Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ceyhun Bayramov, discussed "problems and misunderstandings" between the two countries in two phone calls, Iranian state media reported on April 8, days after Baku expelled four Iranian diplomats over "provocative actions." The expulsions came amid a deterioration of ties, partly due to Baku's improving relations with Tehran's archenemy Israel. Baku last week opened an embassy in Israel. During the row, Azerbaijan suggested that Iran may have been connected to an assassination attempt on an anti-Tehran Azerbaijani lawmaker. Tehran has denied the accusation. Iran has a large population of ethnic Azeris in the northwest of the country. To read the original story by Reuters, click here.

The Bulgarian Central Election Commission on April 8 published a list of the names of the 240 deputies to be included in the 49th National Assembly. Coming off a narrow victory in the parliamentary elections, former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, the leader of Bulgaria's center-right GERB party, has invited all other parties to have gained seats in parliament to join talks on forming a government. The distribution of seats in parliament will be: GERB-UDF, 69 deputies; We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria, 64; Revival (Vazrazhdane), 37; Movement For Rights And Freedoms, 36; Bulgarian Socialist Party, 23; There Is Such A People, 11. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Bulgarian Service, click here.

Saudi officials have arrived in Iran to discuss procedures for reopening Riyadh's embassy in Tehran and consulate in Mashhad after China brokered a deal to restore relations between the two regional powers, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said on April 8. After years of hostility that fueled conflicts across the Middle East, Iran and Saudi Arabia in March agreed to end their diplomatic rift and reopen their diplomatic missions. To read the original story by Reuters, click here.

The Save Ukraine charity said that 31 children illegally taken to Russia following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine have been returned to their homeland.

“Children kidnapped by the Russians from the Kherson and Kharkiv regions have finally crossed the border with their relatives and now are safe. After a long separation of several months, they will meet their families,” the organization said.

The group, which according to its website provides “evacuation, humanitarian aid, and housing to families and children in war zones,” posted a video of what it said showed the children returning to Ukraine.

“Ahead, the children and parents will face psychological and physical recovery. And we will continue to care for them until the families are home,” it said.

Mykola Kuleba, the head of the Save Ukraine charity, wrote on Twitter that “the path of Ukrainian children from the territory of the Russian Federation is always difficult. Unforeseen circumstances can arise at any moment on the way, which complicate the rescue. But we don't give up halfway, because we do it for the sake of our children.”

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague last month issued arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Moscow’s commissioner for children's rights, on war crimes charges related to the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children, along with the unlawful transfer of people to Russia from Ukraine since it invaded in February last year.

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The Kremlin's alleged deportation of thousands of children from Ukraine to Russia or areas occupied by Russian forces was a major topic at the recent UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva.

Moscow has said the transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia was a humanitarian campaign to protect orphans and children abandoned in the war zone.

But the Council was skeptical on April 4 when it demanded that Russia provide access to and information about Ukrainian children and other civilians forcibly transferred to territory under its control.

The U.S. Navy has deployed a guided-missile submarine capable of carrying up to 154 Tomahawk missiles to the Middle East, a spokesman said on April 8, in what appeared to be a show of force toward Iran following recent tensions. The navy rarely acknowledges the location or deployment of submarines. Commander Timothy Hawkins, a spokesman for the 5th Fleet based in the Gulf nation of Bahrain, declined to comment on the submarine's mission or what had prompted the deployment. To read the original story by AP, click here.

Afghan religious scholars on April 8 criticized a ban on female education, as a key Taliban minister warned clerics not to rebel against the government on the controversial issue. Girls cannot go to school beyond sixth grade in Afghanistan, with the education ban extending to universities. Two well-known religious scholars said authorities should reconsider their decision. Public opposition to Taliban policies is rare, although some leaders of the hard-line group have voiced their disagreement with the decision-making process. One scholar, Abdul Rahman Abid, said institutions should be permitted to readmit girls and women through separate classes, hiring female teachers, staggering timetables, and even building new facilities. To read the original story by AP, click here.

Residents and officials gathered in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk on April 8 to commemorate the dozens of lives lost one year ago when a Russian missile hit the central rail station where thousands of people had gathered to board trains to evacuate the area.

