Russia overnight launched another series of air strikes on Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region as an air-raid alert was again declared across the country.

Russian missiles hit two industrial facilities in the Dnipropetrovsk city of Kryviy Rih, causing substantial damage and wounding one person, the Ukrainian military and regional officials said early on June 15.

Authorities declared an air-raid alert across Ukraine overnight that was lifted around 5 a.m. local time on June 15.

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"A 38-year-old man was wounded. He is hospitalized in stable condition," Dnipropetrovsk Governor Serhiy Lysak said on Telegram.

Lysak said the strikes caused significant damage at the two facilities.

It was the third day in a row that Russia targeted the region. In the first such attack this month, 12 people were killed and 13 others, including three children, were wounded on June 13 by a Russian missile strike on a five-story apartment building in Kryviy Rih, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Ukraine's air defense said on June 15 it had destroyed all 20 Iranian-made drones launched at Dnipropetrovsk, but three out of four Russian cruise missiles could not be intercepted and hit factories in Kryviy Rih.

Russia has stepped up its air attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks as Kyiv prepared to launch its long-awaited counteroffensive to reclaim territory occupied by Russian forces.

Zelenskiy last week acknowledged the operation was under way, with Moscow responding by ratcheting up its strikes with cruise missiles and drones targeting major cities across the country.

WATCH: A Russian cruise missile attack killed at least three people and injured 13 others in Ukraine's southern port city of Odesa. The strike destroyed civilian infrastructure, including a residential complex and a food warehouse.

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'Everything Turned Red': Russia Launches Deadly Cruise Missile Attack On Odesa

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On the battlefield, fighting continued in and around Bakhmut, the city in the eastern Donetsk region that has been for months the scene of fierce battles.

The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said in its morning report on June 15 that 49 close combat battles took place in Bakhmut and nearby Avdiyivka and Maryinka over the past 24 hours.

While information about the progress of Ukraine's counteroffensive remained scarce, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on June 15 that the military aid that NATO members have given Ukraine is showing its impact on the battlefield.

"The support NATO allies have been giving Ukraine now for many, many months actually makes a difference on the battlefield," Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels ahead of a two-day meeting of the bloc's defense ministers that is also going to be attended by Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov.

Meanwhile, Rafael Grossi, head of the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, postponed a visit to the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine scheduled for June 13, an unnamed senior Ukrainian government official told Reuters. "He's waiting to be able to travel safely," the official said, after Grossi met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on June 12 in Kyiv.

Grossi told journalists after his meeting with Zelenskiy that the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant faces "a relatively dangerous situation" from both the Kakhovka dam breach last week and the start of Ukraine's counteroffensive.

With reporting by Reuters and AP

More than 100,000 people had been evacuated in India and Pakistan ahead of the expected landfall of a cyclone powerful enough to devastate homes and tear down power lines. Biparjoy, which means "disaster" in Bengali, is expected to make landfall as a "very severe cyclonic storm" on the evening of June 15, forecasters said. Powerful winds, storm surges, and lashing rains were forecast to hammer a 325-kilometer stretch of coast between Mandvi in India's Gujarat state and Karachi, Pakistan. Officials have warned of the potential "total destruction" of mud and straw thatched homes.

Czech President Petr Pavel, a former senior NATO official, expects to hear "strong language" about long-term support for Ukraine during the military alliance's summit next month along with an acknowledgement of the importance of having Ukraine as a member.

Pavel, in an interview with RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service on June 14 that also covered the state of Ukraine’s military and reconstruction, said the support expressed for Ukraine when NATO leaders gather on July 11-12 in Vilnius, Lithuania -- with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy expected to be present -- will highlight the significance of the event.

"What I expect is really strong language when it comes to long-term support of Ukraine. I see a number of countries agreeing on a long-term plan of support to Ukraine that will not be based on one-off contributions but on a carefully planned long-term procedure," Pavel said during the interview at the Prague headquarters of the U.S. government-funded broadcaster.

When President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian officials said one of his justifications was concern Ukraine was moving toward joining the military alliance.

