Security forces involved in the crackdown on widespread Iranian protests have regularly and repeatedly killed, tortured, sexually assaulted, and disappeared children, Human Rights Watch said on April 25. The rights watchdog said in a statement that it has investigated abuses against 11 children between September and February. “Iranian leaders have unleashed their brutal security forces to sexually assault and torture children, and have not spared children from ludicrously unfair trials,” said HRW's Tara Sepehri Far. “Over the past seven months, the authorities have not hesitated to extend the coercive power of the state to silence even children," Far said.

A Russian missile strike on a museum in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kupyansk killed at least one person and wounded 10 others, an attack that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described as "barbaric," as heavy fighting for the control of Bakhmut intensified over the past day, the military reported.

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Oleh Synehubov, the head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, told RFE/RL that the April 25 strike on the Kupyansk city center involved S-300-type missiles, one of which hit the Museum of Local History.

Synehubov said rescue work continues, with officials saying at least one more person may be under the rubble.

"The terrorist country is doing everything to destroy us completely. Our history, our culture, our people. Killing Ukrainians with absolutely barbaric methods," Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram, adding, "We must and will respond!"

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military said Russian forces unleashed more waves of assaults on Bakhmut over the past day, but neither side managed to make critical advances in the monthslong battle for the city in the eastern region of Donetsk.

"Fierce battles are going on for the city of Bakhmut," the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in its daily report on April 25, adding that Moscow's main push on the battlefield remained focused on the Bakhmut-Avdiyivka-Maryinka front line.

Russian forces launched 62 air strikes and six missile strikes against Ukrainian military positions and civilian objectives, the General Staff said in its report.

Ukrainian defenders also repelled 43 Russian attacks on Bakhmut and Maryinka, the report said.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar, meanwhile, described the ongoing fighting in Bakhmut as a "continuous dynamic process."

Malyar said on Telegram on April 25: "We can lose positions in battle today, and regain them the next day; that is why the military prefers to talk about the result after the operation is over."

Malyar's comments came a day after Ukrainian commanders denied a Russian claim that mercenaries from the Wagner Group almost completely controlled the city.

In Washington, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby warned that Russian forces can step up their offensive actions once the weather begins to get warmer.

"We know that in the spring, when the weather improves -- and it is already starting to improve -- we can expect that the Russians will want to go on the offensive in some areas. We don't know exactly where and how they will do it, but we want to be sure that Ukrainians are able to defend themselves better against it," Kirby told Voice of America on April 24.

At the same time, Kirby added, if Ukrainian forces decide to conduct their own counteroffensive operations, they must have the appropriate capabilities.

Military experts have reported -- and Ukrainian leaders have hinted -- that a major spring counteroffensive by Ukraine is in the works.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

During a visit to Ukraine, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said she backed Kyiv's efforts to join NATO and the European Union "as soon as conditions allow." "We agree that a strong, independent, and prosperous Ukraine, as part of the Euro-Atlantic family and as a member of the EU and NATO, is essential for the future of European security," she said in a joint declaration following talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Estonia is a member of both NATO and the EU. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, click here.

Pakistani police say at least 15 people were killed and dozens injured after two explosions destroyed an anti-terrorism police headquarters in the Swat Valley in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, but officials said the blasts were caused by stored ammunition and not terrorism.

Authorities on April 24 said the Pakistani military had taken control of the area as more than 50 people had been rescued alive from the rubble of the ruined security center.

Officials initially labeled the incident as “a suspected suicide attack,” but police later said ammunition stored at the site appeared to be the cause of the blasts.

The outlawed Tehrik-e Taliban (TTP) -- also known as the Pakistani Taliban -- has often carried out terror attacks in the region and were initally suspected by many in the region.

TTP militants have staged a gradual comeback in the tribal districts following a deadlock with the Pakistani authorities in peace talks launched last year.

The Pakistani military has increased operations in the region, but many local residents have protested against the lack of security following a rash of attacks, including one that killed more than 80 people at a mosque inside the Peshawar police headquarters in January.

In the latest attack, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government said that Police Station Kabal was hit by two blasts.

“All the doctors and support staff in the government health facilities in Swat district are directed to remain on red alert to cope with the emergencies until further notice,” the government said in a statement.

Officials at Sayed Sharif and Kabel hospitals initially told RFE/RL that at least three policemen and three civilians were killed and that 37 people had been brought in for treatment.

But the figures were updated throughout the day, with later reports saying that at least 10 police officers and five others had been killed at 57 people injured.

Regional police chief Akhtar Hayat Khan said security officials were on "high alert" throughout the province as a precaution.

With reporting by Reuters and dpa

A Kazakh student at Tomsk State University in Siberia who joined Russia's private mercenary group Wagner in March, may face up to nine years in prison for being in a mercenary group if he returns home, Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman Aibek Smadiyarov said on April 24. Marghulan Bekenov's mother, Almira Bekenova, has said her son was forced to join Wagner against his will. Wagner issued a video with Bekenov, who said he joined the group on his own will. However, many in Kazakhstan say Bekenov's statement on the video may have made under duress.

A court in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian region of Crimea has sentenced a local resident, whose identity was not disclosed, to four years in prison for taking part in the activities of an illegal armed group. Russia's TASS news agency reported that the Kyiv district court in the Crimean capital, Simferopol, announced the sentence on April 24 after finding the defendant guilty of joining the Noman Chelebidzhikhan Battalion of Crimean Tatars in 2016. The battalion is currently fighting alongside the Ukrainian armed forces against Russia's invasion of Ukraine. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Crimea.Realities, click here.

