A Ukrainian court on October 18 handed a former police officer a life sentence and gave two others 15-year prison terms over the deaths of dozens of people killed in 2014 during the Maidan protests that toppled pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych. All three former officers were sentenced in absentia by Kyiv's Sviatoshyn district court because they were handed over to Russia in 2019 in a prisoner exchange. The Prosecutor-General's Office said on Telegram it would appeal the verdicts, but the message was deleted. To read the original story on RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, click here.

The number of Russians convicted under the country’s terrorist act has increased eightfold this year, according to the Telegram channel We Can Explain, which cited researchers who studied statistics from the Supreme Court. The data showed that 39 people were convicted under the terrorist act from January to June. This compares with five people convicted during the same period last year. According to the researchers, the increase is mainly due to arson attacks on military registration and enlistment offices since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and last year’s mobilization. To read the original story on RFE/RL’s Russian Service, click here.

Renowned Iranian filmmaker Dariush Mehrjui and his wife, screenwriter Vahideh Mohammadi-Far, were buried on October 18 after dying under mysterious circumstances in a funeral attended by many of the country's most well-known artists with riot police looking on.

The pair were stabbed to death over the weekend at their home about 30 kilometers west of Tehran, Iranian judicial officials said on October 15. Mehrjui, 83, was known as a co-founder of Iran's film new wave in the early 1970s.

Some activists and opposition figures in Iran have drawn parallels between the killings and similar crimes in the past that were ultimately deemed political murders.

As the ceremony progressed in central Tehran, attendees chanted slogans such as "Women, life, freedom" and "Murderers, murderers should be disgraced," highlighting the grief and defiance running through the crowd.

Other raised placards during the ceremony that read, "In exchange, we have security," a thinly veiled critique of the government's recent claims that despite more than a year of nationwide unrest, Iran enjoys a "state of security."

Videos shared with RFE/RL’s Radio Farda captured other slogans such as "Death to the murderer of this crime" and "Neither Gaza nor Lebanon, my life for Iran."

The ceremony also saw Marzieh Borumand, head of the House of Cinema, take the stage and make a controversial statement to the government to "be good to us, and we will fight alongside you against Israel."

The reference to the current war being fought between Israel and Iran-backed Hamas in the Gaza Strip elicited boos from some sections of the audience.

The deaths of Mehrjui and Mohammadi-Far have evoked memories of past political murders in Iran, especially the killing of activists Dariush Foruhar and Parvaneh Eskandari Foruhar in 1998. Both were ardent critics of Iran's religious leadership and faced consistent surveillance.

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

Bulgaria's government has defended its decision to impose a new tax on Russian gas transiting through the country as Hungary and Serbia -- which rely on supplies from Moscow -- vowed to respond to the move, which they called a “hostile” step.

Bulgaria imposed a tax on Russian gas transit in the amount of 20 leva ($10.80) per megawatt-hour last week, prompting reactions in Budapest and Belgrade, which receive Russian gas through Bulgaria.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov on October 18 defended the move, saying that “there is a good chance that this [tax] would create real competition” on the gas market “from which the whole of Europe would benefit.”

“We protect Bulgarian interests. These are revenues that can enter the state budget,” Denkov added.

Bulgarian Finance Minister Asen Vasilev said the goal of the tax was not to make gas more expensive for consumers in Hungary and Serbia but to make it less profitable for the Russian state energy company Gazprom to ship gas via Bulgaria.

“Because most Gazprom contracts are priced at the point of delivery in a given country, the tax will most likely have no impact on prices downstream.... It will only reduce Gazprom's profits,” he told the Financial Times in an interview published on October 17.

Russia stopped supplying gas to Bulgaria soon after the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 after Sofia refused to pay in rubles -- a condition imposed on “unfriendly countries” as a way to sidestep Western financial sanctions against Russia's central bank.

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But Sofia allowed Russian energy giant Gazprom to continue using its gas pipeline network to supply Serbia and Hungary, two of Europe’s most pro-Russian governments.

Belgrade and Budapest have said the new transit tax, which is equal to about one-fifth of current market prices, “threatens the security of the energy supply in Hungary and Serbia.”

“Bulgaria's decision to introduce a tax on Russian gas, which is delivered through its territory, is a step directed against Hungary and Serbia,” Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Sinisa Mali and Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a joint statement on October 17.

“Hungary and Serbia will harmonize their positions and respond adequately to this controversial decision of Bulgaria.”

In separate comments, Szijjarto said that Bulgaria’s decision was “a hostile move because it has the potential to jeopardize the security of energy supplies for other countries.”

The Russian state news agency TASS quoted Szijjarto as saying that the new tax was discussed during a meeting between Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 17 at a forum in China.

