Russia

Serbia's student-led list won Sunday's snap parliamentary election, and Aleksandar Vučić conceded defeat. Turnout was the highest in more than 30 years, according to Al Jazeera.

Geopolitics

Ukrainian missiles and drones killed two people in Voronezh, Russia's governor says. A UN commission called Russian attacks on Ukraine's grid war crimes.

Geopolitics

Zelensky says peace talks with Russia and the US will resume and Kyiv wants them brought forward, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says resuming them implies no restrictions on combat. Ahead of a local ceasefire around Oleshky (Alyoshki in Russian), Russia says Ukraine has repeatedly struck the town, and Russian Human Rights Commissioner Yana Lantratova rejects Kyiv's demand for forced evacuation of children.

Geopolitics

Attacks in the Black Sea have cut Ukrainian wheat exports to Indonesia and Bangladesh, Nikkei Asia reports, and the Financial Times, cited by Meduza, reports that at least 40 sailors have died there as Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine has made it the world's most dangerous waters for commercial shipping. Russia is reviewing proposals for safe grain transport and is in contact with Türkiye, Interfax reports, according to Daily Sabah.

Geopolitics

Senior Democrats have demanded that US banks and ports preserve all documents on Russian fuel imports ahead of a planned investigation into Donald Trump's diesel deal with Moscow, Axios reported. Reuters, citing sources, reports that Russian refiners are ramping up diesel output after the deal.

Geopolitics

Russia's Defence Ministry said it downed 532 Ukrainian drones overnight into Sunday. Zelensky said Russia fired nearly 2,300 drones and 48 missiles at Ukraine in a week.

Geopolitics

Zelensky confirmed on Sunday that Russia, Ukraine and the US will meet in November. A local ceasefire in occupied Oleshky is due to begin on Tuesday.

Geopolitics

Russia says it downed 1,297 Ukrainian drones in 24 hours, while Kyiv reports hits on a Togliatti plant and other sites. Russian attacks killed at least four people in the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

Geopolitics

Ukraine says Starlink and Starshield are back at normal speeds after more than a week of throttling. Elon Musk says Ukraine's military violated Starlink's terms of service.

Geopolitics

Russia and Ukraine agreed a local ceasefire to evacuate civilians from occupied Oleshky, which the White House says Melania Trump secured. Trilateral talks with the US are planned for early November.

Geopolitics

A drone sank the Comoros-flagged cargo ship Khoryv off Romania on Friday, killing one sailor and leaving three missing. Romania's president blamed Russia.

Geopolitics

Many websites pulled offline after the PHP flaws were disclosed on Tuesday are back, but security experts say updates alone fall short. Executives warn that AI will find such bugs faster than they can be patched.

Technology

Russia dropped cluster bombs on Ukraine, and the energy company DTEK says Russian strikes have targeted thermal power plants more than 230 times. TASS reports that 443 Ukrainian drones were downed over Russian regions, with debris injuring three people in the Nizhny Novgorod region.

Geopolitics

A tanker carrying Russian diesel is sailing toward a US port, the first such shipment since the agreement between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, according to Reuters, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal. Le Monde reports it is due in New York on 7 November, four days after the midterm elections, and says the deal aims to lower fuel prices before the vote.

Economy

Austria expelled four Russian diplomats on security grounds: three embassy staff members and a member of Russia's delegation to the Vienna talks on military security and arms control, according to TASS. In Germany, a suspected Russian spy arrested in Brandenburg is in pre-trial detention, Handelsblatt reports.

Geopolitics

Russia hit Kyiv with ballistic missiles, some with cluster warheads, hours after Witkoff met Putin. Ukraine sent hundreds of drones toward Moscow.

Geopolitics

Russia says it will resume talks with the US and Ukraine, possibly in Abu Dhabi, after Putin freed an American prisoner.

Geopolitics

Germany arrested Ukrainian national Vadym Y. in Brandenburg on suspicion of spying for Russia, FAZ reports, saying the suspect is accused of gathering military information. Al Jazeera adds that the German military has raised its threat level for Russian sabotage against troops and facilities.

Geopolitics

Nestlé has taken $1.95bn of net assets off its balance sheet after a Russian presidential decree to take control of its business there, the Financial Times reports. Reuters reports that the Swiss group beat sales forecasts after excluding the seized Russian business.

Economy

Putin received US envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg on Wednesday and freed American Stephen Hubbard. The Kremlin says it is ready to resume trilateral talks with the US and Ukraine.

Geopolitics

The Wall Street Journal and New York Times report that Elon Musk ordered a Starshield slowdown that disabled Ukrainian drones. The EU demands SpaceX restore full service.

Geopolitics

Russian drones killed three people in the Kyiv and Kharkiv regions on Wednesday, local officials said. Ukrainian strikes hit Luhansk and Bryansk, according to Russian and Russian-installed officials.

Geopolitics

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Wednesday that Russia will send its first diesel tanker to the US on Thursday, after sanctions relief, according to Daily Sabah. Novak added that Russia could fully restore diesel export volumes by the end of the year, and TASS reports that shipments to other countries depend on refineries' capabilities.

Economy

Italy's government approved sending 500 troops to Milan and a new offence of "violent participation in public demonstrations" after clashes and protests. Truckers' highway blockades are disrupting supplies in the south, and Bloomberg reports that Italy is looking into whether Russian agents helped fuel the riots.

Geopolitics

The Wall Street Journal reports, as relayed by Meduza, that after the attempted sabotage at Leipzig Airport a Kremlin official warned a counterpart in the German government that it would not be the last attack, and Germany's military warns of a significant Russian sabotage threat. The French navy says unauthorized drones overflew several military sites in Toulon during an exercise, and Reuters reports that Europe is weighing giving utilities and infrastructure firms more powers to bring down drones.

Geopolitics

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Chinese Premier Li Qiang signed a joint communique on Wednesday after two rounds of talks in St. Petersburg, TASS reports. Mishustin said the Power of Baikal pipeline project is being developed.

Geopolitics

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made an unannounced trip to Israel, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. Netanyahu says he discussed toppling Iran's regime with Trump.

Geopolitics

Ukraine, Finland, Norway and US envoy Steve Witkoff held talks in Oslo on Tuesday. Witkoff is due to take the ideas to Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg on Wednesday.

Geopolitics

Trump said someone else should negotiate for Ukraine, while Zelensky accused Washington of withholding air-defence missiles. Rubio denied any political motive.

Geopolitics

Russian missiles and drones killed at least seven people in Ukraine on Tuesday. Ukrainian drones hit oil sites in Russia.

Geopolitics

Russian diesel is flowing back to familiar destinations after the lifting of the export ban, shipping data shows, according to Reuters. Bloomberg reports that a US plan to rehabilitate sanctioned "dark fleet" tankers may find few takers, and Handelsblatt reports that Russia is moving its shadow fleet under its own flag.

Economy

Russia's foreign ministry criticised the US decision to issue an arrest warrant for former Cuban leader Raúl Castro, who faces four counts of murder, two counts of destroying an aircraft and conspiracy to murder US citizens, according to TASS. Cuba separately accuses the United States of organizing an unauthorized event at UN headquarters ahead of a General Assembly debate on the embargo, according to Telesur.

Geopolitics

The European Commission has presented an updated Arctic strategy that puts security and geostrategic competition at its centre, according to FAZ. The South China Morning Post describes it as a response to growing Russian and Chinese influence, while TASS calls the document militarized.

Geopolitics

European Parliament Vice President Pina Picierno announced a hunger strike on Tuesday to draw international attention to civilians trapped in Russian-occupied Oleshky in Ukraine's Kherson region. The Kremlin says work is ongoing to ease the humanitarian situation, while Russian Foreign Ministry official Rodion Miroshnik accuses Ukrainian forces of continued strikes on the town, according to TASS.

Geopolitics

Iran says its Hormuz offer stands if its conditions are met, even as attacks on shipping continue. Russia's foreign minister arrived in Tehran on Monday.

Geopolitics

Russia has proposed a three-way meeting with Trump and Xi in China next month, without Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported. Trump again accused Zelensky of not wanting peace.

Geopolitics

Russian ballistic missiles struck Kyiv and Ukrainian energy sites overnight into Monday, killing a woman and cutting power to at least 550,000 families. Ukraine's drones keep hitting targets inside Russia.

Geopolitics

A double drone strike on a transport hub in al-Dibab killed about 80 people on Sunday. Rights groups count some 160 dead in drone attacks across Sudan since Friday.

Geopolitics

Brent eased to about $107 on Monday after touching $110, as traders weighed a US waiver on Russia sanctions against Middle East risks.

Economy

Human Rights Watch says soldiers, allied Russian fighters and separatists in Mali are committing grave violations of the laws of war. Reuters reports that Mali's forces and their Russian backers killed scores of civilians in drone strikes.

Geopolitics

Officials say a fire at a Starlink centre in Lithuania was sabotage, the New York Times reports. On Monday a Bulgarian court ordered the arrest of two Germans over a similar fire.