Moscow has come under blistering attack at the United Nations over its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that the world was at "a dangerous threshold."

As Lavrov, who assumed the rotating presidency of the 15-member Security Council, led a meeting on "effective multilateralism," the UN chief, along with the U.S., U.K., French, and Japanese ambassadors, subjected him to harsh condemnation over his country's aggression against Ukraine, accusing Moscow of atrocities and of "trampling" the UN Charter.

Many Western governments and others assailed Russia's decision to call the Security Council meeting -- dubbed "Effective Multilateralism Through The Defense Of The Principles Of The UN" -- amid the backdrop of Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

Lavrov told Security Council members that "as during the Cold War, we have reached the dangerous, possibly even more dangerous, threshold. The situation is worsened with the loss of trust in multilateralism."

However, the Western members lambasted Russia's claims of its defense of multilateralism and the UN Charter, pointing directly to Moscow's war in Ukraine.

Prior to Lavrov's remarks, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, sitting next to the Russian foreign minister, told the meeting that Moscow's invasion of Ukraine was "causing massive suffering and devastation to the country and its people."

"Tensions between major powers are at historic highs. So are the risks of conflict through misadventure or miscalculation," Guterres said.

Guterres also urged the continuation of a UN-brokered grain-export deal with Ukraine that Russia has threatened to scupper because of what it calls Western "obstacles" to the export of Russian food and fertilizers.

He said that "cooperation is essential to creating greater security and prosperity for all."

Later, a UN spokesperson said Guterres handed Lavrov a letter for Russian President Vladimir Putin proposing ways to improve the grain deal. Letters were also sent to leaders in Turkey, which helped broker the deal, and in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that a hearing on effective multilateralism was important, "even if it was convened by a council member whose actions display a blatant disregard for the UN Charter."

"Our hypocritical convener today, Russia, invaded its neighbor, Ukraine, and struck at the heart of the UN Charter and all the values we hold dear," she said.

"This illegal, unprovoked, and unnecessary war runs directly counter to our most shared principles, that a war of aggression and territorial conquest is never, ever acceptable," she said, while accusing Russia of atrocities and war crimes.

"As we sit here, Russian forces continue to kill and injure civilians [in Ukraine]," she said.

In direct remarks to Lavrov, the U.S. ambassador urged him to release a U.S. journalist and a former U.S. Marine detained in Russia on what Washington and others call trumped-up charges.

"I am calling on you right now to release Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich immediately, to let Paul and Evan come home," Thomas-Greenfield said.

U.K. Ambassador Barbara Woodward said that "more than a year into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, President Putin has brought unimaginable suffering to that country while trampling on the UN Charter."

"Thousands of Ukrainians have been killed and millions have been displaced," she said, adding that billions of people across the globe had been hit by higher energy prices and food insecurity because of the invasion.

Ishikane Kimihiro, the Japanese envoy, blasted Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and demanded an immediate withdrawal of its forces from the country.

"It is an irony, even a tragedy, that the Russian Federation, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, continues its unilateral aggression against Ukraine while hosting an open debate on effective multilateralism through the defense of the principle of the UN Charter."

"The unprovoked, ongoing aggression by Russia is nothing but an outright defiance of the principle of the UN Charter," he said.

"Russia must first and foremost withdraw all of its troops and equipment from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders, immediately and unconditionally," a move he said was supported by an "overwhelming" majority of UN members.

Workers from several industries in Iran, including the oil sector, continue to strike in protest of inadequate wage increases and deteriorating living conditions amid spiraling inflation and a widening gap between household income and expenses.

Strikes have been ongoing in several cities for months, with workers from petrochemical, mining, and steel industries demonstrating as well.

In the oil industry, workers have called for a 79 percent wage increase for contract workers in both industrial and nonindustrial factories, almost three times the amount offered by the government.

The workers have rejected the proposal, made by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's government, which also pledged to curb inflation this year.

The Supreme Labor Council resolved to raise the minimum wage for workers in the Iranian New Year, which commenced on March 21, by only 27 percent compared with the previous year while the inflation rate in Iran has been running at around 40 percent for the past two years.

Adding to the economic pressure on Iranian households, the Iranian Labor News Agency reported a 40 percent increase in the prices of goods and services in the first month of the new year.

Other unions and groups, such as teachers and retirees, have also launched mass protests and strikes in recent weeks. The workers are demanding better working conditions, payment of overdue debts, and higher wage increases, reflecting the harsh economic conditions faced by many Iranians.

Unrest has rattled Iran since last summer in response to declining living standards, wage arrears, and a lack of welfare support. Labor law in Iran does not recognize the right of workers to form independent unions.

Adding to the dissent, the death in September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody for allegedly wearing a head scarf improperly breathed new life into the demonstrations, which officials across the country have tried to quell with harsh measures.

The activist HRANA news agency says that more than 500 people have been killed during the unrest, including 71 minors, as security forces try to stifle widespread dissent.

Thousands have been arrested in the clampdown, with the judiciary handing down harsh sentences -- including the death penalty -- to protesters.

Written by Ardeshir Tayebi based on an original story in Persian by RFE/RL's Radio Farda

Jailed Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny has been given just over one day to get acquainted with 700 pages that form a new criminal case launched against him, the details of which have yet to be made public.

