equal in law with other citizens," she said.

A small group of opponents of the Pride march gathered in the center of Belgrade, carrying church symbols, Serbian flags, and a banner that read: "Parade Humiliation." A police cordon prevented them from getting close to the march.

Goran Miletic, a spokesman for the organizers of the march, said the LGBT community has eight demands this year, but the most important is the adoption of the Law On Same-Sex Unions and the Law On Gender Identity.

Among the other demands are an improvement in health care for transgender people and public condemnation of government representatives for spreading hate speech.

SEE ALSO:

Serbia's Conservatives Seek Textbook Ban Over 'LGBT Ideology'

“I want to live freely and authentically," said Ana Jovanovic, a member of the organizing committee, saying that as a trans woman in Serbia she faces obstacles that make her life difficult.

"My path was not easy, but I am here to raise my voice on behalf of those who cannot be heard,” she said.

Police began deploying for this year’s Belgrade Pride march, which was held under the slogan "Pride Is People," on September 6, blocking traffic on the streets in the capital that were on the march route.

Homosexuality was decriminalized in Serbia in 1994, but LGBT people say they still experience repression and violence.

There were 85 incidents last year in Serbia that were motivated by hatred toward LGBT people, according to data compiled by the Da Se Zna (Let It Be Known) group, which documents violence and discrimination motivated by homophobia and transphobia. The NGO said most incidents are not reported to authorities due to distrust in institutions.

Human Rights Watch warned in a report in early 2024 that LGBT people in Serbia face intolerance, threats, and violence, and the ombudsman of Serbia highlighted on the eve of the Pride march the need for stronger institutional support for LGBT people to prevent violence and other forms of discriminatory behavior to which they are still exposed.

A proposed law that would enable LGBT people to register as partners is pending. The Green-Left Front sent the proposal to the Serbian parliament last year, but the government has not brought it up for debate.

The law would allow same-sex couples some of the basic rights heterosexual couples have with regard to property, inheritance, and decision-making in case of illness. Right-wing parties and organizations and the Serbian Orthodox Church oppose the proposed law.

President Aleksandar Vucic said in August 2023 that he would not sign it, saying it would create "some third gender where you're not a man or a woman."

The heads of the British and American foreign intelligence agencies said on September 7 that Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia is a significant achievement that could change the narrative of war, as they urged Kyiv's allies not to be held back by Russian threats of escalation. Richard Moore, the head of MI6, said Kyiv’s surprise August offensive to seize territory in the Kursk region was “typically audacious and bold on the part of the Ukrainians, to try and change the game.” He said the offensive had “brought the war home to ordinary Russians.” Speaking alongside Moore at a joint public event in London, CIA Director William Burns said the offensive was a “significant achievement” that had exposed vulnerabilities in the Russian military. Burns also said the West should be “mindful” of the escalation risk but not be “unnecessarily intimidated” by Russian saber-rattling.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on September 7 accused Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) of watering down support for Ukraine just two weeks before a key state election. Baerbock, a member of the Greens and a staunch supporter of Ukraine in its war against Russia, was speaking at a party meeting in the eastern city of Potsdam, the capital of Brandenburg. Baerbock said she had counted on Brandenburg Premier Dietmar Woidke to continue supporting Ukraine but was dismayed after the regional chapter of the SPD wavered on supplying arms to the country in a preelection indicator for voters. The document in question saw the SPD respond "neutral" to the statement: "Brandenburg should work to ensure that Germany continues to supply arms to Ukraine."

MERDARE, Serbia -- All border crossings between Kosovo and Serbia have reopened after blockades set up by Serbian activist angry over Kosovar government policies ended, Kosovar Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla said on September 7.

Svecla said the two border crossings at Merdare and at Brnjak that the Kosovar authorities had closed late on September 6 were reopened on September 7. The crossing at Jarinje had already reopened in the morning, he said.

The reopening of the border crossings came after Serbian associations lifted all blockades set up on September 6 to protest the closure of institutions in northern Kosovo that support ethnic Serbs.

Kosovar authorities claimed there were masked men at the Brnjak crossing, prompting the move to shut it and the larger one at Merdare. Masked men were seen at the Brnjak crossing by an RFE/RL correspondent, who recorded video of them at a makeshift checkpoint set up on the road.

"After receiving the announcements that the blockades created by masked extremists that were placed yesterday in the territory of Serbia have already been removed, and seeing that there are no obstacles to traffic from and to the border points of the Republic of Kosovo, we made the decision to open for circulation the border points Merdare and Bernjak," Svecla said on Facebook, using the Kosovar spelling for the crossing point.