"The horror that swept over the Kramatorsk railway station that day claimed the lives of 61 people, and more than a hundred were injured," the city council said in a statement.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

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“They fled the war, sought salvation in lands far from home, but a Russian missile cut short their lives, crippled the fate of entire families.”

“Last year's events are indisputable evidence of Russia's criminal acts on the territory of Ukraine. The missile strike on the Kramatorsk railway station is one of the bloodiest pages of the criminal case, which, we are sure, will be considered in the court of The Hague. The perpetrators must be punished,” it added.

Russia denies that it targets civilian sites despite widespread evidence of such acts since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In February 2023, Human Rights Watch, in a joint investigation with the SITU research group, said strong evidence suggested that the missile strike on the Kramatorsk train station in eastern Ukraine was a "clear war crime" by Russia.

The report said the ballistic missile that targeted the train station was loaded with banned cluster munitions that dispersed dozens of small bombs.

"The evidence strongly indicates that the missile that killed and wounded civilians at the Kramatorsk train station was launched from Russian-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine. The attack was a violation of the laws of war and a clear war crime," the report said.

On the first anniversary, a moment of silence was declared at the rail station as residents placed flowers at a small memorial at the site.

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'No One Can Replace Their Mom': Ukrainian Sisters Struggle With Loss After Kramatorsk Air Strike

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Kramatorsk, which had a prewar population of about 157,000, is the administrative center of the Kramatorsk region in the Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine.

On March 31, Ukraine also marked one year since Russian forces withdrew from Bucha, leaving behind hundreds of bodies of murdered civilians on the streets of the commuter town near the capital in what Kyiv said was a massacre and a Russian war crime.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy presided over an official outdoor ceremony in Bucha that was also attended by Moldovan President Maia Sandu and the prime ministers of EU and NATO members Croatia, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

Pakistani Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on April 8 that he had canceled his trip to Washington for the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank on the orders of the prime minister due to the political situation in the country. However, Dar said he would attend important meetings virtually and a Pakistani delegation would be present in Washington. Pakistan is in danger of defaulting on its debt, with an IMF bailout program stalled since November, while a bruising political battle is raging between the government and former Prime Minister Imran Khan. To read the original story by Reuters, click here.

A Ukrainian minister will visit India from April 9 in the first face-to-face talks between the two countries since Russia's invasion of its European neighbor last year. India imports much of its military hardware from Russia, and is walking a delicate balancing act between its increased security cooperation with Western countries and its reliance on Russia for defense and oil imports.

Top sanctions officials from the U.S. Treasury Department are planning international trips this month to pressure firms and countries still doing business with Russia to cut off financial ties because of the war on Ukraine. Treasury officials said on April 7 that two specialists in sanctions and terrorist financing -- Liz Rosenberg and Brian Nelson -- will travel to Europe to share intelligence on potential sanctions evaders and to warn of the potential penalties for failing to comply with international sanctions. To read the original story by AP, click here.

In a further attempt to rein in increasing numbers of women defying the compulsory dress code, Iranian authorities are installing cameras in public places and thoroughfares to identify and penalize unveiled women, the police announced on April 8. After they have been identified, violators will receive “warning text messages as to the consequences,” police said in a statement. To read the original story by Reuters, click here.

Dissident Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko, who once promised to return to Moscow in a U.S.-made Abrams tank, was designated as a foreign agent on April 7 by the Russian Justice Ministry for allegedly “fundraising” for Ukraine’s military and spreading “false information” about “public authorities.” In January, Russia’s Interior Ministry issued an arrest warrant for Babchenko, who left Russia in 2017 and lived in the Czech Republic for some time before he moved to Ukraine, on unspecified charges. Babchenko left Ukraine in 2019 for an unspecified country. To read the original story from Current Time, click here.

Russian invading forces continued to launch dozens of military strikes in eastern regions of Ukraine, with Kyiv’s military reporting its forces had repelled 60 attacks over the past day.

In a statement issued early on April 8, the Ukrainian General Staff said Russia’s military continued to target the country’s industrial east, focusing on the cities and towns of Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, and Maryinka in the Donetsk region.

"During the past 24 hours, the enemy launched two missile and 35 air strikes, carried out more than 40 attacks from rocket-launch systems," the military said.

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The brutal fight for control of the eastern city of Bakhmut is being called the bloodiest infantry battle since World War II, with severe losses on both sides.