Navalny faces a hearing on April 26 on the unknown charge, which his team warned earlier this month was most likely going to be "political," adding that the activities of his Anti-Corruption Foundation since 2011 would likely be defined as extremist, allowing prosecutors to seek up to 35 years in prison for the already-jailed politician.

Navalny associate Ivan Zhdanov said on April 24 the Kremlin critic had basically no time to review documents in a case against him, given the daily timetable he has to live under while in prison. Navalny is expected to work eight hours a day while incarcerated, and has a lights-out regime from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. overnight.

Navalny, the most prominent leader among Russia's splintered opposition, has been detained and prosecuted repeatedly on charges including corruption, embezzlement, and fraud -- all of which he and his supporters say is retribution from President Vladimir Putin for the 46-year-old lawyer's pursuit of exposing corruption at the highest levels in the country.

After suffering a near-fatal poisoning in August 2020 that he blames on Russian security operatives acting at Putin's behest, Navalny was arrested on January 17, 2021, and later handed a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for violating the terms of an earlier parole during of his convalescence abroad. The Kremlin has denied any involvement in Navalny's poisoning.

Then in March 2022, Navalny was handed a nine-year prison term on charges of contempt and embezzlement through fraud that he and his supporters have repeatedly rejected as politically motivated.

Navalny's lawyer, Vadim Kobzev, said on April 18 that any additional charge his client faced is likely to involve "disrupting" activities at the prison where he is incarcerated.

Navalny associates say they had been warned through sources that prison officials were preparing to create a provocation against Navalny, who has already been locked up 13 times in a punitive isolation cell at the Melekhovo prison in the Vladimir region, some 250 kilometers northeast of Moscow.

According to Kobzev, his client refused to enter a cell on April 17 after a "hobo" inmate who ignores personal hygiene was placed there.

Kobzev said that after Navalny was forced to enter the cell, he tried to remove the cellmate, identified as Tatarchenko, from the cell, but was stopped by the guards who assaulted him with blows to the abdomen and then informed him he will be charged over the disruption.

Kobzev said at the time that Navalny may face up to five additional years in prison if found guilty on that charge.

The convictions against Navalny are all widely regarded as trumped-up and politically motivated.

The European Union, United States, and Britain stepped up their sanction regimes against Iran for human rights violations, with the focus set on the hard-line Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) military force.

The European Council on April 24 said it was placing sanctions on eight individuals, with most linked to the IRGC and its financial arm and on telecom company Ariantel, which it said plays a key role in government efforts to "quash dissent and critical voices in Iran."

Separately, the U.S. Treasury said it was targeting four IRGC members with a fresh set of sanctions, while Britain said it was implementing a travel ban and asset freeze on four members of the IRGC and the IRGC "in its entirety."

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the moves were made in coordination with the United States and EU, but he did not provide specifics on the international cooperation.

Pressure from parliaments and activists has grown on the EU and the British government to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization, but they have so far declined to do so, although dozens of individuals linked to the elite military force have been hit with sanctions.

The European Parliament, which in January called on the EU and its member states to designate the IRGC a terrorist organization, has blamed the IRGC for the repression of protesters and for supplying drones to Russia's military for use in Ukraine.

The United States has already done so, labeling the IRGC a "designated foreign terrorist organization" in 2019.

The EU action means that any assets that the sanctioned individuals hold inside the EU are frozen and that they will be banned from travel to the bloc. EU firms are barred from making funds available to sanctioned persons or firms.

"The European Union and its member states urge the Iranian authorities to stop any form of violent crackdown against peaceful protests, cease their resort to arbitrary detentions as a means of silencing critical voices, and release all those unjustly detained," the EU Council said.

"The EU calls on Iran to end the practice of imposing and carrying out death sentences against protesters, reverse the death penalty sentences pronounced, as well as provide due process to all detainees. The EU also calls upon Iran to end the distressing practice of detaining foreign civilians with a view to making political gains."

Iran was hit by mass protests in support of freedoms and human rights after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody after being detained for allegedly violating the strict Islamic dress code for women.

The U.S. Treasury said it was imposing sanctions on four senior officials of the Law Enforcement Forces of Iran (LEF) and the IRGC -- which it called "the primary Iranian security forces responsible for the regime’s brutal suppression of the protests that broke out in September 2022."

Later, the U.S. State Department said it was also "taking action to impose visa restrictions...on 11 Iranian government officials, who are believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, the abuse, detention, or killing of peaceful protesters or inhibiting their rights to freedom of expression or peaceful assembly."

Britain's Foreign Office said its latest action targeted four IRGC commanders "under whose leadership IRGC forces have opened fired on unarmed protesters resulting in numerous deaths, including of children."

"The Iranian regime are responsible for the brutal repression of the Iranian people and for exporting bloodshed around the world," Foreign Secretary Cleverly said.

With reporting by Reuters

Karim Masimov, the former chief of Kazakhstan's National Security Committee (KNB), has been sentenced to 18 years in prison over his role in deadly events that followed unprecedented anti-government protests in the Central Asian country in January 2022.

A court in Astana sentenced Masimov on April 24 after finding him guilty of high treason, attempting to seize power by force, and abuse of office and power.

Masimov's former deputies, Anuar Sadyqulov, Daulet Erghozhin, and Marat Osipov, were sentenced to 16, 15, and three years in prison respectively at the same trial.