Szijjarto said that Putin, along with Gazprom CEO Aleksei Miller, had assured Hungary that Gazprom will fully fulfill its obligations to supply the required amount of natural gas to Hungary in accordance with the long-term contract between the two countries.

Hungary has been receiving 4.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas per year from Russia under a deal signed in 2021, mainly via Bulgaria and Serbia.

Serbia also has expressed fears that the new tax imposed by Bulgaria would make gas more expensive. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said the tax would “drastically increase” the price of gas that Serbia pays.

Bulgaria's parliament adopted the introduction of the additional tax in late September.

The amendment was introduced by lawmakers from three parties between the first and second reading of a law on implementation of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

The amendment was supported by the ruling parties GERB, We Continue The Change – Democratic Bulgaria, as well as the Movement For Rights And Freedoms, which is formally not part of the ruling coalition but supports it in key votes.

But President Rumen Radev, seen by some as pro-Russian, criticized the new tax, saying that by imposing it the government “interferes in the sovereign decisions of other countries.”

The measure entered into force on October 13, but there are no details yet on the mechanism for collecting the tax. The ministries of economy, energy, and finance did not respond to questions sent by RFE/RL’s Bulgarian Service on the issue.

According to preliminary estimates the new tax could bring as much as 2 billion leva ($1 billion) per year into Bulgaria's budget if the levels of Russian gas transited through the country are maintained.

Tehran's Islamic Revolutionary Court has sentenced prominent Iranian attorney Mohammad Saleh Nikbakht, who represents the family of the late Mahsa Amini, to one year in prison on a charge of "propaganda against the system" after he conducted interviews with several foreign media outlets, including RFERL’s Radio Farda.

Ali Rezaei, the attorney for Nikbakht, said on October 18 that the sentence is the maximum penalty typically meted out in such cases. He added that in past incidents where individuals were persecuted for interviews with overseas Persian-speaking media, the prison terms were considerably shorter.

Furthermore, the court's verdict does not stop at imprisonment for Nikbakht as he is additionally prohibited from activities on social media as part of his punishment.

The interviews that led to Rezaei's conviction included discussions on issues such as the plight of protesters in Iran, criticism of the airing of political confessions on state media, and the reasons behind prohibiting motorcycle licenses for Iranian women.

Another significant point of contention has been Nikbakht's public disagreement with the forensic medical conclusion surrounding the death of his client, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. Authorities had attributed her death while in police custody for an alleged head scarf violation to a heart attack and an underlying disease, a stance that has been vocally challenged by Nikbakht.

Nikbakht has said often that speaking to both domestic and foreign media is not a criminal act as "only if the content of the interview is against the law can it be considered a crime."

He has a long history of representing Iranian personalities in rights-related cases, including most recently that of the acclaimed filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who was released from prison days after going on a hunger strike to protest “the illegal and inhumane behavior" of Iran's judiciary and security apparatus.

Amini's death in September 2022 has been a trigger for recent civil unrest in Iran, with thousands rallying for greater freedoms and women's rights, marking one of the most significant challenges to the Islamic government since the 1979 revolution.

The Iran Human Rights group, based in Norway, has reported that the protests have led to the deaths of at least 587 individuals, inclusive of several young people.

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

Tajik opposition member Farhod Odinaev said the government has cut off electricity supplies to his mother's house as part of a pressure campaign officials are waging against regime critics. Odinaev told Radio Ozodi, RFE/RL's Tajik-language service, that when he confronted the electricity supplier, no reason was given for the cut. Odinaev is part of a group of self-exiled Tajik activists who have complained that their relatives were under pressure after Central Asian activists pelted the car of President Emomali Rahmon with eggs while he was in Berlin for talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in late September. To read the original story by RFE/RL' Tajik Service, click here.

Canada has sanctioned nine more individuals and six television stations involved in actions to destabilize Moldova and to facilitate Russia's war in Ukraine.

The new restrictions, announced on October 17, target individuals who have links with Moldovan oligarchs Vlad Plahotniuc, a fugitive one-time leader of the Democratic Party who has been linked to the disappearance of $1 billion from Moldovan banks, and Moscow-friendly Ilan Shor, a self-exiled businessman accused by the West and the Moldovan government of trying to destabilize the country through his now-outlawed Shor Party.

Those included on the sanctions list have been banned from doing business in Canada and had all their assets there frozen.

Both Plahotniuc and Shor were already placed on Ottawa's sanctions list in June together with several other people and the Shor Party -- all accused of promoting Russia's interests in Moldova, a former Soviet republic that has been struggling for decades to shake off Moscow's influence.

Also in June, the United States imposed sanctions on seven members of a Russian influence group linked to Shor for their role in Moscow's campaign to destabilize Moldova and instigate an insurrection.