Geopolitics

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner proposed that the EU resume larger Russian gas purchases, the New York Times reported on Monday, and the European Commission rejected the idea, according to TASS. Türkiye's energy minister said the country will take some of the diesel Russia supplies under its agreement with US President Donald Trump.

Geopolitics

Ukrainian human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets said Kyiv and Moscow have begun working out the final details of a plan to evacuate residents of Russian-occupied Oleshky. Pope Leo spoke with Zelensky about the town and urged cooperation with Russia on aid, according to Reuters; TASS reports he had raised the issue with Putin in a call on Friday.

Geopolitics

Zelensky says Washington is pushing Ukraine to capitulate, Bloomberg reports, after Trump waived Russia sanctions for up to 60 days. The US has resumed intelligence sharing with Kyiv.

Geopolitics

Ukraine hit St Petersburg's oil terminal and data centres on Sunday in one of its largest drone attacks, killing one person. Russia kept striking Ukraine's energy grid.

Geopolitics

Brent crude held near $110 on Monday amid the Mideast and Ukraine conflicts, Bloomberg reports. Reuters says prices slipped on expectations of more Russian fuel after Trump's sanction waiver.

Economy

Trump suspended tariffs and sanctions on Russia under the Graham Act days before they took effect. Zelensky calls it a reward for Putin.

Geopolitics

Russian attacks killed at least eight people across Ukraine. Ukraine sent drone waves toward Moscow and Leningrad regions.

Geopolitics

Romanian F-16s shot down two drones over Romania's territorial waters on Saturday. The tankers hit earlier in the week left seven sailors missing.

Geopolitics

Ukraine's foreign minister described the Russian-held town of Oleshky as a "death trap" with starving residents, according to Reuters, and the Jerusalem Post reports that Zelensky speaks of genocide. Oleshky had 24,000 residents before the war and now has around 1,700, including 47 children, according to the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.

Geopolitics

Many delegates to the International Monetary Fund's steering committee walked out of a meeting in Bangkok on Saturday when Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov addressed the group in Russian, according to three sources cited by South China Morning Post. Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey was among those who left, The Guardian reports.

Geopolitics

Postnikov, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control, called the idea of a shortcut to "nuclear zero" counterproductive, TASS reports. Real progress is possible only through carefully balanced, step-by-step measures, and Politika reports that Moscow insists disarmament follow international agreements without imposed deadlines.

Geopolitics

Trump attacked Zelensky on Friday over Ukraine's renewed strikes on Russian refineries, while EU leaders in Brussels backed Kyiv. Ukraine's military Starlink access was throttled.

Geopolitics

Russian drones killed three people in Ukraine, and over a million consumers lost power at some point, the energy ministry says. Ukrainian drones hit a Siberian industrial site.

Geopolitics

Romania resumed the search on Friday for seven sailors missing from a drone-hit ship. Bulgaria's defence minister asked NATO for anti-drone systems.

Geopolitics

Dmitriev says Russia's wealth fund will work with the US on payment for the diesel deal, according to Reuters. Bloomberg reports the deal faces a fresh challenge in Congress, while TASS, citing the Financial Times, says Washington is considering easing sanctions on Russian tankers.

Economy

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington is talking to Russia and China about denuclearization, and TASS reports that he expects the three countries to sign nuclear arms control agreements. China's foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning rejected the demand that Beijing join as unrealistic, unfounded and unfair.

Geopolitics

Pope Leo XIV spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin and the Vatican said on Friday, and urged a ceasefire in Russian-occupied Oleshky to allow aid deliveries and civilian evacuations. Putin expressed support for a Vatican-led humanitarian initiative to deliver supplies to civilians in the town, according to Daily Sabah.

Geopolitics

President Vladimir Putin has placed the Russian assets of several European companies, including French flooring maker Tarkett, Ontex (owner of the Helen Harper diaper brand) and three foreign packaging firms, under temporary management. The Kremlin's Dmitry Peskov said the step is not aimed at a change of ownership and that the firms' origin in countries holding Russian assets was one factor in the decision.

Economy

Zelensky said Ukraine will again attack Russian refineries, and drones set the Ryazan refinery on fire on Thursday. Moscow accuses Kyiv of undermining US peace efforts.

Geopolitics

Two tankers caught fire in Romanian Black Sea waters between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. A Nato source says the drones were Russian.

Geopolitics

Russia hit Ukraine overnight into Thursday with a record drone swarm, killing three in Kirovohrad region. Kyiv resumed refinery strikes, ending a US-declared energy ceasefire.

Geopolitics

Russia says diesel exports have restarted under its deal with Trump. Germany's chancellor rejects a reported US plan to move frozen Russian assets.

Geopolitics

Russian law enforcement searched the home of Novaya Gazeta editor-in-chief Sergei Sokolov on Thursday, according to Baza and RBC, and investigators questioned the editor. Le Monde reports that Sokolov left the questioning after the newspaper said they had been taken to the Investigative Committee.

Geopolitics

Russia's Federal Security Service says it detained a Swedish citizen in the Pskov region, alleging that the man fought for Ukraine's armed forces and planned sabotage. According to the FSB, the man entered Russia under the pretext of joining the Russian Armed Forces; the claims are the agency's own and have not been independently verified.

Geopolitics

Russian strikes left at least 600,000 Ukrainians without power, days after Trump announced an energy truce. Ukrainian drones hit a Sberbank data centre.

Geopolitics

SpaceX restricted military Starlink service in Ukraine without warning, Kyiv says, disrupting drone missions. Zelensky says Trump has taken a side that is not Ukraine's.

Geopolitics

Italian Prime Minister Meloni called the US-Russia diesel deal a "very risky choice" on Wednesday. Moscow says contracts with Washington are being negotiated.

Geopolitics

The International Energy Agency said on Wednesday that diesel markets will stay tight well into 2027 because of Gulf supply disruption from the Iran war. Refiners stand to earn record profits.

Economy

Tokyo summoned Russia's ambassador after Yuki Imai, a Russia correspondent of the Hokkaido Shimbun, was arrested on Sakhalin, according to reports on Wednesday. The FSB says Imai spied on Russian defence capabilities, while Le Monde reports that Imai was violently detained in a hotel room.

Geopolitics

Zelensky said on Tuesday that Ukraine received no partner warning before a Russian ballistic missile strike on Kyiv. Ukraine in turn sent over 400 drones toward Moscow.

Geopolitics

Drones hit two cargo ships off Bulgaria's Black Sea coast overnight on Tuesday and sank one. Sofia stopped short of accusing Russia but summoned its ambassador and asked allies for help.

Geopolitics

A bipartisan group of US senators and European governments object to Trump's deal to buy Russian diesel. Washington replies that Europe itself still buys Russian energy.

Geopolitics

MI5 director-general Ken McCallum said on Tuesday that Iran has shifted to targeting UK military sites. He also confirmed Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 Brexit referendum, with little effect.

Geopolitics

European gas prices reached their highest level in nearly four years on Tuesday. Germany's economy ministry meanwhile plans a consumer levy for an emergency reserve.

Economy

Germany has detained a fourth person over the suspected sabotage of a Starlink station in Poland, Reuters reports, citing RMF FM. Tusk said two suspected saboteurs were arrested in Germany, and FAZ reports that the pattern of the incident points to Russia.

Geopolitics

The French navy boarded the oil tanker DF Peak in the Indian Ocean, south of La Réunion, on Monday, President Emmanuel Macron said. French authorities suspect the ship of sailing under a false flag and of belonging to Russia's shadow fleet, while Russia calls the seizure piracy and a violation of international law, according to RIA.

Geopolitics

A newspaper cited by TASS reports that the US and Europe are drafting a four-point plan to settle the Ukraine conflict, which a US official said would include Russia's proposal for an economic and security deal with Europe. Senior Russian diplomat Sergey Ryabkov said on Tuesday that no agreement on a trilateral meeting has been reached so far.

Geopolitics

Russia's FSB says it detained a reporter for Japan's Hokkaido Shimbun on Sakhalin Island and transferred the reporter to Moscow, and Meduza reports that a court ordered the journalist held. TASS alleges the Japanese citizen collected information on mobilized and volunteer participants in what Russia calls its special military operation among Kuril Islands residents, while the New York Times says the reporter had been covering military recruitment.

Geopolitics

Trump announced an energy ceasefire on Sunday that caught Kyiv unaware, and Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy sites continued. On Monday the Kremlin rejected Zelensky's 60-day ceasefire idea.

Geopolitics

Senators from both parties say Trump's diesel deal with Russia breaks US law, while Trump defends it, Reuters reports. Germany and the EU say they will not copy it.

Economy

Russian attacks hit a Kyiv high-rise and Kharkiv's power and housing on Monday. Kyiv says Moscow is violating the energy ceasefire Trump announced.

Geopolitics

NATO's top commander publicly outlined on Monday how the alliance would repel a Russian attack. Germany and Poland warn that Russian sabotage is escalating.

Geopolitics

EU foreign ministers approved the 22nd sanctions package against Russia on Monday, adding nearly 1,600 individuals and entities to the sanctions list. According to Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna, quoted by TASS, 743 individuals and 826 entities are listed, and the package includes 26 Russian shipyards.