WATCH: Czech President Petr Pavel says NATO's July summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, should offer Ukraine "clear language" about its future membership in the military alliance once the conflict with Russia is over.

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While post-Soviet countries such as Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova have sought for decades to distance themselves from Moscow, all they received were vague promises that fell far short of a pledge of accession.

That has all changed with the war in Ukraine, and Zelenskiy has pressed NATO over membership, saying recently his country is "ready to join" and the alliance must make a decision about Ukrainian membership at the summit.

Pavel, whose country joined NATO in March 1999, said that while the accession process cannot start when a country is still at war, he would welcome "clear language" about future membership once the war is over.

"I strongly believe that all the leaders will understand that having Ukraine on board -- both in NATO and EU -- is probably the only guarantee [of] how to ensure stability in this region, how to make both NATO and EU stronger, and how to keep Russia and its aggressive policies at bay," he said.

He said he has heard two scenarios about how NATO will proceed on the question of Ukrainian membership. One is to use guarantees like those provided to Finland between the initial move to accession and its ratification in April.

Another would be akin to the security guarantees that NATO offers Israel, he said, predicting that the end result probably will depend on how much countries will be willing to commit.

"If we just put on paper what we already are doing for Ukraine and make it a kind of a guarantee, including the long-term plan, it sounds like a guarantee to me," he said.

As a chairman of the NATO Military Committee, Pavel visited Ukraine at least three times and observed the progress the Ukrainian military was making. That progress has only sped up since the war began in February 2022, he said.

He said that if it were a member of the alliance today, the Ukrainian military would be "without any doubt the most experienced military in NATO." He said that in technical and procedural terms, the Ukrainian military will very soon will be ready for NATO membership.

Pavel added, however, that there is a disadvantage to having such diverse equipment now in its arsenal, and when the war ends there will have to be a "stabilization and unification of equipment." But he called this "a technical issue" that is overshadowed by the determination of Ukrainian soldiers.

Asked to assess the first days of Ukraine's counteroffensive, Pavel said he would call it "shaping operations," as he believes the "true counteroffensive" has not yet begun.

Shifting to Ukraine's EU membership aspirations, Pavel noted that he has already said he sees Ukraine as a future member and would link membership to postwar reconstruction.

The accession period for any aspirant country requires the candidate to meet successive goals that can be used within the reconstruction process, he said. The Czech Republic has already started a conversation on how it can offer its expertise and resources in terms of reconstruction, and Pavel says the earlier the projects start the better for both sides.

Asked about concerns that China would play an outsized role in the reconstruction of Ukraine, he said he suspects China will be more active during that phase than it was in trying to use its influence on Russia to prevent the war.

"We will have to keep an eye on such an effort because it is clear that China will not do it from humanitarian reasons, but simply to get influence and control."

He said he regretted that China didn't take a more active role from the very beginning -- on one hand, discouraging Russia from continuing aggression, while one the other, using its weight to come up with viable peace proposals.

"China didn't take that chance. I believe that China is behaving in their own interest," he said. "They are using this conflict…to get a stronger position globally."

With reporting by Nataliya Sedleyska of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) says two of its members have died in separate incidents in Iranian Kurdistan amid clashes in the region.

The IRGC, which has been involved in operations against individuals they have deemed "suspicious" and those accused of killing Sajjad Amiri, a Basij paramilitary member, acknowledged the deaths on June 14.

The IRGC's Kermanshah Province branch said Mehdi Shah Maleki died in a "confrontation with a suspicious individual" in the city of Eslamabad-e-Gharb. It did not provide further details on the killing but added that two other IRGC members were also injured by gunfire.

The IRGC claims that the "suspicious individual" was arrested, but Hengaw, a Norway-based group that monitors rights violations in Iran's Kurdish regions, said the IRGC “has not been successful in arresting anyone and has fired indiscriminately at residential homes.”

The Tasnim News Agency, which is affiliated with the IRGC, claimed that the identities of two suspects in Amiri's murder are "known" and that one of them had been convicted of previous crimes and had failed to return to prison after the end of a leave granted for a family visit.