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The individuals hit with the new sanctions include Moldovan politician Alexandr Kalinin, who traveled to Russian-occupied regions in Ukraine and aided Russian forces involved in the invasion (Kalinin has been charged in Moldova for pro-war propaganda and was included in May on the European Union's list of sanctions); Grigore Caramalac, a businessman with dual Moldovan-Russian citizenship involved in organizing large-scale events in Ukraine's occupied regions; Plahotniuc's sister, Vera, who reportedly controls one of the family's largest companies; Shor Party municipal councilors Valeri Klimenko and Serghei Burgudji; Shor Party former lawmakers Maria Albot si Igor Himici; Tatiana Platon, deputy head of the Orhei city's municipal council; and Arina Corsicova, the administrator of several Shor-owned media outlets.

The six TV stations slapped with Canadian restrictions are Primul In Moldova, RTR Moldova, Accent TV, NTV Moldova, TV6, and Orhei TV. The six outlets have already had their licenses revoked by Chisinau for "disinformation in Russia's interest."

Plahotniuc is thought to live in Cyprus while Shor has fled to Israel following the election of Moldova's pro-Western President Maia Sandu election in 2020.

From abroad, Shor has organized months of anti-government protests with the aim of toppling Sandu and the reformist government that has been critical of Russia's war in Ukraine.

Darya Losik, the wife of jailed RFE/RL journalist Ihar Losik, has marked a year behind bars as she serves a two-year sentence for giving an interview to an independent media outlet. A court in the Belarusian city of Brest sentenced Losik after finding her guilty of facilitating extremist activity. The charge stemmed from her interview with the Poland-based Belsat outlet, which has been labeled an extremist group by Minsk. Losik's husband was sentenced to 15 years in December 2021 on charges that included organizing mass riots and incitement to social hatred. The cases against both are widely considered to be politically motivated. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Belarus Service, click here.

The Malinovskiy District Court of Odesa on October 18 said Kirill Stremousov, who died in November last year in a car crash, has been sentenced posthumously to life in prison for treason. The court said on its Facebook page that Stremousov, the former deputy head of the Russian occupation administration in Ukraine's Kherson region, was guilty of "actions deliberately committed to the detriment of sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability, state and information security of Ukraine, and collaborative activities." To read the original story by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, click here.

Valery Zaitsev, a 14-year-old Russian boy from the village of Solnechny, in the Far Eastern Russian region of Khabarovsk, who reportedly voiced sympathy for Ukraine, has ben arrested under suspicion that he was preparing a terrorist attack with explosives, Mediazona reports. Zaitsev, who suffers from tuberculosis, was arrested together with an 18-year-old friend for preparing explosives and Molotov cocktails, the report said. He had voiced opinions against the war in Ukraine, according to some of his classmates, who said he was apprehended from a hospital and is currently in a pretrial detention center. Authorities have not commented on the case. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

The head of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) said on October 18 it was "deeply regrettable" that Russian lawmakers had moved toward revoking ratification of the treaty.

"Today's decision by the State Duma of the Russian Federation to pass a law revoking Russia's ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) is very disappointing and deeply regrettable," CTBTO chief Robert Floyd said in a statement. "This decision goes against renewed global determination to see the CTBT enter into force."

The State Duma, the Russian parliament’s lower chamber, earlier on October 18 approved a bill revoking the ratification of the CTBT.

Lawmakers passed the second and third readings of the bill unanimously, with 415 votes in favor, no abstentions and votes against.

The move, which comes amid heightened tensions with the West, was initiated earlier this month by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said it would “mirror” the position of the United States. The United States is among five countries that signed but never ratified the 1996 pact.

The treaty, which prohibits tests involving nuclear explosions, has made such tests taboo. Only North Korea has carried out such a test this century, most recently in September 2017.

But the Russian move to start a procedure to revoke the ratification of the pact prompted concerns in the West that were compounded on October 17 by statements from parliament speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, a member of President Vladimir Putin's Security Council, that Moscow might abandon the principles of the pact altogether.

Volodin told parliament that “what we will do next, whether we remain a party to the treaty or not, we will not tell them,” adding the move was a wake-up call for Washington.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that revoking the ratification of the treaty would not mean that Moscow would start conducting nuclear tests.

Russia has previously said it would resume nuclear tests “only after the United States carries out similar testing.”

The CTBT has been signed by 187 countries and ratified by 178 but cannot go into force until eight holdouts -- China, Egypt, Iran, Israel, North Korea, India, Pakistan, and the United States -- have signed and ratified it.

Though the United States has not ratified the treaty, it has observed a moratorium on nuclear weapons test explosions since 1992 and says it has no plans to abandon the treaty.

Since the beginning of Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine, various pro-Kremlin politicians and public figures, including government officials, have spoken about the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons or at least resuming nuclear testing.

Speaking on October 5 at a forum with foreign affairs experts, Putin said it would be up to the State Duma whether Russia revokes the ratification.