Geopolitics

Brent crude rose above $106 a barrel on ICE on Monday, its first time at that level since late September, according to TASS. Politika reports that prices gained more than two percent on concerns over new attacks in Ukraine and the Middle East, after an earlier dip following an announced agreement between Moscow and Kyiv.

Economy

Prime Minister Andy Burnham used a post-recess statement in the Commons on Monday to confirm Russian interference in the Brexit campaign and to vow to renegotiate the post-Brexit trade deal with the EU, with talks in Brussels planned for next month. The Conservatives accused him of being 'dangerous and divisive', and a shadow minister called the referendum a 'legitimate vote'.

Geopolitics

A laboratory worker at an anti-plague research institute in Russia died from pneumonia, and Chinese authorities in Hulunbuir cite a suspected pneumonic plague death; The Telegraph reports that the WHO is probing 'unanswered questions'. Hulunbuir and Hong Kong have stepped up precautions, and health experts say the scant information from Russia means a lab accident cannot be ruled out.

Geopolitics

Ukraine has struck three of the six data centres of the Russian technology company Yandex, in Sasovo (Ryazan region), Kaluga and Vladimir. Replacing the destroyed equipment could take up to six months, IT market sources told Kommersant, while Yandex says its services are recovering but some functions remain inaccessible.

Technology

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Ukraine should get a new president. Kyiv rejected the call, and the Financial Times reports that Washington also threatens to block arms for Ukraine.

Geopolitics

Ukrainian drones shut a Yandex data centre in Vladimir on Sunday, the third in a week. Russian strikes killed more civilians in Ukraine.

Geopolitics

Trump said on Sunday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to halt strikes on energy infrastructure immediately. Zelensky called it news to him, and Moscow has not commented.

Geopolitics

Seven US senators, four of them Republicans, say Trump's diesel deal with Russia violates a 2022 ban on Russian energy imports. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says existing legal authority suffices.

Economy

Trump said on Saturday that Ukraine needs a new leader and must stop striking Russian refineries. Talks with Kyiv in Miami ended early.

Geopolitics

Russian attacks on Zaporizhzhia on Saturday killed between 12 and 20 people by differing Ukrainian counts, a day after Washington's Russian diesel deal.

Geopolitics

A rights group says a paramilitary drone strike near the Ethiopian border in Sudan killed 41 people, The Hindu reports. At the UN, Russia and China blocked a US push to extend the arms embargo to all of Sudan, covering both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Geopolitics

Germany, the EU and Australia say they will not buy Russian diesel after the Trump-Putin deal. Analysts expect little effect on prices.

Economy

The WHO says Russia has confirmed the death of a worker at a research lab, but no plague case has been registered. The cause of death remains unconfirmed a week on, and the WHO sees no sign of ongoing transmission.

Geopolitics

Trump says Russia will ship diesel to the US and world markets, and Washington has eased sanctions to allow it. Zelensky calls it an investment in war.

Geopolitics

Trump said on Thursday the US will not attack Iran before the 3 November midterms, citing talks with Tehran. Iran's Revolutionary Guards meanwhile hit tankers beyond Hormuz.

Geopolitics

Ukrainian and US negotiators met in Florida on Friday, Europeans invited, as Russian strikes left most of Kyiv without power.

Geopolitics

Ukrainian drones knocked out several modules of a second Yandex data centre, in Kaluga, on Friday. Moscow's airports were restricted for hours as government planes returned from Turkmenistan.

Geopolitics

Montenegro detained Mikhail Zvinchuk, administrator of the Rybar Telegram channel, and four associates, called them a security threat and plans to expel them, according to TASS. The Kremlin, commenting through Dmitry Peskov, called Russians' trips to Europe risky.

Geopolitics

The New York Times reports that Moscow is using fear and ambiguity to divide NATO, and asks how Europe should hit back. El País reports that Russian drones are harassing Moldova, which has recorded 56 airspace violations so far this year, more than double the total in 2025.

Geopolitics

Former German chancellor Schröder took part in celebrations for Putin's 74th birthday at Putin's invitation, FAZ reports. Merz said he was outraged, according to Reuters, and FAZ reports that representatives of the SPD, CDU and Greens criticised Schröder sharply.

Geopolitics

A Russian bomb hit two passenger buses in Kramatorsk on Thursday, killing 33 people. The same day, strikes cut power in most of Kyiv.

Geopolitics

Ukrainian drones struck a Yandex data centre and the Omsk refinery, Russia's largest, on Thursday. Websites across Russia were disrupted.

Geopolitics

WHO says it lacks the full picture after a Siberian plague institute employee died. Moscow says her contacts are healthy.

Geopolitics

Senior Russian and US officials, including Kirill Dmitriev, an adviser to President Vladimir Putin, and US Special Envoy Jared Kushner, have discussed bringing a US investor into the Nord Stream pipelines to sell gas to Europe, Reuters reports, citing sources. Politika writes that a deal is still far from being realised.

Economy

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the war in Ukraine a "strategic stalemate" and said prospects for a negotiated settlement are elusive, according to TASS and Reuters. Ukraine's negotiating team is due to visit the US on Friday and Saturday, while Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov said Moscow currently has no plans to resume trilateral talks.

Geopolitics

Reuters reports that people in a Russian-occupied Ukrainian town risk what it calls a 'road of death' to get food. The report was published on Thursday.

Geopolitics

The UK has added 26 entries to its Russia-related sanctions list and sanctioned twelve merchant vessels, including companies in Russian financial services and entities allegedly facilitating the production and trade of Russian ballistic missiles. The Russian Embassy in London says sanctions will not change Moscow's course, while the EU works on its 22nd package.

Geopolitics

Russian missiles and drones struck Ukraine overnight into Wednesday, killing at least 24 people. Kyiv says the destruction of an apartment block in Pryluky was a 'birthday gift' to Vladimir Putin.

Geopolitics

A naval drone set the tanker Aframax Rio ablaze off Sochi on Tuesday. Bulgaria stopped searching for the crew of a ship sunk by drones in its economic zone.

Geopolitics

The US formally asked Russia for more information on Tuesday after a lab technician at a plague institute in Irkutsk died. Trump says he will call Putin soon.

Geopolitics

EU ambassadors agreed on Wednesday to add more than 1,500 individuals and organizations to the bloc's Russia sanctions list, according to Euronews as cited by Meduza. TASS calls it the 22nd sanctions package, and Politika reports that production of Iskander missiles is among the targets.

Geopolitics

Lithuania plans to deploy army units to help guard its border with Russia's Kaliningrad region, which Interior Minister Martynas Katelynas called a preventive measure, according to TASS. Separately, Denmark says Russia has carried out sabotage attacks against its defence firms, Reuters reports.

Geopolitics

Russian officials say two people died and nine were hurt in an overnight Ukrainian drone attack on the Moscow region on Tuesday. A major fuel depot is reported ablaze.

Geopolitics

Drones sank a merchant ship in Bulgaria's Black Sea economic zone on Tuesday. A tanker burned off Sochi the same day.

Geopolitics

Russia says a Siberian plague-institute worker died of pneumonia of unknown origin, not plague. The WHO rates the epidemic risk low, while the US wants more information.

Geopolitics

Lithuania's parliament voted on Tuesday in a first reading to remove the constitutional ban on nuclear weapons. The Kremlin says Russia would be forced to respond.

Geopolitics

Zelensky warned on Tuesday that Russia is preparing a massive attack. Meanwhile Russian strikes hit Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and Kyiv.

Geopolitics

Malian troops backed by Russia's Africa Corps entered Kidal on Tuesday after Tuareg rebels pulled out. The rebels call the withdrawal temporary.

Geopolitics

A Russian drone hit a bridge in Kyiv during German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's visit on Sunday. Ukraine says it is installing gun turrets against Russian jet-powered drones.

Geopolitics

A 28-year-old worker at Irkutsk's anti-plague institute has died, and local media report suspected pneumonic plague. Russian authorities say the cause was pneumonia of unknown origin.

Geopolitics

A Turkish-owned ship carrying corn sank in Romania's economic zone on Monday, killing two crew members. Ukraine blames two Russian drones, while Romania has not confirmed the cause.

Geopolitics

Germany's intelligence chiefs told parliament on Monday that Russia's shadow war has entered a more dangerous phase. Estonia is moving troops towards its border.

Geopolitics

Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev says Ukrainian drones struck the laboratory building and the radioactive waste processing facility at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant overnight into Monday. The plant says background radiation remains normal and Likhachev sees no threat to nuclear safety; Ukraine's response is not in the available reports.

Geopolitics

Strikes on ports, rail and industry are halting steel plants and mines and have left Ukraine nearly without spare locomotives, the Financial Times reports. Wheat edged higher on Monday on Russian threats to escalate the war, according to Bloomberg.

Economy

India's external affairs minister says India wants to be "a little bit more involved" in ending the Ukraine war and is engaging both sides on issues including shipping and reducing hostilities. The New York Times reports, citing sources, that the sale of Lukoil's foreign assets has become part of Russia-US talks; the Kremlin's Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the report.