The government said late on September 6 that it had closed the border crossings after Kosovar Serbs and supporters from Serbia began settling up the checkpoints and blocking roads leading from Kosovo into Serbia, turning back passengers with Kosovar documents.

Embed share

Serbs Block Border As Kosovo Cracks Down On Parallel Municipalities

Embed share

The code has been copied to your clipboard.

---

width px height px

---

The URL has been copied to your clipboard

No media source currently available

0:00 0:01:27 0:00

Svecla complained on September 6 that "masked extremists" in Serbia were "selectively stopping...citizens who want to transit through Serbia" to third countries. "And all this in plain sight of the Serbian authorities," he said on Facebook, adding, "This fact makes [Serbia] an accomplice."

Kosovar Foreign Minister Donika Gervalla-Schwarz also accused Serbian police of inaction, saying they were present but did nothing to ensure the free movement of citizens. She said on Facebook that the protests were “yet more proof” that Belgrade was trying to provoke and destabilize Kosovo.

The Serbian authorities have not yet commented.

The organizers of the action demand the return of five Kosovar Serb "parallel institutions" that have been closed in northern Kosovo, as well as the restoration of the Serbian currency and documentation.

They are also demanding the withdrawal of Kosovar police from the Serb-majority region and have called for the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo (KFOR) to take control.

Dragisa Miric, president of the Koreni association in Nis, Serbia, told RFE/RL the associations involved in the blockade would wait until October 1 and that if their demands are not met, they would reinstate the blockades.

In the past two years, Kurti's government has worked intensively to establish power in the north of Kosovo, which has been met with resistance from the local population and sometimes criticism from the international community.

Some of the decisions that have been implemented are the reregistration of vehicles from Serbian license plates to those of Kosovo, updating driver's licenses, discontinuing the use of the Serbian dinar, and the closure of certain institutions that work in the Serbian system.

Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, has an ethnic Serbian majority in several districts, while ethnic Albanians overwhelmingly populate the rest of the Balkan country. Serbia has refused to recognize Kosovo's independence.

The situation in northern Kosovo has been volatile for months. The latest cause of friction was the opening of the main bridge in Mitrovica that divides the city into the Albanian-majority south and the Serb-majority north.

Election monitors have reported being denied access to polling stations as Russia’s nationwide elections continue, while various infractions, including carousel voting and vote-buying, have been recorded.

The elections taking place in 83 regions and cities, including Moscow and St. Petersburg, will run until September 8 in some areas and will choose governors and regional legislators.

The vote has drawn criticism from groups that defend voters' rights after many opposition candidates were barred by electoral authorities, with Golos, an independent monitoring group, saying before voting began on September 6 that it was an “imitation” of an election with no genuine competition.

Golos has reported difficulties in the monitoring of the vote. Carousel voting was reported at some polling stations, while at least one case of vote-buying was alleged by a candidate.

In the Kasnoselsky district of St. Petersburg, 112 observers were not allowed to monitor voting, which the authorities said was because they were not on approved lists. It was previously reported that district electoral commissions were not working on the days observer lists were submitted, forcing potential observers to send their applications by mail.

Observers were also refused entry to polling stations in St. Petersburg’s Moscow district and in the southwest Bryansk region.

Outside Moscow, observers were reportedly prevented from inspecting or filming inside polling stations, and in Moscow a member of the electoral commission was suspended because he had moved about within the polling station while trying to carry out his work.

In the town of Dolgoprudny in the Moscow region, a "carousel voter" was detained by police after he had voted at several polling stations.

And in voting for the Novosibirsk City Council in central Russia, a candidate claimed he had been offered money to vote for a competitor.

In the central region of Bashkortostan, state media reported long lines at polling stations, which observers and non-state media suggested was the result of promises of lottery prizes, including vacation packages and electronics for voters.

Carousel voting and the removal of independent election monitors was also reported in Bashkortostan.

Central Election Commission Ella Pamfilova said during a press briefing on September 7 that the elections were proceeding normally, although she said that 4,600 digital attacks on electronic voting systems had been reported.

Most votes are being cast electronically in many regions, although voters can apply to use paper ballots.

Pakistan plans an emergency vaccination drive after the first polio case was reported in the capital in 16 years amid a surge in other parts of the country, officials said on September 7. More than 33 million children under the age of 5 would be vaccinated in the door-to-door drive starting on September 9, polio chief Ayesha Raza said, as the total new cases this year rose to 17. The southwestern province of Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, has been the worse-affected region this year, with 12 new cases, national data shows.