In the wake of the statements, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged “all nuclear weapon states to publicly reaffirm their moratoriums against nuclear testing and their commitment to the CTBT.”

With reporting from Reuters

A motion to impeach Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili over her visits to European Union countries failed on October 18 as the ruling Georgian Dream party could not gather enough votes to remove her from office.

At least 100 votes in the 150-member legislature were needed to impeach Zurabishvili, but only 86 lawmakers supported the motion to oust her over her visits to EU countries and talks with EU leaders without government consent, which the country's Constitutional Court said was not allowed under the constitution.

But Zurabishvili said during debate in the parliament on the motion that she "did not violate neither the essence nor the spirit of the constitution."

"With this impeachment process you are insulting not only me, and not me at all, but [European] leaders and pushing the country toward isolation," she said.

The drive to impeach Zurabishvili has been led by the ruling Georgian Dream and its leader, Irakli Kobakhidze.

During the debate on October 18, he accused Zurabishvili of working "against the vital interests of the country" and said that she "does not deserve" to be president.

Kobakhidze had called on Zurabishvili to resign regardless of the result of the vote.

But the president, who has butted heads with the government on several occasions even though her post is seen as largely ceremonial, has refused to step down and called the party's bid to oust her "an attempt to kill Georgia's European future and democracy."

"The country in which the balance between different branches of power no longer exists cannot be called a democracy," she said earlier this week in a televised address.

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The parliamentary debate follows a ruling by Georgia's Constitutional Court that Zurabishvili violated the constitution by traveling to EU countries without government consent.

The decision, announced on October 16, was supported by six out of nine judges who said "that during her working foreign visits on August 31, September 1, and September 6, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili exercised representative powers and authority in the area of international relations without the Georgian government's consent."

Three judges issued a dissenting opinion, saying their colleagues had misinterpreted the constitutional rights of the president.

Georgia's constitution forbids the president from getting involved in the country's foreign relations without the agreement of the government.

Zurabishvili traveled to Paris, Berlin, and Brussels to promote Georgia's European Union candidacy -- the country applied for EU membership in March 2022, but it has not been granted candidate status yet -- and met with leaders of France, Germany, and the 27-member bloc.

Kobakhidze claimed the court ruling was a victory as it showed the president needs government approval to meet foreign leaders visiting Georgia or even to travel to another country for personal reasons.

But Maya Kopaleshvili, a former Constitutional Court judge and lawyer for Zurabishvili in the case, said the president can still meet leaders of foreign countries without the government’s permission if this does not represent or result in a change in the country’s foreign policy.

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The motion for Zurabishvili’s impeachment comes as her popularity rises for her strongly pro-Western and pro-Ukrainian views amid opposition to some of the ruling party’s controversial decisions.

Among them was proposing a controversial “foreign agent” law -- which Zurabishvili said would bring Georgia “closer to the flawed Russian model and not to the European model” -- that sparked protests, forcing the party to back down.

Georgia applied for EU membership shortly after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, along with Ukraine and Moldova. While those two latter countries were awarded candidate status in June 2022, Georgia was instead given an EU “perspective” and a list of reforms it should implement.

In addition to tackling political polarization and other issues, the European Commission has recommended that Georgia address judicial reform as well as increase efforts to fight against corruption and organized crime.

In October, the EU will decide -- based on its perception of the progress Georgia has made on those reforms -- whether to award it candidate status.

With reporting by AFP

Some activists and opposition figures in Iran have drawn parallels between the recent killing of acclaimed Iranian director Dariush Mehrjui and his wife and similar killings in the past that were ultimately deemed political murders

Mehrjui and his wife, Vahideh Mohammadifar, were stabbed to death over the weekend in their home about 30 kilometers west of Tehran, Iranian judiciary officials said on October 15. Mehrjui, 83, was known as a co-founder of Iran's film new wave in the early 1970s.

Human rights advocate Nasrin Sotudeh said the deaths “eerily bring back memories of the harrowing assassination of Dariush Foruhar and his wife, especially as we near their death anniversary."

Forouhar and Parvaneh Eskandari Foruhar were vocal critics of Iran's religious leadership and were constantly monitored. They were murdered in their home on November 21, 1998.

The individuals who confessed to the murders were affiliated with Iran's Intelligence Ministry and admitted that the murders were termed a "physical elimination" directed by the ministry.

Sotudeh also commented on the killing of Mehrjui and Mohammadifar on social media in a post on October 16, questioning the nature of the murder and stressing the need for a "referendum to institute a competent government that ensures security."

Political activist Emadaldin Baghi expressed similar concerns in a social media post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that drew parallels with the killing of the Foruhars and suggesting that their killing was reminiscent of the notorious series of political murders that rocked Iran in the 1990s.