Geopolitics

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz made a surprise trip to Kyiv on Sunday and announced new aid. A Russian drone hit the Nordbrücke over the Dnipro during his stay.

Geopolitics

G7 countries agreed to release 100m barrels of oil and diesel to ease prices. OPEC+ kept its November quotas unchanged on Sunday.

Economy

The Kremlin says Russia would use its entire available arsenal if the Kaliningrad region were blockaded, according to Politika. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS on Sunday that the warnings are not a threat, saying Kaliningrad is a Russian region.

Geopolitics

Moscow's mayor said about 600 drones headed for the city overnight; Russian missiles struck Kyiv and Kryvyi Rih.

Geopolitics

The Taliban marked five years in power on Saturday with a ceremony in Kabul and rallies across the country. The UN warned of a deepening rights crisis.

Geopolitics

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung proposed talks on Saturday to replace the 1953 armistice with a permanent peace regime. North Korea answered by denouncing coming US-South Korean drills and vowing stronger nuclear deterrence.

Geopolitics

Al Jazeera reported on Saturday that cleanup crews are working along 12 kilometres of Omani coastline after a spill from the grounded tanker. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei put the region's environmental damage from the Hormuz oil slicks in the trillions of dollars and said everyone involved in commercial shipping operations must bear legal and moral responsibility for clearing the aftermath.

Geopolitics

Russia has turned down Kyiv's offer of a mutual halt to attacks in the Black Sea. Strikes on ports on both sides continue.

Geopolitics

The Taliban marked five years in power on Saturday with a cricket match in Kabul that women may not attend. Their foreign minister asked the United States to return, while the UN warned that women's aid groups may fold.

Geopolitics

Russia's government said on Friday that fuel supply to filling stations remains strained in several regions. Two are now rationing sales.

Economy

The New York Times reported on Saturday that Russia ran a covert campaign against Moldova's pro-Western government. Poland said a day earlier that it had detained a man recruited by Russian intelligence for a planned killing.

Geopolitics

Japan's prime minister Sanae Takaichi sent a ritual offering to the Yasukuni Shrine on Saturday, 81 years after the surrender, but stayed away herself. Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi visited in person.

Geopolitics

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun called on Japan to respect the international order on the Kuril question, saying the results of the victory in the war against Nazism must be respected and defended. Analysts told the South China Morning Post that Vladimir Putin's first visit to the disputed southern Kurils points to a coordinated Russian and Chinese push to pressure Tokyo.

Geopolitics

The ruble-denominated MOEX index fell 4.29 percent over the week and the dollar-denominated RTS index lost 5.13 percent, TASS reported on Friday. The central bank put the decline of the ruble's real effective exchange rate in July at 4.7 percent, and banks in Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan sharply raised fees for cash ruble deposits by nonresidents, according to RBC.

Economy

Türkiye imported around 1.01 billion cubic metres of pipeline gas from Azerbaijan in June, pushing Russia into second place, Daily Sabah reported on Friday, citing official data. It is the first time Azerbaijan has led Turkish pipeline gas imports.

Economy

Kyiv has offered Moscow a mutual halt to attacks on civilian ships in the Black Sea, sent via a third country. Moscow says no formal proposal has reached it.

Geopolitics

Ukrainian drones have fully shut Russia's Orsk refinery, with repairs put at up to six months. Bloomberg reports Russian diesel exports at their lowest in years.

Economy

Poland detained a Russian recruited by Moscow's intelligence services over a plot to kill a man with Ukrainian and US passports, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday. He called it the first Russian-ordered attack on a US citizen in a NATO state.

Geopolitics

Vladimir Putin visited Iturup on Thursday, the first trip by a Russian president to the disputed Kuril Islands. Tokyo summoned Russia's ambassador and called the visit absolutely unacceptable.

Geopolitics

Specialists have boarded the sanctioned tanker Caroline Bezengi, aground in a marine reserve off Oman since late June. Its crude has now reached the mainland.

Geopolitics

DeepSeek launched V4 Pro on Thursday and raised its AI service prices several times over. Alibaba attached commercial conditions to its downloadable flagship Qwen3.8-Max.

Technology

Legislation moving through Congress would give President Donald Trump the power to impose tariffs of 100 percent on countries that keep buying Russian energy, and The Economist argues the bill hands him too much discretion. India said its talks with the United States, including on the bill, had been reassuring, according to The Hindu.

Economy

Gazprom said on Thursday that European underground storage holds 13.4 billion cubic metres less gas than a year ago and is refilling very slowly. Greek politician Panagiotis Lafazanis told TASS that the EU's ban on Russian pipeline gas and LNG by 2027 would hit Greece hardest, and that the planned Vertical Corridor to Ukraine remains only on paper.

Economy

The Sverdlovsk region's election commission has rejected the candidate list of the pro-war Rodina party for the regional legislative assembly, days after Rodina's own lawsuit barred the antiwar Yabloko party from the State Duma race. A Moscow court also ordered the in-absentia arrest of comedian Sasha Dolgopolov on charges of rehabilitating Nazism, and a court in Novosibirsk ordered activist Larisa Mikhailova held for two months.

Geopolitics

Ukrainian drones hit Novorossiysk and Russia's Krasnodar region overnight into Wednesday, halting all three grain terminals at the country's main wheat port. Three people were killed, among them an eight-year-old.

Geopolitics

Putin threatened on Wednesday to seize European ships over EU confiscations of Russian vessels. NATO the same day blamed Moscow for drones over Poland and Romania.

Geopolitics

Oil tanker rates out of the Black Sea hit a record on Wednesday after a drone barrage, Bloomberg reports. The war's squeeze on the region's ports is feeding through to European grain prices.

Economy

Rosstat put second-quarter growth at 1.3% on Wednesday, above official forecasts. Petrol queues and purchase limits have returned in a dozen regions after Ukrainian refinery strikes.

Economy

Russia's Supreme Court barred Yabloko, the only party campaigning for peace with Ukraine, from the State Duma election on Monday, citing copyright and campaign financing, and never ruled on whether calls for peace amount to extremism, Meduza reports. Sources close to the Kremlin told Meduza that the party's registration in late July was an experiment that was dropped once the polling came back.

Geopolitics

Crude from a tanker suspected of belonging to Russia's shadow fleet, which ran aground in June, has come ashore on Oman's mainland and is approaching the country's largest island and a nature reserve, the United Nations said, while monsoon weather delays salvage work. Iran is dealing with a separate spill near Qeshm, and experts cited by The National say the environmental damage from the war could pollute Gulf land, sea and air for years.

Geopolitics

Russian missiles, drones and glide bombs killed at least ten people across Ukraine overnight into Tuesday. Kyiv says North Korean missiles were used.

Geopolitics

A Damascus court on Tuesday sentenced ousted president Bashar al-Assad, his brother Maher and seven other former officials to death over the civil war that killed about 500,000 people.

Geopolitics

Thousands of Gaza patients still await medical evacuation, with transfers running three to four times a week, the WHO said on Tuesday. Russia's UN envoy called the US peace plan stalled.

Geopolitics

Palestine's UN envoy asked the Security Council on Tuesday to enforce international law in the occupied West Bank. A UN official said settlement expansion must be treated as an emergency.

Geopolitics

An unidentified drone closed Hanover airport's runways for 90 minutes overnight into Tuesday, a week after the explosive drone at Leipzig. Romania destroyed two suspected Russian drones at sea.

Geopolitics

President Vladimir Putin pardoned Robert Gilman, 32, on humanitarian grounds, and US officials said the release was not part of an exchange, Meduza and Le Monde reported on Tuesday. The former Marine, convicted in 2022 of violence against a police officer and held in a penal colony in Voronezh, is on his way to a hospital in Texas, according to the advocacy group Global Reach.

Geopolitics

Authorities in Sochi urged residents and tourists on Tuesday to avoid using their cars because of a fuel shortage, and a fire broke out at a Rosneft refinery in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, the state news agency TASS reported. The same day, Russia's central bank cleared bitcoin, ether and tether for exchange trading, and Lloyd's List reported that the United States had sold two seized shadow-fleet tankers for scrap.

Economy

The independent outlet Verstka reports that Russia's Defence Ministry launched a programme called 'Choice' in 2024, soliciting volunteers at women's prisons for service as front-line medics, and documents rape by commanders as well as criminal cases against the women who reported it. Meduza carried the investigation on Tuesday, alongside reports that Moscow's Gulag museum has been replaced by a state museum about the Nazi genocide of the Soviet people and that Sergey Nedovodin, a founder of the radio station Ekho Peterburga, died at 61 after being beaten outside his Moscow home.

Geopolitics

Ukrainian drones killed at least 13 people in the Russian refinery city of Nizhnekamsk on Monday. Russian strikes then hit Zaporizhzhia and Kyiv.

Geopolitics

Russia's Supreme Court struck the only antiwar party, Yabloko, from the September Duma ballot on Monday, granting a suit by the pro-Kremlin party Rodina.

Geopolitics

US officials believe last week's explosives-laden drone at Leipzig/Halle airport came from Russia, American media report. Berlin speaks of a new level of danger but names no culprit.