The Ukrainian military also said Russian occupation forces in the regions of Zaporizhzhya and Kherson are making preparations for what Kyiv described as the evacuation of civilians to Russia-occupied Crimea.

In the eastern Crimean town of Feodosia explosions were reported on April 8. A Russia-installed leader on the peninsula said it was a Ukrainian missile and that it had been shot down by Russian forces.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, has ordered his military to gain complete control of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson, areas he claims Russia has illegally annexed. Ukraine has indicated that it will soon launch a counteroffensive to take back more territory.

The fresh attacks come amid reports that Russian invading forces have advanced in Bakhmut. On April 7, British military officials said in their latest daily report that Russian forces have likely moved into the center of the city and captured the western banks of the Bakhmutka River.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

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Russia’s eight-month campaign to take control of Bakhmut coupled with Ukraine’s defense of the city have led to the longest and potentially bloodiest battle of the invasion, which Putin launched on February 24, 2022.

Meanwhile, the British Defense Ministry said Russia’s attempt to “severely degrade” Ukraine’s energy infrastructure “has highly likely failed.”

“Russia has conducted long range strikes since October 2022, but large-scale attacks have become rare since early March 2023,” the ministry said in its latest daily intelligence update on April 8.

“Ukraine’s network operating companies continue to source replacement transformers and other critical components,” the British Defense Ministry said adding, “Ukraine’s energy situation will likely improve with the arrival of warmer weather.”

At a mosque on the outskirts of Kyiv on April 7, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met Ukrainian Muslim soldiers to celebrate Iftar, the evening meal marking the end of the Ramadan fast.

Zelenskiy repeated his vow to win back control of Crimea, a historic homeland of the Crimean Tatars, a Muslim ethnic minority.

He noted that Russia began its campaign against Ukraine with the 2014 annexation of Crimea and vowed: “Where the path of evil began, victory awaits us there, I am sure. Victory over this evil. The liberation of Crimea has no alternative."

In his late video address on April 8, Zelenskiy said that Poland will provide 200 Rosomak infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine, with about 100 of them set to arrive in the immediate future.

Zelenskiy added that Kyiv also expects Warsaw to provide Ukrainian forces with MiG-29 fighter jets, along with additional weapons and missiles, in the near future.

During his April 5 visit to Warsaw, Zelenskiy hailed Poland's role in persuading Western countries to provide battle tanks to Ukraine and suggested that a similar "planes coalition" could be formed.

With reporting by AP

The U.S. government is investigating a leak of documents that include details of U.S. and NATO aid to Ukraine.

The handful of documents circulating on pro-Russian feeds on Twitter and Telegram resemble routine updates that the U.S. military produces daily but does not distribute publicly. They are dated from February 23 to March 1 and at least one of them was marked “top secret.” But they are not war plans and they provide no details on any planned Ukrainian counteroffensive.

U.S. Defense Department spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said late on April 6 that Washington is looking into the appearance on social media of leaked documents containing details of weapons deliveries to Ukraine, as well as battalion strengths and other sensitive information.

“We are aware of the reports of social-media posts, and the department is reviewing the matter,” Singh said.

The Pentagon has declined to comment on the authenticity of the documents. A leak of such sensitive material is highly unusual and troubling for Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office released a statement on April 7 about a meeting he had with his senior military staff, noting that “the participants of the meeting focused on measures to prevent the leakage of information regarding the plans of the defense forces of Ukraine.”

Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak told Reuters that the leak appeared to be a Russian disinformation effort aimed at undermining the planned counteroffensive. The leaked versions of the documents, Podolyak said, contain a large amount of fictitious information.

"Moscow is eager to disrupt a Ukrainian counteroffensive but it will see the real plans on the ground. Soon," Podolyak said on Twitter.

The documents include information about Ukraine’s use of munitions for U.S.-provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and other advanced weaponry.

The New York Times, which first reported on the documents, called the leak “a big coup for Moscow” that could “harm intelligence sharing between Ukraine and the United States.”

Three U.S. officials told Reuters that Russia or pro-Russian elements are likely behind the leak.

The documents appear to have been altered to lower the number of casualties suffered by Russian forces, the U.S. officials said, adding that their assessments were informal and separate from an investigation into the leak itself.