Jomhuri Islami, a prominent Iranian newspaper, also drew analogies between Mehrjui's murder and the "chain murders of the 1990s." The newspaper urged officials to swiftly and diligently probe the matter to root out any underlying corruption.

Adding to the growing chorus of voices commenting on the killings was the Association of Iranian Film and Theater Artists Abroad.

Formed in the wake of last year's sweeping nationwide protests, the association warned that Mehrjui's death was a grim reminder of the perils artists continuously face in Iran, alluding to the murders in the 1900s and murder of the Foruhars.

The government-aligned Iran newspaper dismissed the comments, criticizing entities for drawing parallels to previous killings without furnishing concrete evidence. It further accused certain Persian-speaking international media and what it called a "domestic faction" of unduly politicizing the incident.

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

China and Russia have maintained close and effective strategic coordination, and their bilateral volume of trade has reached a historical high, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on October 18. Political mutual trust between the two countries is continuously deepening, state news agency Xinhua quoted Xi as saying.

Russian missile strikes on October 18 killed several civilians in Ukraine, including five people killed in an overnight rocket attack that struck an apartment building in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhya, the regional governor said.

Governor Yuriy Malashko initially told RFE/RL that two people died and three were missing after an S-300 anti-aircraft missile hit the building. He announced later on Telegram that the bodies of the three missing people had been found in the rubble of the apartment building.

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Five people were injured and have been hospitalized, he said.

The explosion destroyed floors three, four, and five of the residential building, the Interior Ministry said in a statement, on Facebook adding that some 50 residents were evacuated.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned the attack, saying the missile hit "an ordinary five-story building" and said eight apartments had been destroyed.

"We will do everything to make the terrorist state bear fair responsibility. Russian terror must lose," Zelenskiy added.

Malashko told RFE/RL that the strike did not have a clear military purpose. "After all, neither critical infrastructure nor military facilities are nearby. This is the center of the city, where ordinary human life goes on. Why they hit this house in particular is unclear," he said.

In the northeastern city Sumy, a Shahed drone hit an infrastructure object, the regional military administration said on Telegram. The drone hit after an air alarm sounded shortly before 11 p.m. local time on October 18. Emergency services and the military were working at the scene, the regional military administration said.

A separate Russian air strike late on October 18 hit in the Mykolayiv region, killing two people, the Interior Ministry said on Telegram.

"At 8:30 p.m., the enemy launched a rocket attack on one of the settlements of the Mykolayiv district. Two people died, their bodies were recovered by rescuers from under the rubble of a destroyed building of a catering establishment," the ministry said, adding that one person was injured.

It was not possible for RFE/RL to verify the claims.

Russia has been constantly shelling and launching air strikes at Ukrainian cities, killing and wounding civilians and causing extensive damage to civilian and energy infrastructure.

In the eastern region of Donetsk, a civilian was killed in the village of Netyalovo when his home was shelled by Russian forces, local authorities said.

Separately, Ukrainian authorities said a man was killed in the northeastern region of Kharkiv when his tractor drove over a landmine.

Meanwhile, Moscow claimed it had repelled Ukrainian drone attacks on occupied Crimea and two Russian regions.

Russia's Defense Ministry says its forces shot down 28 drones that attacked its Kursk and Belgorod regions and Crimea overnight.

The ministry said 10 drones were destroyed above Crimea. Kursk Governor Roman Starovoit said 12 drones were shot down by Russia's air defenses over his region.

Russian-installed regional Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said later on October 18 that Russia shot down a missile over Sevastopol, home of its Black Sea Fleet on the Crimean Peninsula. The missile detonated in a field and there were no injuries or damage to infrastructure, Razvozhayev said.

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Six drones were destroyed by Russian air defenses in the Belgorod region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram. No casualties were reported. Ukraine did not comment on the Russian report, which could not be independently verified.

On the battlefield, General Oleksandr Tarnavskiy, commander of the Ukrainian military’s Tavria unit, said Ukrainian forces were proceeding with their planned advance toward the Sea of Azov. Troops with the Tavria unit "are continuing their offensive. They have had partial success to the south of Robotyne," Tarnavskiy said on Telegram.

Robotyne lies along an important road leading to the strategic southern city of Melitopol. Ukraine wants to secure the road as part of push to sever a land bridge linking Russian positions in the south and east.

Oleksandr Shtupun, a spokesman for southern troops, also reported progress near Robotyne. Speaking on national television, Shtupun also said that shelling had eased around the town of Avdiyivka.

Heavy fighting continued around the eastern city of Avdiyivka, just north of Donetsk, where Russian forces have been attempting a breakthrough for the past number of days.

Vitaliy Barabash, the head of Avdiyivka’s military administration, told Ukrainian television on October 18 that the Russian offensive represented the largest assault on Avdiyivka since the start of the war in February last year.