Geopolitics

The tanker Caroline Bezengi ran aground off Oman and leaked oil, leaving a slick of about 390 square kilometres, Meduza reported on Tuesday, and Oman is taking measures to keep it away from its coast. Le Monde says the ship is under British sanctions, is suspected of belonging to Russia's shadow fleet and was damaged in June by three explosions of unknown origin.

Geopolitics

Moldova's foreign ministry recalled its ambassador from Moscow for consultations after a drone crashed in the village of Crocmaz near the Ukrainian border, Meduza reported on Monday. According to TASS, Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Galuzin said armed provocations in Transnistria would be regarded as an attack on Russia, while Meduza reported that more than 60,000 residents of the breakaway region have applied for Russian citizenship under a simplified procedure.

Geopolitics

Russian crude reached an all-time high of 48 percent of India's oil imports even as Washington prepares tariffs of up to 100 percent, The Hindu reported. Indian refiners are at the same time broadening their sourcing because of market volatility, TASS reported, citing local media.

Economy

The Bank of Russia recommended on Monday that lenders support small and medium-sized businesses affected by what it called terrorist attacks, a reference to Ukrainian drone strikes on warehouses and logistics sites, and urged them not to charge penalties for overdue payments or demand early repayment. Kommersant reports that Russian book publishers are suspending sales on the Wildberries marketplace as drone attacks continue to hit the platform's warehouses.

Economy

Overnight strikes into Sunday killed at least seven people in Russia and Ukraine, authorities on both sides said.

Geopolitics

Damascus and Moscow signed a memorandum on Sunday turning Russia's two bases on Syria's Mediterranean coast into joint training centres. Syria takes over the civilian facilities within three months.

Geopolitics

Ukrainian President Zelensky said on Sunday that Pyongyang is preparing a deployment of that size to Russia. Reuters and Nikkei Asia carried the statement; the figure is not independently confirmed.

Geopolitics

Two drones were spotted over a Bundeswehr base near Bonn that reportedly holds Patriot components, days after an explosives-laden drone was found at Leipzig/Halle airport. Berlin is expanding its drone defences.

Geopolitics

The Pentagon has given US arms makers 21 days to submit plans for faster weapons deliveries. The push follows stockpile depletion in five months of war with Iran.

Geopolitics

Nagasaki marked 81 years since the US atomic bombing on Sunday, its mayor calling nuclear weapons an "absolute evil". Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi again left Japan's three non-nuclear principles open.

Geopolitics

Turkish officials said on Sunday that passage through the Turkish Straits to the Black Sea is continuing smoothly after delays linked to the war between Russia and Ukraine. TASS reports that the owner of the MV Reyhan Sari, attacked by a drone in July while carrying coal from the Russian port of Taman to Trabzon, plans to take Ukraine to international arbitration.

Economy

Russian drones destroyed a family home near Kyiv early on Saturday, killing a three-year-old boy and his grandparents. Ukrainian drones set Russia's Ilsky oil refinery ablaze the same day.

Geopolitics

The Pentagon has given US arms makers 21 days to plan faster deliveries. Patriot stocks are reported below 1,700 after the war against Iran.

Geopolitics

After a surge of attacks on ships, Turkey has begun restricting Black Sea traffic, Bloomberg reported on Saturday. Its foreign ministry warns the escalation could hit food security.

Economy

Drones were seen over a German military base days after an explosives-laden drone was stopped at Leipzig/Halle airport. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt calls Germany a daily target of hybrid warfare.

Geopolitics

The CIA has expanded its operations in Cuba as Washington pushes for a change of leadership, US and European media reported on Saturday. A military operation has not been ruled out.

Geopolitics

Politicians from Germany, France and the United States, among them Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, are pressing the EU to use Russia's frozen assets to finance Ukraine, which could soon run out of money, the FAZ reported on Saturday. The same day the US Senate approved a new Russia sanctions bill, which Chinese state media called political coercion in global energy supply chains.

Economy

Ukrainian drones have increasingly targeted warehouses of Wildberries, Russia's largest e-commerce company, on which many Russians rely, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Billionaire co-founder Tatyana Kim faces her biggest test yet, according to The New York Times.

Economy

Russian air attacks on a suburb of Kyiv killed at least three people on Saturday, and a drone damaged a football stadium in Odesa. In the Donbass, Russian troops are closing in on the twin cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

Geopolitics

The UN food price index rose in July to 131.1 points, its highest reading in more than three years, the FAO said on Friday. Heatwaves, the war in Ukraine and escalation in the Gulf lifted cereal, sugar and vegetable oil costs.

Economy

The US Senate passed the "Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026" on Friday by 86 votes to 11. It would let the president impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on major buyers of Russian oil and gas.

Geopolitics

US intelligence has tied the explosive-laden drone stopped at Leipzig/Halle airport on Tuesday night to Russia, the Wall Street Journal reports. German federal prosecutors are running a counterterrorism investigation.

Geopolitics

Ukraine has completely stopped exporting agricultural products through the Black Sea after Russian strikes on Odesa, a route that carried about 85% of such exports before July, Agrarian Policy Minister Taras Vysotsky said. TASS reports 6,835 vehicles queued at the Polish border and a drone strike on the Turkish cargo ship MV Gulluk near Novorossiysk, while Bloomberg reports that Washington says Kyiv will avoid targeting tankers and a Black Sea oil site.

Economy

Ukrainian drones struck a warehouse of Wildberries, Russia's largest online marketplace, in Yekaterinburg more than 2,000 kilometres inside Russia, sparking a fire, the merged company RWB said. Daily Sabah reports the disruption is hitting tens of thousands of small businesses, while TASS says Ukrainian forces attacked Donetsk-region territory 30 times in a day, wounding 11 people including two children.

Geopolitics

New US intelligence warns that Russia may seek to provoke NATO at a time when American munitions stocks are dwindling, the Wall Street Journal reported. Lithuanian Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas said Moscow may be weighing strikes on critical infrastructure in the Baltic region using captured Ukrainian drones, according to Bloomberg News.

Geopolitics

Ukraine struck oil facilities deep inside Russia overnight into Thursday, setting the Yaroslavneftorgsintez refinery in Yaroslavl on fire. Russia's Defence Ministry said air defences downed 605 drones over Russian regions, occupied Crimea and the Black and Azov seas.

Geopolitics

Russia says a Ukrainian drone hit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant on Saturday, cutting external power for one hour. On Thursday its foreign ministry called for a response from the international community.

Geopolitics

A sanctioned tanker carrying an estimated 110,000 tonnes of crude is aground off Oman and leaking. Greenpeace puts the slick at around 600 square kilometres.

Geopolitics

The Pentagon is reportedly drafting a revised nuclear strategy for regional conflicts with China and Russia, putting more emphasis on limited deployments of short-range tactical nuclear weapons, according to reports cited by Breitbart and Global Times. An expert quoted by Global Times said the tactical push ignores retaliation risks, while the UN Secretary-General warned that the world is in its most dangerous nuclear era in decades.

Geopolitics

Police said the drone carrying an explosive device at Leipzig airport was found next to a Ukrainian aircraft loaded with ammunition, and the federal prosecutor's office is investigating what it calls an attack on Germany's transport and logistics infrastructure. A minister said a ripped detonator stopped the device from going off; a Washington newspaper linked the incident to Russian intelligence, according to Politika, while German investigators have not said who was behind it.

Geopolitics

Ukraine's requests for additional air-defence interceptors are falling flat because Western allies are reluctant to give up missiles they may need for their own defence, the New York Times reported on Thursday. Russian strikes on Ukraine have intensified in the meantime.

Geopolitics

A Ukrainian attack on the Bryansk region killed two civilians and injured six in Novozybkov, damaging several cars and a filling station, TASS reported on Thursday, citing preliminary data. Meduza the same day published what is known about the victims of a Ukrainian drone that came down and exploded on Monday on a beach at Arkhipo-Osipovka, part of Gelendzhik, while people were on the sand and in the water.

Geopolitics

Russia's defence ministry said its forces hit Ukrainian army infrastructure and logistics centres over the past day and that Ukraine lost roughly 1,395 troops across all frontline areas, figures reported by TASS and not independently confirmed. Russian analyst Vitaly Kiselyov told TASS that Kyiv has lost 80% of its ports and uses the remaining civilian port infrastructure to bring in fuel and NATO-issued uniforms.

Geopolitics

Putin, who had long kept a conspicuous distance from monetary policy, made clear twice in July that Russia's central bank needed to lower its key rate, Bloomberg reported on Thursday in an account relayed by Meduza. Bloomberg also reported that Russia's war economy is fuelling pay gains that companies cannot afford.

Economy

Russia's overnight missile and drone attack on Kyiv and its region on Wednesday killed 17 people; Ukrainian defences intercepted none of the ballistic missiles. NATO's secretary general now says he is working urgently to secure interceptors for Ukraine.

Geopolitics

Hundreds of people gathered in the Moroccan town of Fnideq this week, holding up photos of relatives missing since some 72,000 people crossed into Spain's enclave of Ceuta late last month. Officials now put the death toll close to 100.