In a separate incident, Hengaw reported that an IRGC member was killed in an armed confrontation between IRGC forces and members of the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) on June 13 in the vicinity of the city of Sarvabad.

IRGC ground forces announced the "complete cleansing" on June 14 of the Kowsalan heights in the city of Sarvabad from those whom the IRGC has labeled "counter-revolutionaries."

At the time, the IRGC did not mention any casualties in these confrontations.

Two Kurdish news sites reported that IRGC forces "shelled" the area and that last week, IRGC forces used drones to shell areas around the mountain of Shahu in the cities of Ravansar, Paveh, and Sarvabad in Kermanshah and Kurdistan provinces.

Iran has been roiled in recent months by nationwide protests sparked by the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini while she was being held in police custody for allegedly wearing a head scarf improperly.

The protests started in Amini’s hometown of Saghez in Iran's Kurdistan region and spread to dozens of cities and towns across Iran.

The wave of protests and the government crackdown that followed have left scores of demonstrators dead and seen thousands detained.

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

The Russian State Duma has approved on its first reading a bill banning surgical and legal gender reassignment in the latest move by lawmakers to promote so-called "family values." The bill, whose initial reading was approved by Russia's lower house on June 14, must go through two more readings in the State Duma and then be approved by parliament's upper chamber, the Federation Council, before being signed into law by President Vladimir Putin, who has publicly lambasted the idea of gender reassignment. The bill is the latest among numerous conservative moves by the Kremlin since Russia started its ongoing invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

Residents of Tehran are reporting a fifth consecutive day of water cuts despite government claims that a shortage, which last year sparked demonstrations in many areas of the country, had been resolved.

Energy Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian said on June 13 that, while the issue had been taken care of, residents should conserve water as much as possible until levels return to normal in the near term. The ministry has said a large mass of rock and mud ended up on the bed of the Karaj River because of a landslide and subsequent flooding last week, cutting off the water connection to Tehran and Karaj.

The news website Entekhab, however, reported that residents from various areas in Tehran, including Aryashahr, Sattarkhan, Gisha, Ashrafi Esfahani, Haft Tir, Talghani, Gholhak, and Narmak, said they were still experiencing water cuts.

The website also criticized the government for failing to explain the situation.

A source within the Energy Ministry was quoted by the Tehran-based news site Khabar Online as saying that the delay in restoring water to the capital was due to the high turbidity of the water in the Amir Kabir Dam following the landslide.

The source added that reducing the turbidity -- caused by particles in the water -- will be a gradual and time-consuming process and that water cuts will continue "in a managed manner" in the coming days.

Diminishing water supplies are seen as an existential threat to Iran, where poor water management, drought, and corruption-ridden infrastructure projects have contributed to water scarcity.

Mohammad Reza Bakhtiari, the former CEO of Tehran Water and Wastewater, says that while "about one-fifth of the urban drinking water is wasted due to a worn-out water supply network," officials keep saying the solution to the crisis in Tehran is "conservation by consumers."

The situation mirrors that in many cities across the country where water shortages -- and protests over the crisis -- are becoming more commonplace.

Experts say climate change has amplified the droughts and floods plaguing Iran and that their intensity and frequency threaten food security.

The Iranian Meteorological Organization has estimated that 97 percent of the country is experiencing drought to some degree.

Mismanagement by authorities has also been cited as a leading cause for the water crisis.

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

Media reports in Almaty on June 14 said that five patients at the Central Hospital in Kazakhstan's largest city had become HIV-positive via tainted blood transfusions. The Almaty city health directorate said a special commission was established on June 2 to investigate the situation. This is not the first case of HIV spreading in a hospital in Kazakhstan. More than 50 children became HIV-positive via tainted blood transfusions in 2006 in the South Kazakhstan region. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kazakh Service, click here.

Pristina has accused Serbian forces of "kidnapping" three police officers in the predominantly Serb northern part of Kosovo, where tensions have been running high for weeks over the installation of ethnic Albanian mayors in the region.