The court also deprived all of the defendants of the military ranks of general and all state awards. The trial was held behind closed doors as it included classified materials, the court said.

The 57-year-old Masimov, once known as a close ally of former President Nursultan Nazarbaev, was arrested along with Erghozhin and Sadyqulov days after the protests turned into mass unrest, leaving at least 238 people -- including 19 law enforcement officers -- dead.

Osipov was arrested in February 2022.

Masimov's first deputy, Samat Abish, a nephew of Nazarbaev, was fired from his post but did not face charges.

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The protests began in the southwestern town of Zhanaozen in January 2022 over a sudden fuel price hike. But the demonstrations quickly grew into broader unrest against corruption, political stagnation, and widespread injustice.

Much of the protesters' anger appeared directed at Nazarbaev, who ruled Kazakhstan from 1989 until March 2019, when he handed power to Toqaev. However, Nazarbaev was widely believed to remain in control behind the scenes.

The protests were violently dispersed by police and military personnel, including troops of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization that Toqaev invited into the country claiming that "20,000 extremists who were trained in terrorist camps abroad" attacked Almaty.

The authorities have provided no evidence backing Toqaev's claim about foreign terrorists.

MOSCOW -- The Moscow City Court has rejected an appeal filed by Darya Trepova against her pretrial detention for her alleged role in the assassination of a prominent Russian war blogger at a St. Petersburg cafe earlier this month.

The hearing on April 24 was held behind closed doors, as according to the court, the materials of the case include classified data.

Trepova's defense team requested their client be released to house arrest.

The 26-year-old Trepova was arrested and is being held at a detention center for at least two months on a charge of committing "a terrorist act with an organized group that caused intentional death" shortly after a blast in St. Petersburg on April 2 killed Vladlen Tatarsky, the pen name of prominent blogger Maksim Fomin. Dozens of others were wounded in the attack.

Tatarsky was known for his support of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and support for Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.

Investigators say Trepova was working on the instructions of people representing Ukraine, which Moscow invaded in February 2022, sparking a war that has killed thousands.

Russian media have said that Tatarsky was meeting with attendees when a woman presented him with a box containing a small bust of him that apparently exploded.

Following her arrest, Russia's Interior Ministry posted a video of Trepova, who may have been speaking under duress, telling an interrogator that she "brought the statuette there that exploded." When asked who had given her the bust, she replied that she would say "later."

Tatarsky's death marks the second assassination of a prominent advocate of Russia's war against Ukraine. In August, nationalist TV commentator Darya Dugina was killed in a car bombing near Moscow.

Russian authorities blamed Ukrainian military intelligence for the death of Dugina, whose father is well-known Russian war supporter and idealogue Aleksandr Dugin. Kyiv denied involvement in Dugina's death.

A professor at the Faculty of Law and Political Science at the University of Tehran says he has been fired from the university after he came out in support of nationwide protests over the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody.

Arash Reisinejad confirmed the news of his expulsion on Twitter on April 23, saying he hopes a day will come when Iranian families can again enjoy prosperity, happiness, and dignity.

Reisinejad is a graduate of Florida International University and has written articles and books on geopolitical issues in the Middle East.

In November, he wrote on his Twitter and Instagram accounts that he was pursuing the release from detention of one of his students arrested during nationwide protests in support of freedom and human rights after the death of the 22-year-old Amini, and was also trying to get the three-month suspension of another student lifted.

"What can be seen behind the 2022 protests is the emergence of a new discursive conflict in society. If in the 1970s and 1980s the conflict was between 'Compassionate Islam' and 'Revolutionary Islam,' today it is between 'Islamic and Revolutionary Iran' versus 'National and Diverse Iran.' The leading discourse has shifted from 'Islam' to 'Iran,'" he said on Twitter.

Many Iranian university professors have faced expulsion for their support of the nationwide protests, while others have already been pushed from their jobs, including several professors at the University of Art in Tehran who were ousted earlier this month.

Anger over Amini's death in September 2022 has prompted thousands of Iranians to take to the streets to demand more freedoms and women's rights.

Numerous protests have been held at universities, particularly in Tehran, where many students have refused to attend classes. Protesting students have chanted "Woman, life, freedom" and "Death to the dictator" at the rallies. Some female students have removed and burned their head scarves.

Universities and students have long been at the forefront of the struggle for greater social and political freedoms in Iran. In 1999, students protested the closure of a reformist daily, prompting a brutal raid on the dorms of Tehran University that left one student dead.

Over the years, the authorities have arrested student activists and leaders, sentencing them to prison and banning them from studying.

The activist HRANA news agency says at least 700 university students have been arrested during the recent unrest.

Many have faced sentences such as imprisonment, flogging, and dozens of students have been expelled from universities or suspended from their studies, as security forces try to stifle widespread dissent.

Written by Ardeshir Tayebi based on an original story in Persian by RFE/RL's Radio Farda

Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia have summoned Chinese envoys in their countries to explain recent comments by Beijing's ambassador to France that questioned the sovereignty of former Soviet states amid Russia's war against Ukraine.

Speaking during a European Union foreign ministers' meeting in Luxembourg on April 24, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said calling in the ambassadors was aimed at getting an explanation as to whether the "Chinese position has changed on independence and to remind them that we're not post-Soviet countries but we're the countries that were illegally occupied by Soviet Union."

The controversy was sparked by comments from China's ambassador to France on April 21.