One of the leaked documents said 16,000 to 17,500 Russian troops had been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The United States and Britain have estimated that the number of Russian casualties -- dead and wounded -- was approaching 200,000.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the matter and declined to discuss the documents in detail, Reuters reported. The news agency also said that the Kremlin and the Russian Embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.

With reporting by the New York Times, Reuters, and AP

Russian legislators have proposed amendments to the Criminal Code to toughen sentences for people convicted of terrorism and high treason.

The amendments were announced on April 7 by Vasily Piskaryov, the chairman of the Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption of the State Duma.

If the draft amendments are accepted, the sentence for people convicted of treason would be life imprisonment, while the maximum prison term for committing a terrorist attack would rise from 15 years to 20 years. A terrorist act is defined as a deed which endangers lives and is aimed at destabilizing Russia.

The proposed amendments come a day after Russian prosecutors requested a 25-year prison sentence for opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, who is on trial on charges including treason. The prosecution of Kara-Murza, who was detained in April 2022 after returning to Russia from abroad, is the latest amid a Kremlin crackdown on dissent and civil society since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Piskaryov was quoted earlier this week by the state-controlled TASS news agency as saying the tougher measures were needed for protection against what he claimed were unprecedented threats that Russia faces from Ukraine and its Western backers amid Moscow's ongoing unprovoked invasion of its smaller neighbor.

Piskaryov said the deputies will not introduce a new bill but supplement another measure that has already passed the first reading and is being prepared for its second reading. According to Piskaryov, this will make it possible to consider the amendments promptly.

The changes would also raise the minimum sentences for assisting in promoting terrorist activities from five to seven years and for aiding in terrorist activities from 10 to 12 years. The maximum sentence for those crimes is 15 and 20 years respectively.

For the crime of organizing a terrorist community the sentence will rise from 10 to 15 years from the current five to 10 years, and for sabotage the sentence will rise to 20 years, up from the current 15 years.

With reporting by Reuters

The Pakistani Army claimed on April 7 that it arrested the leader of an armed group that has been responsible for numerous attacks as the country’s national security committee said it plans to launch a new nationwide operation to root out Islamist militants.

The public relations office of the army said it arrested Gulzar Imam, known as Shamba, in an operation but did not say where and when the arrest took place.

Gulzar Imam is the founder and leader of the illegal armed group called the Baloch National Army, which is responsible for "dozens of bloody attacks" in Pakistan, including assaults on law enforcement agencies, a statement from the army’s public relations office said.

The Baloch National Army was formed in the merger of two other armed groups -- the Baloch Republican Army and the United Baloch Army, it said.

Baloch separatist groups mentioned in the statement have not responded to the army's claims, but in November a group called the Baloch Nationalist Army sent a statement to the media claiming that Gulzar Imam was in the custody of Pakistan's intelligence agencies.

Baloch separatists have been active in Pakistan's Balochistan Province for years and they demand the province's independence.

Pakistani Army and paramilitary forces have been stationed in Balochistan for almost two decades and have continued to carry out operations against armed groups there.

The separatists have claimed responsibility for attacks on Pakistani security forces, government officials, and on Chinese workers who are in Pakistan working on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects.

Baloch separatist groups allege that the Chinese are trying to capture equipment that belongs to Balochistan with the help of the Pakistani government, and that is why they are attacking them.

Beijing has invested billions of dollars in infrastructure projects in various areas of Pakistan under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor program.

The national security committee made its announcement about plans to launch an operation against the militants after a committee meeting on April 7 chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and attended by the country's military leadership.

"The meeting agreed to launch an all-out comprehensive operation with the entire nation and the government, which will rid the country of the menace of terrorism with renewed vigor and determination," the security committee said in a statement.

The security committee said it formed a commission to make recommendations regarding the details of the operation within two weeks.

Pakistan has seen a rise in attacks by Islamist militants in the last few months following the breakdown of negotiations last year with the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group.

The group and its factions have unleashed a wave of attacks this year. One suicide bombing at a mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed more than 100 people, mostly policemen.

The January 30 attack on the Sunni mosque located inside a high-security police facility was one of the deadliest that targeted Pakistani security forces in recent years. Some 221 people were also wounded in the bombing.

With reporting by Reuters

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has formally charged an American journalist detained last week in Yekaterinburg with espionage, Russian news agencies reported on April 7.