Russian shelling of the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine on September 7 killed five people, regional authorities said.

Three men between the ages of 24 and 69 were killed in the town of Kostyantynivka, Donetsk Governor Vadym Filashkin said on Telegram. Four people were injured, he 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.

Two men in their 50s were reported killed in shelling near the town of Toretsk about 20 kilometers to the southeast of Kostyantynivka.

Public broadcaster Suspilne quoted Anastasia Medvedeva, a spokeswoman for the Donetsk Prosecutor-General's Office, as saying a fourth person was injured in the attack on Kostyantynivka -- a 57-year-old woman who suffered a shrapnel wound and a head injury.

Medvedeva said the two people killed in Toretsk were men ages 52 and 53.

The city of Khariv also was shelled late on September 7, the regional Prosecutor-General’s Office said. The grounds of a private business and nine vehicles were damaged, and a 61-year-old security guard was injured.

A residential building caught fire and 10 private houses were damaged in the village of Mala Danylivka in the Kharkiv region. Four people were injured -- three women and a man.

Earlier on September 7, a large fire at an arms depot prompted local authorities to evacuate some 600 people in southwest Russia’s Voronezh region.

Governor Aleksandr Gusev said on Telegram that the fire in the region’s Ostrogoz district was caused by debris from a drone. Gusev said nearby residents of several settlements were evacuated to safety and that no injuries were reported.

Videos showing a large fire and in which explosions can clearly be heard were posted on social media sites.

The Russian Defense Ministry, while reporting that Ukrainian drones had been shot down over Russia’s southwestern Belgorod and Kursk regions, made no mention of any drone attacks in the Voronezh region.

Gusev in late August announced the evacuation of about 600 residents of the Voronezh region’s Ostrogoz district after claimed downings of drones led to fires and the detonation of explosives that lasted almost two days.

In Ukraine, the air force reported on September 7 that air defenses were scrambled across the country to defend against a massive overnight drone attack by Russia. The air force said 67 long-range drones were shot down.

On the evening of September 6, one person was reported killed in the southeastern city of Pavlohrad in the Dnipropetrovsk region as the result of missile strikes, and that 64 people were injured in the region.

Russian forces were also continuing to push toward the strategic city of Pokrovsk in Ukraine's Donetsk region, where RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service captured footage from near the front line that showed the village of Novohrodivka ablaze.

The Russian Defense Ministry on September 7 said that its forces had seized the village of Kalynove, which lies just 25 kilometers southeast of Pokrovsk, a key supply and logistics hub for Ukraine’s frontline troops.

Russia has been advancing on Pokrovsk for months, prompting an evacuation of the city, as part of Russia’s objective of taking all of the Donbas region. Russia has also pounded Ukraine across the country with missile and drone strikes, including one on a military facility in the central city of Poltava on September 3 that killed at least 55 people and wounded more than 300.

Funeral services for the victims took place on September 7 in a solemn ceremony.

A major Russian strike on September 4, just one day after the Poltova attack, killed seven people in the western city of Lviv.

Embed share

Lviv Residents Mourn Mother, 3 Daughters Killed In Russian Attack

Embed share

The code has been copied to your clipboard.

---

width px height px

---

The URL has been copied to your clipboard

No media source currently available

0:00 0:01:56 0:00

Ukraine, meanwhile, has seized more than 1,300 square kilometers and claims to have killed or wounded about 6,000 Russian soldiers in a surprise incursion launched last month into Russia’s western Kursk region.

Ukraine’s top military commander, recently promoted General Oleksandr Syrskiy, said this week that he considered the Kursk incursion a success because it had reduced the threat of Russian attacks. Syrskiy also acknowledged that the situation around Pokrovsk was difficult but that Ukrainian forces had succeed in blunting the Russian offensive there.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on September 6 appealed to allied partners at a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Germany to free Ukraine to use donated weapons to strike deeper into Russian territory.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said after the meeting that no single military weapon would be decisive for Ukraine to defeat Russia's full-scale invasion and that the use of donated U.S. weapons for long-range strikes into Russia would not turn the tide of the war in Ukraine's favor.

Austin said Russia had moved its glide bombs back to positions beyond the range of U.S.-made Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and that Ukraine itself had significant capabilities to attack long-range targets.