During an interview with the French television station LCI, ambassador Lu Shaye suggested countries that emerged after the fall of the Soviet Union "don't have effective status under international law because there is not an international agreement confirming their status as sovereign nations."

Russia has used such sentiment as one of the reasons it justifies its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, formerly part of the Soviet Union, launched in February 2022.

Countries such as the Baltics were independent nations before the Soviet Union was created and then occupied them. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the nations regained their independence.

Estonia's top diplomat, Margus Tsahkna, said that since the three Baltic states are members of the European Union and NATO, it is clear the Baltic states are independent sovereign countries.

"We are not satisfied with that announcement," he said, adding he hoped the Chinese envoys would clarify the remarks.

Added Landsbergis: "They questioned the borders, they questioned the territorial integrity of the countries. This is the narrative we've been hearing from Moscow."

Moldova, a country that gained its independence from Moscow following the Soviet Union's breakup, also said Lu's comments were "absolutely unacceptable" and that it too would be seeking clarification from Beijing.

Beijing appeared on April 24 to back away from the comments with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning saying China respects the status of the former Soviet member states as sovereign nations.

That did little to calm the situation, with the comments rippling through the European Union as well.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky called the statement "totally unacceptable," while the top EU diplomat, Josep Borrell, said talks during meeting in Luxembourg concerning EU-China relations will consider the Chinese ambassador's comments.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters

A drone loaded with 17 kilos of C-4 explosives was found on the outskirts of Moscow, Russian state news agency TASS reported on April 24, quoting an unnamed source in law enforcement. According to Telegram channels Baza and Shot, a woman found it in the forest about 300 meters from her house located in the Bogorodsky urban district near Noginsk, some 34 kilometers east of Moscow. The drone had been broken in two, the channels reported, claiming it was Ukrainian. Kyiv has not commented on the alleged incident. To read the original stories by RFE/RL's Russian and Ukrainian services, click here and here.

OSH, Kyrgyzstan -- Police in Osh, Kyrgyzstan's second-largest city, have detained a former leader of the city's Uzbek culture center, Karamat Abdullaeva, who was sentenced in absentia to 16 years in prison for her alleged role in deadly ethnic clashes more than a decade ago.

Police in the southern city of Osh said on April 24 that Abdullaeva was detained two days earlier and immediately placed in a detention center.

The clashes between Kyrgyz and local Uzbeks started on June 10, 2010, in Kyrgyzstan’s southern regions of Osh and Jalal-Abad and lasted for several days. At least 446 people were killed, while thousands were injured or displaced as a result of the violence. Dozens more went missing. The majority of victims were ethnic Uzbeks.

After the deadly clashes, the Kyrgyz Interior Ministry added more than 100 persons to its wanted list, including 37 individuals for whom courts issued international arrest warrants.

The leader of the large Uzbek community in Kyrgyzstan’s south, Kadyrjan Batyrov, who fled the country, was sentenced in absentia to life in prison on charges of inciting ethnic hatred and organizing the 2010 ethnic clashes.

Batyrov, who received political asylum in Sweden in 2011, died at the age of 62 in Ukraine in December.

He maintained his innocence, declaring the trial against him was political retaliation by the Kyrgyz government.

After President Sadyr Japarov officially assumed the office in January 2021, he ordered a reinvestigation of the materials of the 2010 ethnic clashes.

Shortly after that, Kyrgyzstan's State Committee of National Security reopened the probe into Batyrov's escape from the country, also in 2010.

In September 2016, Batyrov addressed an OSCE conference in Warsaw where he criticized efforts by Kyrgyzstan's government to investigate his escape from Kyrgyzstan.

Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has again called for a union between Serbia and Republika Srpska -- one of Bosnia-Herzegovina's two entities -- amid already high tensions in the region.

Dodik -- who has been targeted by sanctions from the United States and Britain over alleged destabilization efforts and corruption -- has repeatedly threatened to push for the independence of Republika Srpska.

Dodik was speaking on April 24 at a commemoration ceremony in the northern Republika Srpska village of Gradina held for the victims of who perished in the World War II Croatian camp of Jasenovac.

During World War II, tens of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Roma, and anti-fascist Croats were killed at Jasenovac -- known as "Croatia's Auschwitz." The camp was run by Croatia's Nazi-allied Ustase regime.

"No one will prevent us [Serbs] from uniting because it is our right and our history. The last century was the century of Serbian suffering, and this century is one of Serbian unification," Dodik said.

He claimed the "Serbs will not survive in these areas if Republika Srpska does not become independent in the coming years."

The 1995 Dayton agreement that ended the Bosnian War established an administrative system under which Bosnia remains partitioned between the Serbian entity -- Republika Srpska -- and the Bosniak-Croat federation connected by a weak central government.

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Dodik, who rejects the administrative arrangement and the authority of the Office of the High Representative -- the international community's overseer of civil and other aspects of the Dayton agreement, went on to criticize the international community and accused Western diplomats of trying to "eliminate" Serbs from Bosnia.

Making a parallel between the World War II killings at Jasenovac and the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995 during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War, Dodik avoided referring to the latter as "genocide" and said Western diplomats "cannot equate the crime committed in Srebrenica with Jasenovac because it is not the same."

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the UN's top judicial authority, the International Court of Justice, have each recognized the killings by Bosnian Serb forces at Srebrenica as genocide.