Kosovar police said on June 14 that the three officers went missing during a patrol aimed at preventing the illegal use of roads for smuggling.

Kosovar Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla accused Serbia of "entering the territory of Kosovo and kidnapping" the three policemen.

"Our police officers were undoubtedly located deep in the territory of the Republic of Kosovo, at a static checkpoint, where they were performing their regular duties," he wrote on Facebook.

Reports on the incident in Serbian media said the officers were in Serbian territory when they were arrested. Serbian state television cited sources as saying that members of the Serbian police anti-terrorist group had located and arrested them.

Petar Petkovic, the head of the Serbian government office for Kosovo, disputed the location of the arrest, telling a news conference in Belgrade that it took place in Gnjilica, a village located a few kilometers from the border, and that Serbia was willing to accept an international investigation into the arrest.

Kosovo later moved to increase border controls and decided to stop vehicles with Serbian license plates from entering the territory of Kosovo. Government spokesman Perparim Kryeziu confirmed to RFE/RL that the ban had been implemented. He said it was "for security reasons" and would continue while the situation is being assessed.

"The next actions will be taken based on the recommendations to law enforcement institutions," said Kryeziu.

Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti demanded the release of the officers, saying they had been arrested 300 meters inside Kosovo.

"The entry of Serbian forces into the territory of Kosovo is aggression and aimed at escalation and destabilization," Kurti wrote on Facebook.

He added that Kosovo suspects they were kidnapped by the Serbian Army "clearly as Serbia's revenge for yesterday's arrest of notorious criminal Millun Millenkovic-Lunet, who is one of the leaders of organized crime and smuggling."

Milenkovic-Lune is one of the leaders of criminal groups "that have been terrorizing our citizens for years, attacking members of the Kosovo Police and the institutions of the Republic of Kosovo," Svecla said on June 13 as he announced the arrest.

Svecla said Milenkovic-Lune was the main organizer of an attack two weeks ago on KFOR forces and the Kosovar police in Zvecan. The attack occurred amid clashes between peacekeepers and Serbs after the ethnic Albanian mayors took office following a local election that Serbs boycotted.

The ethnic Albanian mayors were installed with the help of Kosovar police in three towns with an overwhelming ethnic Serb majority -- Zvecan, Leposaviq, and Zubin Potok -- following by-elections in April with a turnout of under 3.5 percent amid the Serb boycott.

Kurti, who has been under pressure from key Western supporters of Kosovo’s independence, on June 13 presented a five-point plan -- including fresh elections -- that he said would contribute to calming the tensions in northern Kosovo.

Holding new elections is a request of the international community, which condemned the decision of the Kosovo authorities to forcibly take over municipal buildings in the north.

The United States and European Union have called on Kurti to withdraw the mayors, remove special police used to install them, and uphold a 2013 deal for an association of autonomous Serb municipalities in the region.

With reporting by Reuters

The Bishkek City Court has rejected an appeal filed by Salkynai Alimbaeva, the wife of jailed Kyrgyz opposition politician Ravshan Jeenbekov, against her pretrial detention. Alimbaeva was arrested in late May on charges related to the alleged illegal purchase of two parcels of land in Bishkek last year. Alimbaeva insists that the charges are ungrounded. Alimbaeva's husband was arrested along with more than 20 opposition politicians, activists, and journalists in October last year over their protest against a controversial border deal with Uzbekistan. They were accused of planning riots, a charge they reject as politically motivated. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, click here.

Ukraine's High Anti-Corruption Court on June 14 sentenced former Kyiv judge Mykola Chaus to 10 years in prison after finding him guilty of taking a bribe. The court also ruled to confiscate Chaus' property and barred him from taking posts in the judicial system for three years. Chaus has denied the charges and his lawyers said they will appeal it. Chaus fled Ukraine in 2016 after a probe was launched against him. In 2021, he was "abducted" in Moldova and brought to Ukraine. Investigative journalists said at the time that Ukraine's intelligence service was involved in the "abduction," which Kyiv has denied. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, click here.