With reporting by AP

A Pakistani citizen living in Canada has been charged with planning an attack in New York City in support of the Islamic State group, the U.S. Justice Department said on September 6. Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, is accused of plotting a mass shooting at a Jewish center around October 7, the first anniversary of an attack carried out by Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and the EU, that killed more than 1,000 people in Israel. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Khan aimed to kill "as many Jewish people as possible" in the name of Islamic State. Khan attempted to travel from Canada to the United States but was arrested on September 4 before reaching the border. He had told two undercover law enforcement officers of his plans to create "a real offline cell" of Islamic State supporters to carry out an attack.

Any Iranian transfer of ballistic missiles to Russia would mark a sharp escalation in the Ukraine war, the United States said on September 6 after reports that the two countries had deepened ties with such an arms transfer. White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said the United States is alarmed by the reports. "Any transfer of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia would represent a dramatic escalation in Iran's support for Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine," Savett said. Reuters reported in August that Russia was expecting the imminent delivery of hundreds of Fath-360 short-range ballistic missiles. The Wall Street Journal reported on September 6 that short-range missiles had been delivered to Russia from Iran.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's plan to increase the number of aircraft in the Ukrainian Air Force is realistic, Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans said on September 6 in an interview with RFE/RL.

Zelenskiy referred to the plan during a Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

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.

Brekelmans told RFE/RL afterward that he thinks the plan is realistic because "there are still a lot of F-16s" in other countries that could be handed over to Ukraine. "There are still opportunities," Brekelmans said.

He noted that the Netherlands was handing over 24 fighter jets to Ukraine, and another 18 will be used for training. The Netherlands will also help with aircraft maintenance under a package announced on September 6 at the meeting of the Contact Group.

"We have announced a new package of 80 million [euros, $89 million] to make sure these planes can stay in the air. Therefore, we provide the entire package and support each of its elements," he said. "We provide everything we have for the security of Ukraine."

The commander of the Dutch armed forces has said that the Netherlands has not imposed any restrictions on the use and range of the F-16s it donates as long as the laws of war are observed.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv has asked its Western allies to provide F-16s. Several countries, including the Netherlands, agreed last year to transfer several to be used in the fight. The first of the promised jets arrived early last month and were shown during Air Force Day celebrations on August 4.

The Ukrainian Air Force lost one of the jets in a crash last week that killed the pilot.

The Ukrainian military said the crash occurred during an attempt to repel a missile and drone strike by Russia. It was unclear whether the jet was struck by enemy fire or crashed for other reasons.

Zelenskiy subsequently dismissed the commander of the air force.

An investigation into the crash was launched last week, and international experts were invited to participate, Ukrainian officials said.

The top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and a group that represents Ukrainians living in Canadian have sharply criticized the showing of the film Russians At War at the Venice Film Festival, calling it Russian propaganda.

Russian-Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova presented her documentary in which she embedded with a Russian battalion as it advanced across eastern Ukraine after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Andriy Yermak, Zelenskiy's chief of staff, called it "shameful" that the "propaganda film" was being shown at the festival.

In a social media post on September 6, he asked why "Anastasia Trofimova, as well as some other Russian cultural figures -- a country that kills Ukrainians, our children every day -- can work in the civilized world at all."

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.

Joining Yermak in his criticism, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) said in a statement that the Canadian Media Fund used public money to support a film that justifies Russian aggression. The organization pointed out that the Canadian government had previously expressed concern about "the influence of Russian propaganda."

The UCC statement claimed that Trofimova's previous films had been shown on Russian media outlets that have been targeted by sanctions, including Canadian.

"Why is the Canada Media Fund using taxpayers' money to fund a film -- Russians At War -- made by a director whose previous films were broadcast on Russia Today, a Russian propaganda channel sanctioned by the Canadian government?" the UCC's statement said.

The UCC further stated that Trofimova entered the sovereign territory of Ukraine together with the Russian occupation forces in violation of Ukrainian law.

The organization published a screenshot of a portion of the film's credits showing that it had the support of the public-private Canadian Media Fund, and according to the UCC, the funding amounted to $340,000 Canadian ($250,000). The film is a co-production of France and Canada.

Trofimova has said that she made the film to show the "absolutely ordinary guys" who were fighting for Russia and that her documentary calls into question the notion in the West that all Russian soldiers are war criminals.

She saw no signs of war crimes during her time near the front but "that's what Russian soldiers are associated with at this point, because there were no other stories. This is another story," she said at a news conference in Venice on September 5.

The film follows a team of medics as they collect bodies from the battleground, but it gives no sense of the destruction Moscow's forces have inflicted on Ukraine.