Evan Gershkovich, Moscow correspondent for the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), denied the charges and said he was working as a journalist, Interfax and TASS reported, citing a law enforcement source.

The FSB said on March 30 that it had detained Gershkovich and had opened an espionage case against him for collecting what it said were state secrets about the military industrial complex. It alleged that Gershkovich was operating on instructions from the United States.

"FSB investigators charged Gershkovich with espionage in the interests of his country," Russian state-run agency TASS said, citing the source.

"He categorically denied all accusations and stated that he was engaged in journalistic activities in Russia," TASS said.

The state-run news agency added that according to its source, the journalist's case is marked top secret.

The Wall Street Journal has adamantly denied the allegations against Gershkovich and demanded that he be freed. U.S. President Joe Biden has also called for Gershkovich's release, and the White House called the accusations against him "ridiculous."

Russia said on April 6 that it was "pointless" to try to pressure Moscow over the case.

A Moscow court on March 30 agreed to a request from the FSB to hold Gershkovich under arrest for two months.

The case prompted a joint statement on April 7 from the U.S. Senate's top two leaders, who demanded that Russia immediately release Gershkovich and condemned his detention.

The statement from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (Democrat-New York) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican-Kentucky) comes as the United States works for the release of Gershkovich, the first journalist to be held for alleged espionage since the Cold War.

“We strongly condemn the wrongful detention of U.S. citizen and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, and demand the immediate release of this internationally known and respected independent journalist,” Schumer and McConnell said.

They said Gershkovich was accredited by the Russian Foreign Ministry to work as a journalist in Russia, and “Russian authorities have failed to present any credible evidence to justify their fabricated charges.”

Schumer and McConnell added: "Let there be no mistake: journalism is not a crime."

Although his lawyers have been allowed to meet with him, he has been denied consular access “against standard diplomatic practice and likely in violation of international law,” the two senators said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on April 5 he has “no doubt” that Russia has wrongfully detained Gershkovich.

U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne T. Tracy and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov met on April 6 to discuss the situation.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

Farmers in Romania and Bulgaria protested on April 7 against a glut of agricultural products from Ukraine that has flooded the market in those countries and lowered prices for local farmers.

About 100 farmers converged in Bucharest, while hundreds more protested across Romania in long convoys of tractors. In Bulgaria, grain producers blocked some border crossings with farm vehicles.

Farmers also gathered outside the office of the European Commission's representative in Bucharest holding posters that read: “Do not punish our solidarity,” while others urged European Union officials to "take responsibility, take action, take care.”

The EU waived customs duties and import quotas on Ukrainian agricultural products in May 2022 as a way of facilitating transport of the products to world markets amid Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The expectation was that Ukrainian grain would transit through the EU on its way to those traditional markets. But according to grain producers, it has flooded the internal markets of member countries, undercutting the prices local producers can charge for their goods.

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By Helping War-Torn Ukraine Get Its Grain To Market, The EU Is Accused Of Abandoning Its Own

Bulgarian grain producers are calling for the European Union to cancel the regulation.

"Bulgarian farmers' warehouses are full of stagnant produce. There is no market for Bulgarian grain. The harvest is coming in two months," said the National Association of Bulgarian Grain Producers. According to their data, 40 percent of last year's grain and sunflower harvest remains unsold.

Liliana Piron, executive director of the League of Romanian Agriculture Producers' Associations, said at the Bucharest protest that his country's farmers have “reached a point where they feel they can no longer face the costs” of "unfair competition” from Ukraine.

“We are less than three months away from the new harvest and the danger is real, that the goods we will have ready this season will not be able to be sold at prices above production costs,” she said. “We will witness a chain of bankruptcies of Romanian farmers.’’

Polish farmers have also held protests in recent weeks. Poland's agriculture minister, Henryk Kowalczyk, resigned on April 5 after he became the focus of farmers' anger.

Brussels last month pledged to help grain and cereal farmers in Romania, Bulgaria, and Poland with a total compensation package of 56.3 million euros ($61 million) -- 16.7 million for Bulgaria; nearly 30 million for Poland, and 10 million for Romania. Farmers and national governments said the offer wasn't good enough.