Kazakh parliament's lower chamber, the Mazhilis, approved a bill on June 14 on returning financial assets illegally transferred to foreign banks. Parliament's upper chamber, the Senate, has to approve the legislation in order for President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev to sign it into law. The bill was initiated by Toqaev as part of reforms launched following violently dispersed anti-government protests that shook the nation in January 2022, which removed Toqaev's predecessor Nursultan Nazarbaev's clan from the political scene. Many in Kazakhstan are skeptical about the bill, as Toqaev and many members of his government are former members of Nazarbaev's team. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kazakh Service, click here.

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Mariya Gabriel has called statements about Moscow's ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russian Ambassador to Sofia Eleonora Mitrofanova "propaganda and disinformation" that are "unacceptable and inappropriate." It was the first public statement by the former EU commissioner, who took over Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry last week. The statement comes a day after Mitrofanova publicly said Bulgaria is "drawn into the conflict" by supplying Ukraine with ammunition or by "the possible dispatch of Bulgarian military units to the war zone," an issue that has never been on the agenda for Bulgarian authorities. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service, click here.

A student has shot and seriously wounded a teacher in an incident at an elementary school in the Bosnian town of Lukavac, a little more than a month after a teen in neighboring Serbia killed eight fellow students and a security guard at a school.

Police in the northeastern city said a child under the age of 14 had been apprehended in the shooting on June 14 and the situation was under control.

"There are no children [wounded], so I ask parents to control their panic. The perpetrator is a minor child and he was immediately arrested. A difficult day," Lukavac Mayor Edin Delic said on Facebook.

The Tuzla Canton Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP TK) said the shooting at the school was reported around 9 a.m. local time. Police, it said, responded immediately and upon arrival found the suspect, shell casings, and "other items."

Officials did not name the wounded teacher, but his father told local broadcaster N1 that it was his son, English teacher and deputy principal Ismet Osmanovic, who was shot. According to local media, the Tuzla University Clinical Center said in a statement the victim suffered a neck wound and was undergoing surgery.

Ahmed Omerovic, the education minister for Tuzla, told reporters that the suspect was a former student who had recently left.

"The child was transferred to another school from the start of the second semester as a result of a disciplinary measure," Omerovic said, adding that June 14 was the last day of classes.

Mass shootings are comparatively rare in the Balkans, where gun ownership is relatively high despite strict gun laws. The region is awash with illegal weapons following wars and unrest in the 1990s during the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia.

Security Minister Nenad Nesic said he has requested "urgent action by all competent authorities in order to prevent tragedies like this."

"If we are not able to protect children, what is the purpose of our power?" he said.

"It's obvious that the atmosphere of strife, conflict, and verbal conflict, which was created in society for years, is taking its toll," Nesic added.

With reporting by AFP

Uzbekistan's Emergencies Ministry said on June 14 that an explosion at a copper-pipe factory in Tashkent killed one person and injured six. According to the ministry, the blast in the Uzbek capital's Chilonzor district was caused by a gas leak. As a result of the explosion, the roof of the workshop with an area of 50 square meters collapsed, the ministry said. Rescue work continues as officials and representatives of the Interior Ministry, the National Guard, the Health Department of Tashkent, and the Emergencies Ministry remain at the site. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Uzbek Service, click here.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov says one of his senior military commanders is alive and well, contradicting reports that he had been wounded or killed in Ukraine.

Kadyrov said the commander, Adam Delimkhanov, is "alive and well and not even wounded" in a post on Telegram on June 14 that came after he said he had been unable to contact him.

Delimkhanov is a relative of Kadyrov and a close associate of the Kremlin-backed authoritarian ruler of the North Caucasus region of Chechnya. He is also a member of the Russian State Duma, which reported earlier that he had been wounded.

Kadyrov initially wrote on Telegram that he had been unable to contact Delimkhanov following a report from political observer Kyrylo Sazonov, who said he had been killed by Ukraine's Banderlohy special unit in the city of Prymorsk in the Zaporizhzhya region. Sazonov joined the Ukrainian armed forces and is fighting against occupying Russian troops.