But Barabash said that Russian forces appear to have run out of ammunition and troops since they started the attack on Avdiyivka on October 10.

"Less shelling, fewer missile strikes, even fewer assaults on our positions," he said.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian is ready to sign a peace deal with Azerbaijan by the end of the year based on the principles outlined in meetings with European mediators, he said on October 17.

Pashinian told the European Parliament in Strasbourg that Armenia is ready to sign the agreement based on mutual recognition of sovereignty and territorial integrity and the opening of regional transportation links based on the sovereignty of the territories through which they pass.

Specifically, he said Yerevan is ready to open the Meghri railway, known as the Zangezur Corridor in Azerbaijan, under the jurisdiction of Armenia.

If the principles are reaffirmed, “it will become very realistic to sign an agreement on peace and relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan before the end of the year," Pashinian said in his speech.

Pashinian also said he is ready to develop relations with the European Union and is ready to be as close to the EU as Brussels deems possible.

Armenia is currently working to meet the needs of more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians who fled Nagorno-Karabakh after a rapid offensive last month that resulted in Azerbaijan recapturing the breakaway territory.

Armenia describes their flight as ethnic cleansing driven by the threat of violence, but Azerbaijan says the Armenian civilians left voluntarily even though they were welcome to stay in Nagorno-Karabakh and be integrated into Azerbaijani society.

Pashinian also commented on the security situation, again complaining that Yerevan's allies left it to fend for itself during Azerbaijan's offensive.

"At the time when hundreds of thousands of Armenians fled from Nagorno Karabakh to the Republic of Armenia, our allies in the security sector not only did not help us, but also made public calls for a change of power in Armenia, to overthrow the democratic government," Pashinian said.

He did not name Russia, which is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) along with Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

"In this situation, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which is considered the security system of Armenia, and the countries with bilateral security obligations to Armenia did not help us at all,” he said. “They left us alone.”

The purpose of this “provocation,” he said was to cause the upcoming parliamentary elections to fail and to paralyze the statehood of Armenia or at least its ability to form a temporary government.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, reacting to the speech, accused Pashinian of using "aggressive rhetoric" that harms peace prospects at a time when there are historic opportunities for the South Caucasus region to become a place of peace and cooperation.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev made his first visit to the territories retaken by Azerbaijan on October 15 and raised Azerbaijan's flag in the city known as Xankendi to Azeris and Stepanakert to the territory's ethnic Armenians.

With reporting by Reuters

The destruction of the Kakhovka dam in southeastern Ukraine in June caused $14 billion worth of damage and losses, a report by the Ukrainian government and the United Nations said on October 17. Ukraine accused Russia of blowing up the dam, flooding the surrounding area, and leaving areas upstream without water. Moscow has denied responsibility. "The stark figures speak for themselves. The destruction of the Kakhovka dam has resulted in a staggering loss and damage," said Christophoros Politis, the UN Development Program's deputy resident representative in Ukraine, at a presentation in Kyiv.

A court in Baku on October 17 sentenced Orxan Baxisli, an activist with the opposition Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (AXCP), to 20 days in jail after finding him guilty of minor hooliganism. The AXCP called Baxisli's incarceration politically motivated, saying he was jailed for his online criticism of President Ilham Aliyev. In 2018, Baxisli was sentenced to six years in prison on a charge of illegal drugs possession that he had rejected. The prison term was later cut by three years, and Baxisli was released early in 2021 under a presidential decree granting a mass amnesty. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service, click here.

The Moscow City Court on October 17 rejected an appeal filed by lawyers of Igor Girkin (aka Strelkov), once a leader of Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine's east, against the pretrial detention he was placed in earlier this year after he criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for “badly” handling the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Girkin's lawyers requested that the court replace the pretrial detention order with pretrial restrictions other than incarceration such as house arrest.

Last month, Moscow’s Meshchansky district court extended Girkin's pretrial detention until December 18.

Girkin was arrested in July and charged with public calls for extremist activities. If convicted, the 52-year-old Girkin, who maintains his innocence, faces up to five years in prison.

Girkin was a key commander of Moscow-backed separatists in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region in 2014 and helped Russia annex Ukraine's Crimea that year.

A former officer of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), Girkin has sharply criticized Putin in online statements for his handling of the Ukraine invasion, referring to the president as a “nonentity” and accusing him of “cowardly mediocrity.”

He has also called out Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu for "mistakes" in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and has accused both of "incompetence," saying a total military mobilization is needed for Russia to achieve victory.

In one of his harshest rants, Girkin said in a July 18 post on his official Telegram channel that Putin should transfer power "to someone truly capable and responsible." The post has garnered almost 800,000 views.

Shortly after his arrest, Girkin made a statement from pretrial detention, saying he plans to take part in a presidential election next year.