“If today’s protest is not heard in Brussels, we will consider larger actions with the participation of other countries that share the same view,” said Iliya Prodanov, head of the grain producers’ association in Bulgaria.

With reporting by AP and RFE/RL’s Bulgarian Service

A court in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, sentenced opposition politician Valer Tsapkala on April 7 to 17 years in prison in absentia on charges of violating national security, financing terrorism, and slandering longtime leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka. Tsapkala tried to run against Lukashenka in the country’s disputed 2020 presidential election, but was refused registration. He and his family fled the country in July 2020 and are now in Latvia. Lukashenka’s declared victory in the election, which was widely seen as rigged, set off massive protests that were met by an often-brutal crackdown.

Russia has threatened to scupper a UN-brokered grain-export deal with Ukraine because of what it calls Western “obstacles” to the export of Russian food and fertilizers.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

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During a visit to Turkey on April 7, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that, if the West does not remove banking and insurance restrictions that hamper the export of Russian goods, it will renounce the July 2022 agreement under which Ukraine has been exporting its grain through Black Sea ports.

“If they do not have the desire to honestly approach what [UN Secretary General Antonio] Guterres proposed and so persistently promoted, well, let them continue to ship the relevant products from Ukraine by land, by rail, and by river,” Lavrov said.

He added that Russia would work “outside the framework of this initiative” to export its own products.

The agreement, which was originally to last 120 days, has been extended twice. The second extension, in March, was for only 60 days and expires in the middle of May.

Lavrov said that, since there has been “no further progress in removing obstacles to the export of Russian fertilizers and grain, we will think whether this agreement is necessary.”

Moscow has said that extending the deal would require a number of concessions from the West, including the reconnection of Russia’s state Rosselkhozbank to the international SWIFT payment system.

Ukraine and Russia are leading exporters of grain and the deal was brokered in a bid to ease a global food crisis sparked by Russia’s February 2022 unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Lavrov also repeated Moscow’s calls for “a new world order, which we all need in place of the unilateral world order.” Without evidence, he accused the West of violating the principles of the United Nations Charter.

Russia has assumed the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council for the month of April, and Lavrov is expected to attend its sessions in New York on April 24 and 25.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, TASS, and AFP

Aleksei Moskalyov, who was sentenced in absentia to two years in prison by Russia and deprived of his parental rights after his 13-year-old daughter drew an anti-war picture, is being held in a jail in Belarus, Russia’s Foreign Ministry reported on April 7. According to the statement, Moskalyov, 54, was detained in the city of Zhodzina on April 4 and is being held pending an extradition hearing. His daughter, Maria, was briefly held in a Russian orphanage before being handed over to her mother, who has long been separated from Moskalyov. Rights groups have urged Belarus not to extradite Moskalyov. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Russian Service, click here.

A court in Russia’s Far Eastern region of Kamchatka has ordered the deportation of a German citizen for allegedly violating Russia’s law on promoting homosexuality, often called the "gay propaganda" law. The court announced on April 6 that the unnamed foreigner was also fined 150,000 rubles. According to the report, the defendant pleaded guilty. Earlier in the month, a court in Kazan, the capital of the Tatarstan region, ordered the deportation of a Chinese citizen for similar alleged violations. To read the original article by RFE/RL’s Siberia.Realities, click here.

The Russian ruble continued to fall relative to major Western currencies on April 7, reaching more than 90 rubles to the dollar for the first time since April 14, 2022. The ruble has fallen by 5 percent against the dollar and by 13 percent against the euro. Analysts say the decline has been caused by the end of the tax period, during which major economic players were selling Western currencies to pay their tax bills. Bloomberg also connected the decline to news this week that Britain’s Shell Oil has withdrawn from the massive Sakhalin-2 oil-and-gas project. To read the original story from RFE/RL’s Russian Service, click here.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says a “powerful” new sanctions package is being prepared by the Ukrainian government that will include people who “work for aggression.”

Speaking in his evening address on April 7, Zelenskiy said all those on the list “will be blocked,” but he provided no further details.

Zelenskiy also said a meeting of the staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian military was held on April 7.

"The main focus is on the battles for Avdiyivka and Bakhmut, for the Luhansk region [and] for each of those directions where the enemy is trying to break the defense of the whole of Ukraine,” he said.