Geopolitics

German police found a drone with an explosive device beside a parked Ukrainian Antonov cargo plane at Leipzig/Halle, a NATO and DHL logistics hub, in the night to Wednesday. Germany's interior ministry calls it a professional hybrid threat scenario.

Geopolitics

A Ukrainian drone and missile attack on an industrial facility in Russia's Kursk region killed four people and injured several others, regional governor Alexander Khinshtein said on Wednesday. Meduza, reviewing 40 days of the campaign, counts at least 20 Wildberries warehouses and at least 25 oil refineries and other oil and gas sites hit, knocking out a third of Russia's refining capacity.

Geopolitics

The Pentagon has begun drafting a new US nuclear strategy that emphasises the possible use of shorter-range tactical weapons in a conflict with Russia or China, TASS reported on Wednesday, citing media sources. The report is unconfirmed and the Defense Department has not commented publicly.

Geopolitics

A car bomb in Yekaterinburg critically injured Vladimir Tkachuk, head of the drone producer Uraldronzavod, and killed his bodyguard, who was inside the vehicle, TASS reported on Wednesday. It was the second attack on a Russian drone developer within a week; reporting also tied a Moscow restaurant explosion last week that killed the son-in-law of Aerospace Forces commander Alexander Chayko to an apparent attempt on Chayko himself.

Geopolitics

Russia has begun deploying a missile unit manned by North Korean troops and plans to station it in the Voronezh region, Andrii Cherniak of Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate told Reuters in a report published on Wednesday. The claim comes from Ukrainian intelligence and is not independently confirmed.

Geopolitics

President Vladimir Putin announced changes to the Russian military command on Wednesday, appointing Denis Lyamin, former chief of staff of the battlegroup Center, to oversee unmanned systems forces and Colonel General Solodchuk as deputy defence minister for combat service support. TASS says the changes target material and technical supply for the troops; military analyst Boris Rozhin expects a faster pace of drone production and new unmanned units.

Geopolitics

Russia and Ukraine are producing ever larger numbers of innovative aerial weapons while ground combat is largely static, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. Ukraine accused Russia of a war crime after a video showed a drone attacking a vegetable seller in Kherson.

Geopolitics

Russia's UN envoy Vasily Nebenzya said on Wednesday that Ukraine is attacking staff at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in order to cause a man-made disaster. Rosatom head Alexey Likhachev accused Ukrainian forces of using drones at night to mine the access road, disrupting shift changes, food deliveries and emergency medical transport; the claims, carried by TASS, are unverified.

Geopolitics

Ukrainian drones killed five people in an industrial zone in the Moscow region overnight into Tuesday and set a Wildberries logistics warehouse ablaze in the Leningrad region. A day earlier, a drone came down on a packed beach near Gelendzhik, killing seven, among them children.

Geopolitics

Russian strikes on the Ukrainian cities of Sumy and Mykolaiv killed four civilians overnight on Tuesday. Ukraine the same day accused Russia of a war crime over a drone that hunted a street vendor in Kherson.

Geopolitics

North Korea said on Wednesday it will pursue unspecified "additional military options" against Japan. Tokyo had published its annual defence white paper a day earlier, naming China, North Korea and Russia as growing threats.

Geopolitics

Russia's envoy to Cuba, Viktor Koronelli, said no Russian citizens had contacted the embassy for assistance during the blackouts and that no evacuation of staff of Russian institutions is being considered, TASS reported on Wednesday. Cuba's national grid failed twice between Sunday and Monday; Le Monde reported that power was restored while large areas stayed dark, counting the sixth nationwide outage this year, whereas Breitbart counted the fifth failure in a month.

Geopolitics

Türkiye's foreign ministry renewed its call for Black Sea safety on Tuesday after a drone attack injured several crew members on two civilian vessels; TASS said the crew of the Nadezhda are under medical care in Novorossiysk following what it called a Ukrainian drone attack, and reported another ship ablaze off Odesa. Russian insurers have effectively stopped covering war and terrorism risks for cargo ships in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, the business outlet RBC reported, citing industry sources.

Geopolitics

European Commission spokesperson Anna-Kaisa Itkonen said the Commission continues to work on a complete and permanent trade ban on Russian oil supplies to Europe, according to TASS. The Russian agency reported the statement on Tuesday against the background of EU gas and electricity problems.

Economy

Russia's defence ministry said its troops had taken the community of Baksheyevka in the Kharkiv region and that Ukrainian forces lost roughly 1,435 soldiers across all frontline areas in 24 hours, according to TASS. Duma lawmaker Alexey Chepa said Volodymyr Zelensky's 40-day plan is failing and that Ukraine lacks air defence systems and reserves to plug gaps along the line of engagement.

Geopolitics

Russia is expanding its shadow fleet of gas carriers by adding secondhand vessels and its first domestically built tankers, the Financial Times reported, citing maritime analytics data. Meduza relayed the report on Tuesday, linking the build-up to a looming Western ban on Russian liquefied natural gas supplies.

Economy

A Ukrainian drone came down on a crowded beach at Arkhipo-Osipovka near Gelendzhik on Monday, killing seven people, among them three children. Russian officials put the combined toll from the coastal and Crimean strikes at 11.

Geopolitics

Military expert Andrey Marochko said Russian forces took control of nearly 600 square kilometres and 32 settlements in the war zone during July, the state agency TASS reported on Monday. The figures come from the Russian side and are not independently confirmed.

Geopolitics

Meduza reported that General Alexander Chayko, who commanded troops that carried out the Bucha massacre in Ukraine, appears to have been the target of Saturday's explosion at the Balzi Rossi restaurant on Barrikadnaya Street in Moscow. Russia's Foreign Ministry and its embassy in Italy accused Ukraine of involvement, and Meduza counted at least six attacks on Russian generals away from the front over two years, three of them fatal.

Geopolitics

Sellers on the Russian marketplace Wildberries may have lost 215 to 280 billion roubles because of Ukrainian drone strikes on the company's warehouses, according to an estimate by analyst Sergei Semko cited by Forbes Russia. Bloomberg reported that Kyiv's shifting pattern of strikes is adding uncertainty around Russian oil.

Economy

Bloomberg reported on Monday that the war with Iran left Belgium wholly dependent on Russia for liquefied natural gas in July. The report is the only source and gives no import volumes.

Economy

Ukrainian drone attacks on more than a dozen Russian regions killed at least nine people on Sunday, among them a 13-year-old girl in Belgorod region. Russian strikes on Ukraine killed at least five the same day.

Geopolitics

Seven OPEC+ states agreed on Sunday to lift oil production by 188,000 barrels per day in September, the sixth monthly increase in a row. The step finishes unwinding the voluntary cuts the group agreed in 2023.

Economy

Rosatom says a Ukrainian combat drone struck inside the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant overnight into Sunday. The Russian operator reports no explosion and unchanged radiation levels.

Geopolitics

A homemade explosive device killed three people and wounded at least 21 at an upmarket restaurant in central Moscow on Sunday. Mayor Sergey Sobyanin called the attack a terrorist act and said the perpetrators would be found; TASS reported that the woman who carried the parcel, herself among the dead, may not have known its contents.

Geopolitics

An Italian-led European Union naval force boarded a sanctioned tanker belonging to Russia's 'shadow fleet' in the Mediterranean, Reuters reported on Monday. Physical enforcement of Western sanctions at sea is rare.

Geopolitics

The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that the Kremlin is bullying a growing number of Russian men into military service for the war in Ukraine. The scale of the recruitment drive is not given in the summary available to Bota.

Geopolitics

Russian missiles killed at least nine people in Kyiv overnight into Saturday and damaged Lithuania's embassy. Vilnius has since summoned Russia's representative there.

Geopolitics

Bloomberg reported on Saturday that armed conflicts and extreme weather could drive global food prices sharply higher. Heat and drought in Europe are cutting grain output.

Economy

A homemade bomb carried by a woman killed three people and injured at least 21 in an explosion near an Italian restaurant on Kudrinskaya Square in Moscow on Saturday night, authorities say. Among the dead were a security guard and the woman whom the authorities say arrived with the package; officials describe the blast as an attack and the motive is unclear.

Geopolitics

Rosatom said its civilian vessel Yanina sank in the Black Sea after a Ukrainian drone attack and that the entire crew survived, Reuters reported. Rosatom chief Alexey Likhachev called the strike an act of maritime piracy, saying the container ship was carrying civilian goods in international waters, while Kyiv had said earlier that the attack was not intentional, according to Politika.

Geopolitics

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington intends to take a number of steps in the coming weeks to assess whether peace talks can resume, TASS reported on Sunday. Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik said the US still has the resources to fuel the conflict and pursues its own interests in a settlement.

Geopolitics

China has a way to respond to the new US sanctions bill targeting Russia and its trading partners, Jake Werner, director of the East Asia Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told TASS on Saturday. He said the bill has the potential to trigger a crisis in US-China relations.

Geopolitics

Russian ballistic missiles hit Kyiv early on Saturday, killing at least nine people. It was the second major attack on the Ukrainian capital in a week.