More than 50 people have been sentenced to a combined 700 years in prison for their roles in genocide and war crimes at Srebrenica, including former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and ex-military commander Ratko Mladic, who were sentenced to life imprisonment.

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Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic attended the commemoration but did not comment on Dodik's remarks about uniting with Serbia, although he has previously spoken on several occasions in support of Bosnian sovereignty.

Dodik, the leader of Republika Srpska's ruling Union of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), has repeatedly called for the referendum and the secession of the Bosnian Serb entity from the rest of Bosnia, which he labeled an "experiment by the international community" and an "impossible, imposed country," saying Bosnian Serbs had "a right to decide their own future."

The United States and Britain have placed sanctions on Dodik and several other ethnic Serb politicians in Bosnia for undermining the hard-won peace.

His comments come a day after ethnic Serbs boycotted en masse local elections in four municipalities in northern Kosovo with ethnic Serbian majorities where local mayors resigned in November 2022 to protest a cross-border dispute over vehicle registrations.

Only 1,567 people -- or 3.47 percent of voters -- showed up at polling stations for the vote on April 23.

Dodik has been trying to separate the entity's military, police, and tax administration from the central Bosnian government, actions that contravene the Dayton accords.

Republika Srpska has attempted multiple times to implement a property law that aims to transfer Bosnian state property to Republika Srpska.

Russia and Serbia tacitly support the actions of Dodik, who met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow before last year's Bosnian elections.

Dodik opposes imposing sanctions on Russia for its illegal invasion of Ukraine and recognizing Kosovo as independent state.

Ethnic Serbs compose some 1-2 percent of Kosovo's population of around 2 million people.

Three workers died on April 24 while repairing an auxiliary dry dock at the Korsakov port on Russia's Pacific island of Sakhalin. Two other workers were hospitalized with suspected gas poisoning, local media reports said. The workers were performing welding works when the accident took place. Russia's Investigative Committee said it has launched a probe into the deaths of the three men. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Siberia.Realities, click here.

Ethnic Serbs have boycotted en masse local elections in four municipalities in northern Kosovo with ethnic Serb majorities where local mayors resigned in November 2022 to protest a cross-border dispute over vehicle registrations.

The Central Election Commission late on April 23 said preliminary results indicated that the Vetevendosje (Self-Determination) party of Kosovo's prime minister, Albin Kurti, had won the mayoral races in North Mitrovica and Leposavic, while the opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo had taken races in Zvecan and Zubin Potok.

As expected, turnout was low, after the dominant ethnic Serb party, Srpska Lista (Serbian List), which enjoys the support of neighboring Serbia's government, announced it was boycotting the votes. The commission said only 1,567 people -- or 3.47 percent of voters -- showed up at polling stations.

Despite the low turnout, the results are considered legally valid. There is no minimum turnout rule for the vote.

There are around 45,000 voters eligible to elect new mayors in North Mitrovica, Leposavic, Zvecan, and Zubin Potok, along with municipal assemblies in Zvecan and Leposavic.

RFE/RL correspondents reported that the only ballots that were being cast were submitted in places with ethnic Albanian residents.

WATCH: Most of the voters in RFE/RL footage from North Mitrovica and Zvecan are local Albanians, as are most of the candidates for mayor, due to a boycott by the dominant Kosovo Serb party, Serbian List.

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Serbs' Boycott Impacts Local Elections In Northern Kosovo

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The result could further step up tensions between ethnic Serbs who are mostly loyal to neighboring Serbia and Kosovo's central government that represents the country's overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian majority.

Ethnic Serbs compose some 1-2 percent of Kosovo's population of around 2 million people.

Milan Radoicic, vice president of Serbian List, said following the vote that "those who think that with 1 or 2 percent of votes, they can lead the municipalities in the north, I have to say that the Serbian people will never allow them to do that."

A former chairwoman of Kosovo's Central Election Commission, Valdete Daka, told RFE/RL that so long as proper procedures were being followed, the tiny number of votes would likely result in mayoral seats being filled but not necessarily an end to the local problems.

Daka said the "nonappearance in the elections" was essentially "conveying a message to the government of Kosovo that they won't accept the leaders who emerge from these elections."

Fifteen years after the mostly ethnic Albanian former province declared independence from Serbia, Belgrade continues to oppose recognition of Kosovo's independence.

Many ethnic Serbs in Kosovo continue to lean heavily on support from Serbia and its nationalist president, Aleksandar Vucic.

The Serbian List party has demanded the formation of an Association of Serb Municipalities, as Kosovo's government pledged to the international community a decade ago, and the withdrawal of special units of the Kosovo Police from the north of the country.

A total of 10 candidates were competing for the mayorships, only one of whom -- independent candidate Sladjana Pantovic in Zvecan -- is an ethnic Serb. Pantovic was the rare exception among ethnic Serbs, turning out to vote at around 8 a.m.

Pantovic received just five votes, or 2.6 percent.

Another ethnic Serb candidate, Aleksandar Jablanovic from the Party of Kosovo Serbs, withdrew from the race in Leposavic three days ago, saying there were not "adequate conditions" for voting.

All of the remaining candidates were ethnic Albanians from the Mitrovica Civic Initiative, the Democratic Party of Kosovo, and Kurti's Self-Determination movement.

The election commission had to organize alternative polling stations for the April 23 voting because the schools that normally host the voting in northern Kosovo operate within the so-called parallel system run by Serbia's leadership.