A General Staff statement on April 7 said Russia was concentrating the bulk of its offensive operations in Ukraine’s industrial east, including Bakhmut and Avdiyivka, but also Lyman and Maryinka in the Donetsk region.

Russian forces used ground- and air-fired missiles, rocket launchers, and weaponized drones to bombard the parts of the Russia-annexed regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson that it does not control. Russia illegally annexed parts of those four regions in September.

The Ukrainian military said Russian forces launched 18 airstrikes, five missile strikes, and 53 attacks from multiple rocket launchers between the evening of April 6 and the morning of April 7.

Eight people, including two emergency medical workers, were wounded in the Kherson region, said Yuriy Sobolevskiy, the head of the Kherson regional council.

RFE/RL was not able to independently verify the battlefield claims.

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 counteroffensives, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, previously commented on Ukraine’s increased use of sanctions against Russia and countries that are providing military equipment to Moscow.

He told RFE/RL that further sanctions should limit Russia's use of modern technologies.

"It's not just about trading capacity. It is also about other things. It is about the use of modern technologies, modern means of transportation in Russia, above all," he said in response to a question about expectations over the upcoming package of sanctions against Russia.

Zelenskiy on April 1 signed a decree on sanctions against more than 200 legal entities and more than 270 individuals.

Among those designated was the former head of Motor Sich, Vyacheslav Bohuslayev, who is accused of treason in Ukraine, was on the list. A Ukrainian court seized the assets and all shares of the aerospace company two years ago. Late last year its assets were nationalized along with those of four other companies to guarantee sufficient military supplies as Ukraine fights to repel an invasion by Russian forces.

Sanctions were also introduced against the Federation Council -- the upper house of the Russian Parliament -- the Russian Finance Ministry, the Federal Security Service (FSB), and the Federal Guard Service, as well as defense contractors and manufactures of radio electronics.

Last month, Ukraine introduced sanctions against 400 individuals, including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other Syrian officials, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and Iranians associated with the production of Shahed drones. Russia has used the Iranian-made kamikaze drones to attack critical Ukrainian infrastructure.

That round of sanctions also listed 141 legal entities, including companies from Russia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates.

With reporting by AP

Ukrainian and Russian forces battled on April 6 in the eastern city of Bakhmut, while in the Kherson region Russian strikes injured seven people.

According to Oleksandr Prokudin, the Kherson region’s military governor, Russian troops are attacking the Kherson region with guided aerial bombs.

“Currently, it is known [that] seven residents of the Kherson region…were injured as a result of an enemy attack,” Prokudin said on Telegram.

Kherson was liberated by Ukrainian forces in November, but Kyiv says Russian forces continue to shell the city and the region from across the Dnieper River.

Prokudin added that six people were injured as a result of strikes on Zmiyiivka and one person was wounded in the village of Kozatskiy. In the evening, three strikes by enemy aircraft were recorded in Berislav, two in Novoberislav, and one in Kozatskiy.

Detailed information about the victims and the extent of damage caused is being clarified, he said.

The monthslong battle for Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region has turned into one of the bloodiest of Russia's invasion, while serving as a symbol of Kyiv’s defiance.

• RFE/RL

The brutal fight for control of the eastern city of Bakhmut is being called the bloodiest infantry battle since World War II, with severe losses on both sides.

“[Battles] are under way in the streets, enemy attempts to encircle the city are failing. Our command fully controls the situation," said Andriy Yermak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

The leader of Russia's private Wagner militia, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said fighting was continuing in the west of the city.

"It must be said clearly that the enemy is not going anywhere," he said on his Telegram channel. Even if Ukrainian forces did start to abandon the city, he said he would need more support from the regular Russian military before trying to advance.

TASS reported that four civilians died in Russian-controlled Donetsk when shells hit a fleet of vehicles. Six people were injured, the news agency added. Other Russian media reports said the attack was carried out with U.S.-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS).

The RIA news agency said three people died in blasts at a bus stop in Lysychansk, to the northeast of Donetsk.

Denis Pushilin, the administrator of Russian-controlled parts of Donetsk Province, said on Russian TV that Ukrainian forces were seeking to relocate to the city of Avdiyivka near Donetsk, adding that Russian forces were advancing through Avdiyivka “as we speak.”

None of the battlefield claims could be independently verified.

With reporting by Reuters and dpa