The film is being screened this week at the festival but is not competing for an award.

Darya Bassel, a producer who watched the film at the festival, said the film "may mislead you into believing that it is an anti-war film, one that questions the current regime in Russia."

She added on Facebook that what she saw in the film was a "prime example of pure Russian propaganda.

With reporting by Reuters

Georgia has no chance of becoming a member of the European Union until its "foreign agents" law is abolished and all recommendations of the European Commission are implemented, a delegation of German politicians visiting Tbilisi said on September 6.

Four German legislators representing the three parties in the government coalition and the main opposition party traveled to Georgia to call for free and fair parliamentary elections on October 26, while at the same time slamming the controversial "foreign agents" law enacted in June.

Juergen Hardt of the Christian Democrats (CDU), Nils Schmid of the Social Democrats (SPD), Ulrich Lechte of the Free Democrats (FDP), and Deborah Duering of the Green Party spoke about recent developments in Georgia and the country's European future during the news conference.

They stressed that last time representatives of the four main German parties held a joint visit to Tbilisi was after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Emphasizing the importance and rarity of such a visit, Schmid said: "Why? Because we are very sorry for the events that have developed in Georgia and for Georgia's European future."

Schmid told a press conference at the German Embassy in Tbilisi that with the policy of the current government, Georgia had "no chance to become a member of the European Union."

He added that if nothing changes, his party will not support the opening of EU membership negotiations for Georgia.

The four politicians also agreed that with the "foreign agents" law in place, Georgia would not have enough support in the Bundestag to back the start of talks on EU membership.

The start of negotiations for joining the European Union requires the consent of the parliament, Schmid said, noting that the three government coalition parties and the main opposition party represent the vast majority of the Bundestag.

"I can tell you that with the current policy, Georgia will not be able to obtain the consent of the German Bundestag to open negotiations for joining the European Union," said Schmid, whose party is the largest faction in the Bundestag and the party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Duering said Georgia had been a leader among the candidate countries seeking EU membership, "but, unfortunately, now it is lagging behind. To be clear, Georgia will not be able to join the European Union under the Law on Foreign Agents. It's just not up for discussion."

The law, which has been widely criticized as being modeled on a similar Russian law used by the Kremlin to repress dissent and stifle democratic opposition, requires civil-society and media organizations that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from foreign sources to submit to oversight that could encompass sanctions for potential criminal offenses.

Tens of thousands of Georgians braved a brutal crackdown and violent retaliation to demonstrate against the bill prior to its passage by the Georgian parliament in May.

The Russian Justice Ministry on September 6 added Zalina Marshenkulova, a feminist activist in exile, to its list of "foreign agents." In May, a Moscow court issued an arrest warrant for Marshenkulova on a charge of justifying terrorism. The charge stems from Marshenkulova saying on social media last year that the death of pro-Kremlin blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, who was killed in a blast in a restaurant in St. Petersburg, "appropriate." Marshenkulova, a native of Russia's mostly Muslim Kabardino-Balkaria region, has a Telegram channel called Women's Power, with around 30,000 subscribers. Last month, the Interior Ministry added her to its wanted list. To read the original story by Current Time, click here.

The deputy speaker of the Uzbek parliament, Alisher Qodirov, has proposed banning all Soviet symbols and ideology in the country. Qodirov made the comment in response to a September 3 court decision in the southeastern Uzbek city of Samarkand to hand a parole-like sentence to a local resident that stemmed from his cooperation with a pro-Soviet Russian group and his activities promoting the restoration of the Soviet Union. The 74-year-old man, whose identity was not disclosed, was found guilty of calling for the disruption of the constitutional order in Uzbekistan. The charge stemmed from posts on Telegram in which he denounced the legality of the Soviet collapse in 1991 and said he cooperated with a pro-Soviet Russian group. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Uzbek Service, click here.

Eight human right groups on September 6 called on Kyrgyz authorities to retract their decision to liquidate the award-winning investigative outlet Kloop Media.

The initial decision by a court in Bishkek ordering the closure of the Kloop Media Public Foundation was made in early February. The court said then that the group's website was distributing "false information aimed at damaging the reputation of Kyrgyz officials."

Last week, Kloop reported that its staff learned days earlier that the Supreme Court on July 16 had upheld a lower court's ruling to shut down the outlet. Kloop has now exhausted its chance to appeal.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International, the International Partnership for Human Rights, Civil Rights Defenders, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Article 19, the International Federation for Human Rights, and the World Organization Against Torture condemned the court decision in a joint statement.