Geopolitics

Ukraine's military struck a refinery in Volgograd and set warehouses of the online retailer Wildberries on fire, part of a campaign increasingly aimed at Russian oil infrastructure and logistics centres, FAZ reported; the rival retailer Ozon had to evacuate a warehouse. Wildberries founder and CEO Tatyana Kim addressed sellers in a video on Friday after two weeks of strikes, said foreign entrepreneurs had lost billions, called the attacks force majeure and described them as terrorist attacks.

Geopolitics

TASS estimated that Russian forces took 32 communities in July, most of them in the Kharkov region and the Donetsk People's Republic, and the Russian Defence Ministry said its forces hit more than 80 vessels carrying cargo for Ukraine's army during the month. Zelensky said the situation in the Konstantinovka and Slavyansk areas and in the Zaporozhye region is of particular concern, while a Russian diplomat said Ukrainian attacks killed 61 people and injured 327 over the past week.

Geopolitics

The New York Times reported that a Ukrainian strike on an Iranian vessel, after Iran sent military aid to Russia for its war against Ukraine, raised the question of whether that conflict and the US-Israeli war against Iran are converging. Politika, citing American media, reported that Russia is passing Iran intelligence on US forces that could help Iranian defence and more precise strikes.

Geopolitics

Ukraine's former defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov, an advocate of drone and robot warfare, said on Friday that political upheaval in Kyiv will not derail the country's tech-heavy military strategy. Bloomberg reports that Ukrainian forces aim to extend the frontline "kill zone" and increase pressure on Putin.

Technology

Warsaw protested to Russia's ambassador on Friday after a missile entered Polish territory during Russia's nightly barrage against Ukraine, Al Jazeera reported. Poland asserts the missile was recently made, which it says shows the bombardment is draining Russia's arsenal.

Geopolitics

Reuters reported, as cited by Politika on Friday, that Congress could block the sanctions bill, which provides for high tariffs on buyers of Russian energy and on imports from Russia. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said the West is again threatening Russia with what he called draconian sanctions and that attempts to defeat the country are doomed.

Geopolitics

A cruise missile came down in a field in south-eastern Poland early on Thursday, tearing a crater about ten metres wide near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia and injuring no one. Poland's prime minister said the recovered fragments point to a Russian Kh-101 and that Poland had not been the target, while Poland and NATO switched on ground-based and airborne air defences. Russia has not commented on the incident, and investigators have yet to identify the debris definitively.

Geopolitics

A Russian missile and drone barrage across Ukraine overnight into Thursday killed at least eight civilians, six of them members of one family in the village of Radushne near Kryvyi Rih. In his evening address, President Zelensky said preliminary data indicated the missile that destroyed the family's house was North Korean, which Reuters' sources say would be the first such use in nearly a year. Russia's Defence Ministry says it struck military airfields, arms plants and logistics sites.

Geopolitics

Ukrainian drones struck Rosneft's Ryazan refinery on Wednesday, forcing one of Russia's largest plants offline for what sources told Reuters will be about two weeks. Overnight into Thursday drones burned three more Wildberries warehouses, one of them 1,400 kilometres from the border, and hit two tankers at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal near Novorossiysk. Oil prices rose after the Black Sea attacks, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Geopolitics

A Russian ballistic missile levelled a Kyiv drone plant owned by the US firm Terminal Autonomy, which makes long-range drones resistant to Russian signal jamming, according to The Guardian. The strike appears to be the first time in the war that Moscow has hit a US company's facility.

Geopolitics

Russian authorities said on Thursday they had stopped a Ukrainian attack on critical infrastructure at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, naming a spent nuclear fuel dry storage facility and a transporter vehicle they describe as unique equipment. The foreign ministry condemned the attempt; the account comes from the Russian state agency TASS and is unconfirmed.

Geopolitics

Russia's defence ministry said on Thursday that its forces had taken Yurchenkovo in the Kharkiv region and Mogritsa and Malaya Slobodka in the Sumy region, and Defence Minister Andrei Belousov congratulated Battlegroup Center on the Mogritsa advance. The Russian-installed head of the Kharkiv regional administration told TASS that Russian units had taken 13 settlements there during July and were pushing toward Kupyansk and Borovaya, claims that are not independently confirmed.

Geopolitics

Russian forces attacked Ukraine with ballistic missiles and long-range aviation overnight from 29 to 30 July 2026, hitting Kyiv, Lviv, Kryvyi Rih and Poltava. At least eight people were killed, six of them members of one family in Kryvyi Rih. Poland scrambled fighter jets and sounded air-raid sirens in Lublin while the strikes reached western Ukraine.

Geopolitics

Trump and Zelensky met on Tuesday to discuss reviving peace negotiations with Russia and plans for Ukraine to build Patriot missiles, and Zelensky said restoring Crimea to Kyiv's control is not currently part of the talks but suggested that could change. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called a possible ceasefire combined with the deployment of foreign forces an "ultimatum" and urged Russians to feel "healthy anger" toward a West he said has turned against Moscow through Ukraine.

Geopolitics

Russia's Federal Security Service charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with what it calls facilitating terrorist activity, accusing him of failing to remove channels and bots that Moscow says Ukrainian services used to recruit people and coordinate attacks, and placed him on an international wanted list. Meduza notes that two Russian agencies give different numbers in the case, and Le Monde reports that lawyers point to French law, which bars the extradition of French citizens, as Durov is, to third countries such as Russia or the United Arab Emirates.

Technology

Ukraine said it struck a major Rosneft refinery in Ryazan, and Ukrainian drones set a Wildberries warehouse in the same city ablaze on the morning of 29 July, with photos and videos showing a large fire and part of the building collapsed. Ukrainian drones also damaged an apartment building in Taganrog, killing one person, and in Tula a gunman tried to shoot the head of a Russian drone company in the stairwell of an apartment building, the regional branch of Russia's Investigative Committee reported.

Geopolitics

The US Senate cleared a second procedural vote, with 84 senators in favour of opening debate on a bill imposing sanctions on Russia and Iran, and Trump said he supports the legislation while seeing no need for the House to interrupt its August recess for it. A separate bipartisan Senate bill would let Trump impose tariffs on the biggest importers of Russian energy, and Russia's embassy said the sanctions bill does a disservice to the US president's foreign policy.

Geopolitics

The Trump administration cut the WHO off from Gavi vaccine alliance funding, Al Jazeera reported, following a long-running feud between Trump and the UN health body. Russia's Health Ministry said cuts to global HIV funding will not cause an epidemic in Russia because its HIV programmes do not depend on international money, while Gennady Onishchenko called the UN forecast of a new HIV epidemic not unfounded and said richer countries must pay for treatment in poorer ones.

Geopolitics

Moscow and Pyongyang are finalising construction of their first direct road connection, tightening an alliance formed during the war against Ukraine, El País reported. Zelensky says the Kremlin plans to bring another 30,000 North Korean soldiers to fight in Ukraine.

Geopolitics

The Russian state agency TASS, citing a newspaper report, says the standstill at Ukraine's Black Sea ports costs about $70 million a day, and that the three ports of greater Odesa accounted for $2.1 billion of Ukraine's $3.5 billion in exports in June. The Russian analyst Ilya Grashchenkov told TASS the situation is not a blockade as such but a de facto halt to shipping, and that Kyiv cannot replace the lost export routes.

Economy

The Russian foreign ministry denounced Ukraine's attack on an Iranian merchant ship in the Caspian Sea as what it called a real terrorist act, according to the Tehran Times. The episode keeps relations between Kyiv and Tehran under strain.

Geopolitics

Donald Trump received Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office on Tuesday for a closed meeting of a little over an hour on ending the war with Russia. Zelensky said the two discussed licences that would let Ukraine build its own interceptor missiles for Patriot air defence systems, and called for the diplomatic process to be reinvigorated. Trump wrote afterwards only that the meeting "went very well", before receiving Benjamin Netanyahu separately.

Geopolitics

Senate Republicans and Democrats struck a bipartisan deal on a new Russia sanctions bill co-authored by Lindsey Graham, the senator who died on 11 July, and senators voted 86 to 12 to advance it, a measure that would also give President Donald Trump new tariff powers. A Democratic aide warned that the bill hands the president unchecked discretion to waive sanctions and impose tariffs, and aides said all 100 senators were invited to meet Volodymyr Zelensky around Graham's funeral.

Geopolitics

Ukraine launched more than 390 drones at Moscow and the surrounding region overnight, and Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said 81 drones were destroyed on the approach to the capital, in what TASS estimates was one of the largest such attacks in two years. Regional governor Andrey Vorobyov reported a damaged apartment block and houses in the Moscow region, and Ryazan governor Pavel Malkov said falling drone fragments injured one person and that four drones were downed over his region.

Geopolitics

Ukraine said it did not intend to hit an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea, insisted its strike targeted Russian warships and warned Iran against escalation, while Tehran demanded compensation. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the attack expands the geography of what Moscow calls terror, and the FAZ read the operation as a political message to Donald Trump before his meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky.

Geopolitics

Russia's defence ministry said its troops took the Krasny Kut community in Donetsk region and that Battlegroup Center inflicted roughly 360 casualties on Ukrainian forces and destroyed an armoured combat vehicle over the past day. A Russian officer told TASS that drone operators are striking beyond Krasny Liman to disrupt Ukrainian logistics as Russian forces push toward Slavyansk and Raigorodok, claims that are unconfirmed by independent sources.