Kurti this week accused Belgrade of intimidating Serbs from the north to discourage their participate in the voting.

Vucic alleged on April 22 that Kosovar authorities were effectively staging "an occupation" of the north after the elections.

The four northern municipalities have been without mayors since November, when Serbian representatives largely loyal to Belgrade resigned from their jobs over the Kosovar government's threatened imposition of a requirement for all vehicles to be registered locally.

The voting took place at 19 polling stations, 12 of which were organized by Kosovar authorities in the final days before the vote.

Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani and the Central Election Commission urged citizens in the north to exercise their right to vote.

The international community has also expressed regret at the Serb-led boycott and urged all sides to exercise restraint.

Following the election, the U.S. Embassy in Pristina said, "We recognize Kosovan election officials' efforts to make polling places available to citizens wishing to exercise their right to vote, while minimizing potential points of tension."

"We likewise express our appreciation for the professionalism of the Kosovo Police, EU Rule of Law Mission (EULEX), and KFOR in ensuring a secure environment for the elections."

Kosovo remains blocked from many multinational organizations due to Serbian and Russian opposition to recognition, although there were recently signs of a possible breakthrough under EU-mediated talks.

The European Parliament on April 18 approved a decision on visa liberalization that will allow citizens of Kosovo to travel to most European countries without a visa by January 2024 at the latest. It is the last Western Balkan country to achieve such status.

U.S. Ambassador to Kosovo Jeffrey Hovenier told RFE/RL's Balkan Service on April 21 that citizens in the north of Kosovo and all political parties "have a responsibility to respect the democratic process, recognizing that they all had the opportunity to register and participate."

Ukrainian defenders continue to hold their strategic positions in Bakhmut, a senior military commander has said after Russia claimed it had made advances in the city that has been the epicenter of a fierce monthslong battle for the control of the eastern Donetsk region.

"We hit the enemy, often unexpectedly for him, and continue to hold strategic lines," Oleksandr Syrskiy, the commander of Ukraine's ground forces, said on Telegram.

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.

"Everyone here is a hero. The Russians are suffering heavy losses -- we are destroying their personnel and their offensive potential," Syrskiy wrote.

His comments came after Russia's Defense Ministry said on April 23 that its forces had captured two districts in the western part of the city that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of Russia's mercenary group Wagner, says his forces control almost completely.

The reports could not be independently verified.

Two more civilians were killed in Bakhmut by Russian shelling the previous 24 hours, the head of the Donetsk regional military administration, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said on April 24, adding that two others were wounded.

Separately, RFE/RL correspondents reported that two explosions could be heard early on April 24 in the Russian-occupied Crimean port of Sevastopol.

Moscow-installed Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said the city had been attacked by two Ukrainian drones, one of which was shot down by Russian air defenses while the second one exploded by itself.

Russia's Defense Ministry later said that on the night of April 24, Ukraine "tried to attack" the base of the Black Sea Russian Fleet in Sevastopol with three drones, all of which were shot down.

In Kherson, Russian forces stepped up their shelling of Ukrainian-controlled part of the southern region, a spokeswoman for the Southern Defense Forces of Ukraine said in televised comments, after reports that the Ukrainian military had crossed the Dnieper and established positions on the eastern bank of the river.

Nataliya Humenyuk denied that the crossing had taken place already and said the shelling was "provoked by loud statements that preceded the actual reality and ran a little ahead."

"One must be wary of military analysts' assumptions and understand that these are speculations," Humenyuk said.

IN PHOTOS: Despite being outgunned, Kyiv continues to "hold the line" as it punishes Moscow's forces in their relentless and bloody assault on the destroyed eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

• RFE/RL

Despite being outgunned, Kyiv continues to "hold the line" as it punishes Moscow's forces in their relentless and bloody assault on the destroyed eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

Her comments came after the influential U.S. Institute for the Study of War (ISW) argued in its regular update on April 22 that Russian military bloggers "have provided enough geolocated footage and textual reports to confirm that Ukrainian forces have established positions in east [left] bank Kherson Oblast as of April 22 though not at what scale or with what intentions."

The ISW added that geolocated footage from Russian military bloggers indicated that Ukrainian forces had established a bridgehead north of the town of Oleshkiy and that they have put in place "stable supply lines to these positions" in the Kherson region.

Many experts have said -- and Ukrainian leaders have hinted -- that a major spring counteroffensive by Kyiv's forces is in the works, and the reports heightened expectations that Kyiv was on the verge of launching its long-awaited counterattack.

One suggested goal would be to split the land corridor the Kremlin's forces have established between the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula and Russia itself.

The Ukrainian military declined to confirm or deny the reports that its troops had taken up positions on the partly Russian-controlled bank of the strategically crucial Dnieper River.

Vladimir Saldo, the Moscow-installed head of the Kherson region, also denied that Ukrainian forces had established a foothold on the Dnieper east bank, saying on Telegram that Russian forces remain in "full control" of the area.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

Military spending worldwide rose 3.7 percent in 2022 to a record $2.24 trillion, with Central and Western Europe experiencing the largest year-on-year increase since the Cold War and Ukraine boosting its outlays to unprecedented levels as it battled to repel Russian forces that invaded its territory early in the year.

The United States, Russia, and China remained the largest individual spenders, accounting for 56 percent of the global total of military spending, according to inflation-adjusted data published on April 24 by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

The report said military aid to Ukraine and concerns about a heightened threat from Russia strongly influenced spending by many other states, as did tensions in East Asia.