"The forced closure of Kloop Media not only silences a crucial voice in Kyrgyzstani society but also signals a continued decline in Kyrgyzstan's respect for civil and political rights and freedoms of its citizens," said Hugh Williamson, HRW's Europe and Central Asia director.

"This action undermines the public's right to information and further weakens the foundations of democratic governance in the country."

SEE ALSO:

Closing The Kloop: Kyrgyzstan's Media Crackdown Becomes Farcical As Leading Journalism Foundation Shuttered

Since the initial court ruling in February, the case has wound its way through the Kyrgyz courts.

In March, the Bishkek Administrative Court canceled the ministry's move to block Kloop's Russian-language site, after which the ministry appealed the ruling to the Bishkek City Court.

In early June, the Bishkek City Court ruled that the move by the Culture Ministry to shut down Kloop was legitimate.

Separately, Kloop's Kyrgyz-language website was blocked in November 2023 amid a government campaign to pressure the Kloop foundation.

The ministry said it disrupted the sites after the State Committee for National Security (UKMK) claimed that Kloop had distributed false information.

The claim referred to a report on Kloop's website in September about jailed opposition politician Ravshan Jeenbekov and a statement he made about being tortured while in custody.

The ministry demanded Kloop remove an article about the alleged torture of Jeenbekov that appeared on its Russian-language website or face being blocked.

Kloop refused to remove the material, saying the story in question attributed all information about the situation faced by Jeenbekov while in custody to actual individuals and sources.

Kloop said at the time that it was officially informed of the lawsuit against it and that the move was made after an audit by the UKMK determined its "published materials are aimed at sharply criticizing the policies of the current government" and "most of the published materials are purely negative, aimed at discrediting representatives of state and municipal bodies."

Established in June 2007, Kloop is a Kyrgyz news website whose main contributors are students and graduates of the Kloop Media Public Foundation School of Journalism.

As an independent media entity, it is known for publishing reports on corruption in various governmental bodies and for providing training to Central Asian journalists in fact-checking and investigative techniques.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on September 6 that no single military weapon will be decisive for Ukraine to defeat Russia's full-scale invasion and that the use of donated U.S. weapons for long-range strikes into Russia would not turn the tide of the war in Ukraine's favor.

Speaking after a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Austin told reporters that Russia had moved its glide bombs back to positions beyond the range of U.S.-made Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS).

He also noted that Ukraine itself had significant capabilities to attack targets well beyond the range of the British Storm Shadow cruise missile.

Austin made the comments after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy personally appealed to the group for more weapons support from its Western allies and called on allies to allow Ukraine to use the weapons they provided to strike deeper inside Russia.

"We need to have this long-range capability, not only on the divided territory of Ukraine but also on Russian territory so that Russia is motivated to seek peace,” Zelenskiy said at the meeting with top U.S. military leaders and more than 50 partner countries.

"We need to make Russian cities and even Russian soldiers think about what they need: peace or Putin," he told the gathering hosted by Austin.

Russian forces have made gains in eastern Ukraine around the city of Pokrovsk, a crucial supply hub for the Ukrainian military. Moscow’s military gains have continued despite a surprise cross-border incursion by Ukrainian forces into Russia's Kursk region last month.

Kyiv claims its army has captured about 1,300 kilometers of Russian territory and killed or wounded about 6,000 Russian soldiers.

While the incursion has put Russia on the defensive, "we know Putin's malice runs deep," Austin said in remarks to the media ahead of the meeting. Russian forces continue to press on, especially around Pokrovsk, Austin said.

Austin annnounced a new $250 million security assistance package at the meeting, saying it will provide "more capabilities to meet Ukraine's evolving requirements."

The assistance includes ammunition for High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and anti-tank and antiaircraft weapons.

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.

Since 2022, the member states of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group together have provided about $106 billion in security assistance to Kyiv. The United States, Ukraine's biggest supporter during the conflict, has provided more than $56 billion of that total, according to Pentagon.

Zelenskiy met later with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Frankfurt, and the two leaders discussed preparations for the second summit on peace in Ukraine.

"I greatly appreciate sharing our efforts to bring a just peace closer," Zelenskiy said on X.

Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Germany will supply Ukraine with 12 more self-propelled howitzers valued at 150 million euros. Half of them will arrive by the end of the year and the remainder will follow in 2025. They have a firing range of 30 kilometers.