In November, a court in the Netherlands sentenced Girkin and two other defendants to life in prison in absentia in the case of the 2014 shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine. All 298 people on board died in the crash.

In February, international investigators said there were "strong indications" that Putin was personally involved in the incident.

The Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was blown out of the sky on July 17, 2014 amid a conflict between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian armed forces. The victims came from more than a dozen countries, although more than two-thirds of them were Dutch citizens.

Russia has denied any involvement in downing of the plane.

With reporting by Interfax

North Korea appears to have begun secretly shipping large amounts of munitions to Russia, according to a new report, using ships and trains to move the weaponry and bolster Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

The report, published on October 16 by the London-based Royal United Services Institute, is based on high-quality satellite imagery surveying ports and train shipments. It adds further evidence to accusations made by the United States and other Western countries that Pyongyang has been helping Russia rebuild its weapons stocks.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

More than 18 months into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has already ramped up its military industrial infrastructure, retooling factories and supply lines to bolster production of weapons, ammunition, and other equipment for the war effort in Ukraine.

But Russian forces are believed to have struggled to keep up with the furious rate of fire of some important weaponry, such as artillery shells. This summer, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu traveled to North Korea in what Western officials said was likely a negotiation to acquire armaments from Pyongyang.

Weeks later, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a rare trip abroad, traveling by train to Russia to meet President Vladimir Putin and to tour Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome, where satellites and other Russian rocketry are launched.

According to the London institute, known as RUSI, dozens of satellite images taken in recent months appear to show two Russian-flagged cargo ships moving between Rajin, a port on North Korea’s eastern coast and an obscure port in Russia’s Primorye region known as Dunai.

According to RUSI’s account, the ships transported “hundreds of containers” that, the institute said, likely contained North Korean armaments. One of the cargo ships is alleged to have ties to the Russian Defense Ministry, and it, along with a Russian maritime leasing company, were sanctioned by the United States last year.

RUSI said the images also show dozens of shipping containers of the same color and same size arriving weeks later in Tikhoretsk, in Russia’s Krasnodar region, nearly 10,000 kilometers to the west of Primorye. An ammunition depot at Tikhoretsk has been expanded noticeably since August, according to the imagery.

“North Korea’s supplying of significant quantities of munitions to Moscow will have profound consequences for the war in Ukraine,” the report’s authors wrote.

“For the Russians, a major North Korean supply line will alleviate shortages of munitions,” they said. “Ukraine and its supporters will also have to contend with this new reality, potentially escalating their support by providing additional quantities of weapons and munitions to Ukraine's defenders.”

SEE ALSO:

U.S. Says North Korea Delivered Arms To Russia For War In Ukraine

Last month, White House national-security adviser Jake Sullivan said that U.S. intelligence had been tracking the possibility of North Korea supplying Russia with weapons “for quite some time.”

“And the reason why…there is such an intense effort on the part of Moscow to generate this kind of support from North Korea is that we have continued to squeeze…Russia’s defense industrial base, and they are now going about looking to whatever source they can find for things like artillery ammunition,” Sullivan said in September.

Other researchers have also documented evidence pointing to increased rail traffic between North Korea and Russia following Kim’s visit to Russia.

“The level of rail traffic is far greater than what [has been] observed at the facility during the past five years, even compared to pre-Covid-19 levels,” the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a report released earlier this month.

“Given that Kim and Putin discussed some military exchanges and cooperation at their recent summit, the dramatic increase in rail traffic likely indicates North Korea’s supply of arms and munitions to Russia.”

The Russian parliament’s lower chamber, the State Duma, approved the first reading of a bill revoking the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).

The move was initiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month, prompting concerns in the West that were compounded on October 17 by statements from speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, a member of President Vladimir Putin's Security Council, that Moscow might even abandon the pact altogether.

Parliament is expected to hold a final vote on the issue on October 19 after the move is discussed on October 17-18.

On October 16, Vladimir Yermakov, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Nonproliferation and Arms Control Department, said Moscow will not be the first to conduct nuclear tests, if the State Duma makes a decision to revoke the treaty.

SEE ALSO:

What Is The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty And Why Is Russia Threatening To Pull Out?

Yermakov's statement affirmed Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov's last week statement saying Moscow would resume nuclear tests "only after the United States carries out similar testing."

But Volodin told parliament that "what we will do next, whether we remain a party to the treaty or not, we will not tell them," adding the move was a wake-up call for Washington.

The CTBT has been signed by 187 countries and ratified by 178 but cannot go into force until eight holdouts -- China, Egypt, Iran, Israel, North Korea, India, Pakistan, and the United States -- have signed and ratified it.

Though the United States has not ratified the treaty, it has observed a moratorium on nuclear weapons test explosions since 1992 and says it has no plans to abandon the treaty.