Geopolitics

TASS, citing the analyst Sergey Kuyun, reported that Ukrainian filling stations are running dry, and said a blockade of Ukraine's ports together with sharply higher truck diesel prices is deepening an export crisis. Moldovan Prime Minister Vasile Tofan said Ukrainian strikes on the Russian port of Novorossiysk triggered a diesel shortage in Moldova, which imports significant volumes of the fuel via the Danube.

Economy

A Ukrainian long-range drone strike on shipping in the Caspian Sea over the weekend of 25 July caused an explosion aboard an Iranian merchant vessel, killing one sailor and injuring others. Kyiv says it hit ships carrying military cargo between Iran and Russia; Tehran says the vessel was purely civilian and has told the EU and Moscow the attack "cannot go unanswered". Iran has summoned Ukraine's chargé d'affaires, while Russian and Iranian ministries coordinate their response.

Geopolitics

Ukrainian drones carried out what the governor of Russia's Udmurt Republic called the most massive attack on the region to date on July 27, 2026, one of several strikes President Volodymyr Zelensky said were aimed at Russian oil facilities. In the days before, drones hit Wildberries logistics centers in St. Petersburg, the Leningrad region and Crimea, and attacks on tankers at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal near Novorossiysk halted loadings and more than halved Kazakhstan's daily oil output before shipments resumed. Moscow has extended its gasoline export ban to the end of 2026 as fuel and power shortages spread across occupied Crimea.

Geopolitics

Ukrainian officials said Russian missiles and drones killed at least six people on Sunday, among them a nine-year-old girl in a supermarket in Chernihiv. In the same night a Ukrainian drone attack hit residential districts of Rostov-on-Don, where the regional governor first reported a married couple killed and later raised the toll to five, including a child. Both capitals deny targeting civilians, and both describe the other side's strikes as terror.

Geopolitics

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was the first foreign leader received by Britain's new prime minister Andy Burnham, who used the naval base meeting on 27 July to harden his language toward Moscow and to promise Kyiv the rights to a British electronic warfare system. A day later Zelensky is due at the White House, where a US official quoted by CNN says it is time to end the war. In the background, the Trump administration has told Congress that $400m in approved assistance will not be fully delivered before fiscal 2029, while Kazakhstan's president publicly urged Vladimir Putin to freeze the conflict.

Geopolitics

Vladimir Putin signed a decree raising the authorised size of Russia's armed forces to 2,426,130 personnel, with service members rising from 1,510,000 to 1,535,000 as of 1 August, which Meduza describes as the sixth expansion since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and a separate decree added the Sirius federal territory to the list of border areas where foreigners may not own land, according to TASS. An investigation by Novaya Gazeta Europe cited by Meduza concludes that at least 400,000 Russian troops have already returned from the front to civilian life.

Geopolitics

A British analyst quoted by Politika says Russian forces are close to a breakthrough in the Donbas as Moscow increases pressure on two fronts and Kyiv's room for manoeuvre narrows. TASS reports that Russia's acting permanent representative to the UN, Anna Yevstigneyeva, told the Security Council that the army is steadily expanding the area under its control, referred to the capture of Konstantinovka and said Ukrainian attacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant risk a major man-made disaster, claims that are contested.

Geopolitics

Romania's foreign ministry summoned Russia's ambassador and expelled an embassy staff member after Romanian forces shot down three drones that entered the country's territory without authorisation between 24 and 25 July, according to Meduza and TASS. Ambassador Vladimir Lipaev rejected the accusations as groundless and called the protest a propaganda show, while spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow would respond to the expulsion.

Geopolitics

North Korea is rumoured to be sending tens of thousands of additional soldiers to Russia in support of its war in Ukraine, the South China Morning Post reports, citing analysts who describe the arrangement as mutually beneficial. The report is unconfirmed and would mark a further deepening of defence ties between the two states.

Geopolitics

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow will soon announce its response to the European Union's 21st sanctions package and argued that measures against Russian energy partnerships threaten global markets, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed the package is hitting Europe's economy and social sphere hard, according to TASS. The Financial Times reports that a carve-out for Greek shipping has prompted the EU to reconsider parts of its sanctions regime, and TASS notes the MOEX index closed 2.18 percent higher.

Economy

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited a British naval base on Monday as the first foreign leader received by new UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who took office on 20 July. London announced it would hand Kyiv the intellectual property behind its "Stone Cloak" electronic jammer so Ukraine can produce it at scale. The visit precedes a meeting between Zelensky and US President Donald Trump in Washington on Tuesday, while the Kremlin said it was too early to comment on reported US-Ukrainian talks about an air ceasefire.

Geopolitics

Russian ballistic missiles killed people in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, while TASS reported that Ukrainian drones wounded twelve people including two minors in Belgorod and hit an apartment building in Rostov-on-Don. TASS also reported two killed and fourteen injured in attacks on settlements in the Donetsk area, and a strike on an ambulance in Gorlovka that Russian officials called a war crime; these accounts come from Russian sources and are not independently confirmed.

Geopolitics

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address that Russia has requested an additional 30,000 soldiers and missile launchers from North Korea, and has been preparing since June to deploy North Korean personnel via the Voronezh region. Bloomberg reported separately that North Korea rejected denuclearisation; the troop figures come from Zelensky and are not independently confirmed.

Geopolitics

Ukraine said it attacked vessels in the Caspian Sea carrying Iranian military hardware to Russia, and Kyiv's envoy to Israel said the struck ship contained drone and missile components. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the attack killed a sailor and 'cannot go unanswered', calling it a violation of the UN Charter, while Zelensky said Russia is passing satellite surveillance to Iran.

Geopolitics

Handelsblatt reported that a combination of Russian attacks has effectively paralysed operations at the ports of Odessa. Ukrainian officials said a vessel struck by Russian fire a week earlier, in an attack that killed ten people, sank on Sunday, according to Reuters and Politika.

Geopolitics

Romania shot down a third drone that had violated its airspace and summoned the Russian ambassador, according to Reuters and Al Jazeera. The Romanian president called the repeated incursions intolerable, and the violations have raised concern about the effect of the Russia-Ukraine war on NATO member states.

Geopolitics

Kazakhstan's oil exports were halted after drone attacks disrupted supplies, Al Jazeera reports, in a spillover from the war between Russia and Ukraine. The interruption poses risks to the Kazakh economy and to energy markets.

Economy

Japan reported the latest position of vessels on a joint Chinese-Russian naval patrol, Global Times reports. An expert cited by the outlet said the route demonstrates the two navies' ability to break through the so-called first island chain.

Geopolitics

Moscow-installed officials in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region said a nighttime attack on a holiday camp area at Kyrylivka on the Sea of Azov killed at least eight to eleven people, among them children, and injured more than a dozen. On the same weekend Ukraine reported deadly Russian drone strikes in the Sumy and Zaporizhzhia regions, and German media reported missile fire on Kyiv. It follows a Friday in which Russian strikes killed 15 people in Ukraine.

Geopolitics

A rare daytime Russian missile strike hit a private training ground in the Bucha district of Kyiv region on 24 July 2026, where the "Armada" weapons exhibition of Ukrainian drone makers was under way; Ukraine's Prosecutor General reported 10 dead and about 100 injured. Hours earlier, two Russian air bombs on Sloviansk in Donetsk region killed five and damaged the building housing Latvia's honorary consulate. Russia's defence ministry said the Kyiv-region strike targeted those launching drones at Russian civilian infrastructure; Ukrainian prosecutors have opened a case over how the exhibition was organised.

Geopolitics

Overnight into July 24, 2026, Ukrainian drones struck logistics complexes of Russia's largest online retailer Wildberries near St Petersburg, in the Leningrad region and in occupied Simferopol — the fourth such attack in a week. A separate strike on the Avitek plant in Kirov killed six people and injured 26, according to the regional governor. Russia's Defence Ministry said it downed 571 drones over 15 regions, making it one of the largest Ukrainian long-range attacks of the year.

Geopolitics

On day 147 of the Iran war, Donald Trump said China and Russia had promised not to supply weapons to Tehran, according to The National. Trump also said seized Iranian funds would be used to pay for damage caused in the Strait of Hormuz, The American Conservative reported, which noted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due at the White House on Tuesday.

Geopolitics

European Union sanctions targeting nearly 100 Russian banks are disrupting key money-transfer routes, Meduza reports. The affected channels are used by Russians who left the country after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Economy

Europe faces a 1 January deadline to end imports of liquefied natural gas from Russia, the New York Times reports. Europeans say they fear the shift will increase their dependence on American energy.

Economy

Russia's central bank lowered its key interest rate by 25 basis points to 14 percent, Meduza reported. It was the tenth consecutive cut in the current easing cycle.

Economy

A French security source told AFP that the Russian disinformation network Storm-1516 spread fake health claims about former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, one of the declared candidates for the presidency, according to Meduza. The attribution rests on that unnamed security source.

Geopolitics