"Germany's position is absolutely clear: We will support Ukraine for as long as it is necessary," Pistorius said. "It is important to protect the freedom, sovereignty and territorial integrity of sovereign states against aggressors such as Russia. Ultimately, we are also doing this in our own interests."

As the allied partners met, Russia continued its persistent drone and missile strikes on Ukrainian cities and regions. At least five people were wounded in the latest Russian attacks across Ukraine, Kyiv said on September 6, adding that air defenses shot down 27 out of 44 Russian drones launched overnight.

A missile attack in the morning on September 6 damaged residential buildings and injured three people in the northeastern Kharkiv region, local authorities said.

Overnight attacks wounded two people, damaged at least 12 homes, and impacted power lines and gas pipelines in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, officials said. Falling debris from a downed Shahed drone in the western Lviv region caused a fire at a warehouse, destroying four vehicles, according to local authorities.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

The European Union on September 6 announced a new aid package to provide humanitarian aid to vulnerable Ukrainians ahead of the winter months. Balazs Ujvari, European Commission spokesman for budget, human resources, humanitarian aid, and crisis management, announced the aid package worth 40 million euros ($44 million) at a European Commission news briefing in Brussels. "The funding will serve to repair damaged buildings, ensure electricity and heating, and also to provide shelter to those in need," Ujvari said. About 5 million euros of the aid will be allocated to Ukrainian refugees in Moldova, Ujvari added. The new aid package brings to nearly 1 billion euros the amount of humanitarian funding that the European Commission has allocated to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Kyrgyzstan's foreign minister said on September 6 that the country had taken the Taliban off of its terrorist list "to secure regional stability and further develop the ongoing dialogue." A day earlier, the Taliban-led Afghan government's Foreign Ministry expressed thanks to Bishkek for removing the group from its terrorist list. The Kyrgyz Prosecutor-General's Office earlier this week issued a list of 20 groups labeled as terrorist organizations. It did not include the Taliban. In early June, Kazakhstan said it removed the Taliban from its terrorist list. The Taliban regained control over Afghanistan in August 2021 after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, click here.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said that his country and Armenia have agreed on about 80 percent of a peace treaty. "We can achieve peace in the Southern Caucasus," Aliyev said at the 50th International Cernobbio Forum in Italy, adding that the two countries had begun the process of border delimitation and demarcation. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said recently that 13 of 17 articles of the draft treaty had been agreed upon. Baku continues to insist it wants a reference to Nagorno-Karabakh's unification with Armenia removed from the Armenian Constitution. Azerbaijan retook control of the breakaway region in September 2023 following a lightning offensive. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service, click here.

Hungary has reiterated its threat to send asylum seekers to Brussels to put pressure on the European Union into canceling heavy fines against Budapest over its strict anti-migration policies. Standing in front of a row of passenger buses, Parliamentary Secretary of State of the Human Resources Ministry Bence Retvari said on September 6 that Hungary will “offer these illegal migrants, voluntarily, free of charge, one-way travel to Brussels…after the implementation of the European procedure.” He didn’t elaborate what status asylum seekers would have if they were to be transported. The European Court of Justice recently ruled Budapest must pay $223 million for continuously violating the bloc’s migrations rules and a daily fine of $1 million for each day of delay. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Hungarian Service, click here.

Serbian opposition legislators questioned Interior Minister Ivica Dacic on September 6 over the alleged mistreatment of activists protesting against a controversial lithium-mining project in the Balkan country. The Serbian opposition has accused the police of intimidating activists during a string of protests against the mine in recent weeks. Allegations include claims that authorities have relied on arrests, wiretaps, and arbitrary detention at border crossings to harass activists. "We demanded that the Interior Ministry submit a report on its actions against activists during the period from June to August this year," said Bogdan Radovanovic, a parliamentarian from the opposition Green-Left Front.

The European Union needs closer cooperation on markets and defense but not on political issues such as migration, where major differences between countries make this impossible, Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on September 6. "There are issues, even existential issues, to which we don't have common answers, this is war and peace, migration, gender, labor-based society, full employment," Orban told a conference in Cernobbio, Italy. "If you force us to come together on issues we don't agree, you disintegrate the European Union," he said.

A court in the Polish capital, Warsaw, on September 6 issued arrests warrants for three Belarusian men over their roles in the forced landing in Minsk of a commercial flight from Athens to Vilnius in May 2021 with dissident blogger Raman Pratasevich aboard.