Since the beginning of Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine, various pro-Kremlin politicians and public figures, including government officials, have spoken about the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons or at least resuming nuclear testing.

Speaking on October 5 at a forum with foreign affairs experts, Putin said it would be up to the State Duma whether Russia revokes the ratification.

In the wake of the statements, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged “all nuclear weapon states to publicly reaffirm their moratoriums against nuclear testing and their commitment to the CTBT.”

With reporting by TASS, Interfax, AP, and Reuters

Former Russian Archdeacon Andrei Kurayev, who lost his rank in April over his calls for an end to the invasion of Ukraine, wrote on Telegram on October 16 that he left Russia for the Czech Republic. Kurayev wrote that he will be involved in public activities, including presenting lectures, and expressed hope that he will be able to return to Russia soon. In August last year, a court ordered Kurayev to pay a fine after finding him guilty of discrediting the Russian armed forces involved in Moscow’s war on Ukraine. The charge stemmed from his online post criticizing the war. To read the original story from Current Time, click here.

Iranian leaders have called for an "immediate" halt to Israel's offensive against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip and warned "other fronts will open up" in the conflict, fanning global concerns that the war could quickly escalate.

Israel pounded southern Gaza for an 11th day on October 17 in response to a Hamas attack inside Israel that killed more than 1,400 Israelis, with at least another 199 being taken back to the Palestinian territory as hostages. The conflict is already the deadliest in five Gaza wars for both sides, with Palestinian officials saying more than 2,800 people have already died in Gaza during the Israeli assault.

The Israeli response has pushed hundreds of thousands of civilians to try and leave Gaza to the south, exacerbating the humanitarian situation in the territory, which has seen its supply lines for electricity, fuel, and other goods from Israel cut off. Relief convoys that have been waiting for days in Egypt were said to be headed towards the Rafah border crossing with the Palestinian enclave on October 17.

International observers have condemned the Hamas attack but have also said that while Israel has the right to defend its citizens, it needs to enable a plan to deliver humanitarian aid to those civilians caught up in the fighting that has seen Israeli forces pound Gaza for days as they prepare for a ground invasion to wipe out Hamas, which rules the enclave.

SEE ALSO:

Emboldened Iran Counts Victories As Anti-Israel Investments Pay Off

“If the crimes continue, Muslims will be impatient, resistances forces will be impatient, and nobody will be able to prevent them,” Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on October 17.

Iran, a staunch backer of Hamas, has denied any involvement in the incursion and attack on Israel.

Added Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian: "Any option is imaginable," he said, when asked if Iran could step into the conflict. "No one can stand on the sidelines."

He did not say whether that meant direct Iranian action or moves by other armed groups supported by Iran such as Hizballah, which is located in Lebanon.

U.S. President Joe Biden is scheduled to travel to Jerusalem on October 18 to show support for Israel and then head to Jordan to meet with Arab leaders as they look for a diplomatic solution to ensure the conflict doesn't broaden and that humanitarian aid can be delivered.

"The way I see it, if Iran and its allies decide to escalate, it will come from the Syria front, not Lebanon, although Hizballah will still be a key player in any case," Hamidreza Azizi, a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said in a post on X.

Raz Zimmt, an expert on Iran at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said he doesn't believe Tehran "at present" wants the war to expand as "they understand that they also have a price to pay."

He added in an interview with RFE/RL's Radio Farda that Iran could face a "very significant dilemma" following its tough talk because "if they do nothing, it will certainly present them as weak."

If Tehran does intervene, Zimmt said, “then they could lose their more important strategic arm, which is Hizballah” in retaliatory Israeli attacks.

Vagif Khachatrian, an ethnic Armenian from Nagorno-Karabakh accused of alleged genocide and the forced deportation of civilians, pleaded not guilty to all charges as a military court in Baku started his trial on October 17. Azerbaijan's military detained Khachatrian in late July while he was leaving the breakaway region for Armenia. Azerbaijani investigators say Khachatrian was among soldiers who killed 25 Azerbaijanis, wounded 14, and forced 358 residents of the village of Mesali to leave their homes in December 1991. Khachatrian's relatives insist the charges are groundless. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service, click here.

The Kyrgyz State Committee of National Security said on October 17 that Kemelbek Kutmanov, the son of jailed former Natural Resources Minister Dinara Kutmanova, has been extradited from Turkey on corruption charges. Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov said in July that Kutmanov had been arrested in Turkey at Bishkek's request, adding that Kutmanov was suspected of involvement in the alleged embezzlement of funds at the Kumtor gold mine. His mother, Dinara Kutmanova, who served as natural resources minister from May 2021 till March this year, was arrested in July on suspicion of involvement in the embezzlement, which the ex-minister has rejected. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, click here.