"The continuous rise in global military expenditure in recent years is a sign that we are living in an increasingly insecure world," said Nan Tian, senior researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program.

"States are bolstering military strength in response to a deteriorating security environment, which they do not foresee improving in the near future," he added.

Russia launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on February 24 last year in what Moscow calls a "special military operation." The invasion has since caused tens of thousands of deaths on both sides with Ukraine, backed heavily -- both financially and militarily -- by allies in Europe, North America, and other parts of the world, putting up a far stiffer resistance than Moscow appears to have expected.

SIPRI estimated that Russian military spending increased 9.2 percent in 2022, to around $86.4 billion, equivalent to 4.1 percent of Russia's gross domestic product (GDP). That's up from 3.7 percent of GDP in 2021.

"The difference between Russia's budgetary plans and its actual military spending in 2022 suggests the invasion of Ukraine has cost Russia far more than it anticipated," said Lucie Beraud-Sudreau, director of SIPRI's Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program.

Ukraine's military spending reached $44 billion in 2022 --– a whopping increase of 640 percent, with the report calling it the "highest single-year increase in a country's military expenditure ever recorded in SIPRI data."

"As a result of the increase and the war-related damage to Ukraine's economy...military spending as a share of GDP shot up to 34 percent of GDP in 2022, from 3.2 percent in 2021."

By contrast, the United States, by far the world's largest military spender, spent $877 billion in 2022, up 0.7 percent adjusted for inflation -- representing 39 percent of total global military spending and triple that of China, the second-largest spender.

Expenditures by Central and Western European states reached $345 billion in 2022 -- surpassing in real terms the 1989 level, just as the Cold War was ending.

"The invasion of Ukraine had an immediate impact on military spending decisions in Central and Western Europe," said Diego Lopes da Silva, a SIPRI senior researcher. "This included multiyear plans to boost spending from several governments."

He said that "we can reasonably expect" military expenditures in the region to keep rising in upcoming years.

Finland, which recently became the 31st member of NATO, led the rise with a 36 percent increase in military spending, followed by Lithuania (up 27 percent); Sweden, which is seeking NATO membership (up 12 percent); and Poland (up 11 percent).

"While the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 certainly affected military spending decisions in 2022, concerns about Russian aggression have been building for much longer," said Lorenzo Scarazzato, a SIPRI researcher.

"Many former Eastern bloc states have more than doubled their military spending since 2014, the year when Russia annexed Crimea."

SIPRI said all percentage changes are expressed in real terms at constant 2021 prices.

Russia has not only stolen territory in Ukraine, but also peace in Europe and stability in the world, according to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. Russia "has destroyed the basic principles of humanity by committing unspeakable atrocities," Kuleba wrote in an op-ed for the April 23 edition of German daily Die Welt. No real peace in the region is possible if Moscow is not held accountable for all its crimes, he wrote. "Russia has thrown us back into a long 19th century marked by colonial conquests," he added.

Anti-Kremlin protesters staged a rally in Paris on April 23, urging the EU to slap sanctions on the socialite wife of the Russian deputy defense minister, who they accuse of bypassing sanctions. Chanting "Sanctions" and holding placards, several dozen activists gathered outside the presumed Paris home of Svetlana Maniovich. The protest was organized by associates of jailed Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny who say that the wife of Russian Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov must be banned from living in Europe and her assets frozen. One sign said: "Robs in Russia. Kills in Ukraine. Wife in France."

The European Union is considering placing sanctions on Russian state-controlled media Russia Today (RT) Balkans, which broadcasts programs in the Serbian language, diplomatic sources told RFE/RL on April 23. The sources said the European Commission is in the process of preparing a new package of sanctions against the Kremlin because of its aggression against Ukraine. According to the sources, the preliminary list of new sanctions also includes "extension of the list of media whose broadcasting is prohibited, including Russia Today Balkans." To read the original story by RFE/RL's Balkan Service, click here.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has expressed anger after he claimed the United States had not issued visas to journalists seeking to accompany him to the United Nations, with Russian officials vowing to retaliate against U.S. journalists in Russia.

"We won't forget -- we will not forgive this," said Lavrov, who is scheduled to chair several UN Security Council meetings starting on April 24 in New York as Russia assumes the rotating presidency of the council.

The U.S. State Department did not immediately comment about the claim of the visa denials, saying it could not speak on specific visa requests because of privacy rules.

"The United States takes seriously its obligations as host country of the UN under the UN Headquarters Agreement, including with respect to visa issuance," a State Department spokesperson said in a statement.

The rift comes weeks after U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Russia on allegations of espionage that The Wall Street Journal reporter, his publication, and U.S. officials strongly denied.

Gershkovich was the first foreign journalist arrested on spying allegations since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

He had been reporting on Russia for more than five years at the time of his arrest. He is a fluent Russian speaker, the son of emigres who left the Soviet Union for the United States during the Cold War.

Most Western journalists who had been reporting in Russia left the country following the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, facing tightened reporting, visas, and accreditation regulations.

In his comments, Lavrov said Russia "will not forgive nor forget" the U.S. refusal to issue visas to the Russian journalists.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned of retaliation against U.S. journalists.

"We will find formats to respond to this so that the Americans remember for a long time that such things must not be done," Ryabkov was quoted by state-run news agencies as saying.

With reporting by AFP and AP