The Wyborcza.pl website reported on September 6 that the warrants were issued on charges of "capture of an aircraft" and "illegal deprivation of freedom" for the former chief of the Belaeronavigatsia air navigation company, Leanid Churo; the head of the air-traffic control shift, Yauhen Tsyhanau; and an unidentified KGB officer who was present in the air-traffic control booth during the operation to land the Ryanair passenger jet.

The charges were filed after Polish investigators obtained data from a 42-year-old Belarusian dispatcher who fled to Poland in summer 2021.

After the plane was forced to land in Minsk in May 2021, Belarusian police arrested Pratasevich and his then-girlfriend, a Russian citizen, Sofia Sapega.

Pratasevich, who fled Belarus in 2019, worked as an editor at the Poland-based Nexta Live channel on Telegram that extensively covered a violent crackdown on unprecedented protests in Belarus following an August 2020 presidential election that the opposition and Western governments say was stolen by authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who has run the country with an iron fist since 1994.

In early May 2023, a Minsk court sentenced Pratasevich to eight years in prison, and his co-defendants, Stsyapan Putsila and Yan Rudzik, who were tried in absentia, to 20 years and 19 years in prison, respectively, on charges stemming from their online coverage of the 2020 anti-Lukashenka protests.

Weeks later, Pratasevich told journalists he had received a pardon from Lukashenka.

Sapega was sentenced to six years in prison in May 2022 on a charge of administering a Telegram channel that published the personal data of Belarusian security forces.

Sapega was released and allowed to return to Russia in June 2023 after Lukashenka pardoned her.

Lukashenka, who denies stealing the election, has cracked down hard on the opposition, whose leading members were either jailed or forced to flee the country out of fear for their safety.

With reporting by Wyborcza.pl

The Russian Interior Ministry on September 5 added self-exiled military observer Yan Matveyev to its wanted list on unspecified charges. In May 2023, the Justice Ministry added Matveyev to the list of "foreign agents." Matveyev has refused to follow the law requirements to mark his online materials as made by a foreign agent. Russian courts fined him twice in absentia for refusing to comply. According to the law on foreign agents, a repeated violation of the law within one year may lead to a criminal case. Russian authorities have been accused of using the law on foreign agents to muzzle independent media and dissent. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Siberia.Realities, click here.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov, in his first public comments since his arrest in France late last month, expressed surprise that he was interrogated and told by investigators that he "may be personally responsible for other people's illegal use" of the popular messaging app.

Durov said in a lengthy blog post that he was arrested and questioned for four days after arriving in in Paris because "the French authorities didn’t receive responses from Telegram" regarding their complaints.

He was charged on August 28 with several crimes related to alleged illicit activity on the messaging app but avoided jail after posting a $5.5 million bail and was released on the condition that he remain in France and report to a police station twice a week.

French prosecutors accuse the 39-year-old Durov of complicity in allowing drug trafficking and the sharing of sexual images of children on Telegram, and of refusing to share documents demanded by authorities investigating illegal activity on the app.

But the Russian-born Durov -- who has citizenship in France as well as Russia, the United Arab Emirates, and the Caribbean archipelago of St. Kitts and Nevis -- said his arrest was "misguided."

SEE ALSO:

Explainer: The Dark Side Of Telegram

"Telegram has an official representative in the EU that accepts and replies to EU requests," Durov wrote. "If a country is unhappy with an Internet service, the established practice is to start a legal action against the service itself."

He denied any suggestion that the app is an "anarchic paradise" and defended efforts to monitor its 950 million users, saying that "we take down millions of harmful posts and channels every day."

Durov said Telegram also publishes daily transparency reports and that he had personally helped set up a hotline on Telegram to help the French authorities deal with the threat of terrorism.

"Sometimes we can’t agree with a country’s regulator on the right balance between privacy and security. In those cases, we are ready to leave that country," he wrote. He singled out Russia and Iran, where the encrypted app is a popular and safe means of communication among citizens and during protests, as places where Telegram was banned because it would not aid authorities' efforts to monitor users.

"When Russia demanded we hand over 'encryption keys' to enable surveillance, we refused -- and Telegram got banned in Russia. When Iran demanded we block channels of peaceful protesters, we refused -- and Telegram got banned in Iran. We are prepared to leave markets that aren’t compatible with our principles, because we are not doing this for money," Durov said.

He acknowledged that Telegram was "not perfect" and that "growing pains" had "made it easier for criminals to abuse the platform," but Durov said the app was driven by the "intention to bring good and defend the basic rights of people, particularly where these rights are violated."