But hours later, Kadyrov issued the post that said Delimkhanov was alive and uninjured.

Kadyrov's post included a photo of Kadyrov, a person who appeared to be Delimkhanov, and two other top Chechen officials sitting in front of a large map. It is not clear when and where the photo was taken.

Despite the Russian parliament's reports that Delimkhanov was wounded, State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said earlier that he talked with Delimkhanov, who "is alive and well."

The commander of Chechnya's Akhmat special task military unit, Apti Alaudinov, stated that Delimkhanov is "more alive than all of those alive, and is currently in Chechnya."

A day earlier, reports said that Delimkhanov held talks with the governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, and representatives of the Defense Ministry and National Guard and agreed to send the West-Akhmat military unit of Chechnya to the region to fight against the activities of Ukrainian saboteur groups.

Ukrainian authorities have launched a probe against Delimkhanov, accusing him of taking part in Russian efforts to change Ukraine's state borders and for justifying Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine.

Delimkhanov is also among Russian officials under Ukrainian sanctions imposed for their roles in Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022.

Delimkhanov has been mentioned by investigators in Russia as a possible person behind the assassination of outspoken Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov, who was gunned down in Moscow in 2015.

Many in Russia believe that Delimkhanov was also responsible for the killing of Chechen warlord and former Federal Security Service special-task unit commander Movladi Baisarov, who was shot dead in Moscow in 2006, as well as the killings of brothers Sulim, Dzhabrail, and Ruslan Yamadayev, who were critics of Kadyrov. They were assassinated in the early 2000s.

Last year, Delimkhanov made headlines following a public outcry after he openly threatened to "cut off the heads" of brothers Abubakar and Ibragim Yangulbayev and members of their family. The brothers are prominent Chechen opposition activists and bloggers.

Delimkhanov, a former Chechen separatist who switched sides to Moscow along with Kadyrov and much of Chechnya's present leadership, has taken a prominent role in Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, commanding Chechen forces in Mariupol in the conflict's early days last year.

With reporting by TASS and Reuters

UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi has delayed a planned trip to Ukraine's Russian-held Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant until it is safer to travel, a senior Ukrainian government official said on June 14. Grossi had been expected to visit the facility on June 14 following talks in Kyiv on June 13, but a diplomatic source said the visit would be delayed by "some hours." "He's waiting to be able to travel safely," said the senior Ukrainian government official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity. The official did not say when Grossi would arrive at the plant in southeastern Ukraine. To read the original story by Reuters, click here.

The Moscow City Court sentenced activist Vitaly Koltsov to six years in prison on June 14 after a jury found him guilty of attacking a police vehicle with two Molotov cocktails. Last week, the jury found Koltsov not guilty of attempting to murder 12 Russian National Guard officers and recommended a lenient punishment for the arson attack. The charge against Koltsov stemmed from him throwing the Molotov cocktails at a bus that was parked near Moscow's Teatralnaya Square after it brought National Guard troops to the site to quell anti-government rallies last year. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

UFA, Russia -- A former regional leader of jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny's team has been sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison on charges of extremism as Russia continues its brutal crackdown on civil society and dissent amid its ongoing war against Ukraine.

The Kirov district court in the capital of the Bashkortostan region, Ufa, sentenced Lilia Chanysheva on June 14 after finding her guilty of creating an extremist community, inciting extremism, and establishing an organization that violates citizens' rights.

Chanysheva's co-defendant, activist Rustem Mulyukov was handed a 2 1/2-year prison term on the charge of taking part in the activities of an extremist organization.

After the judge pronounced the verdict, the 41-year-old Chanysheva, who has insisted that her case is politically motivated and has maintained her innocence, expressed thanks to her supporters, urged her countrymen to continue to battle against authoritarian leaders, saying the situation "depends on all of us."

Afterward, people in the courtroom shouted, "Thank you, Lilia!"

Chanysheva's husband, Almaz Gatin, said it was "painful" for him to listen to the court ruling, "but that pain focuses me to continue to fight for my spouse's freedom."

"We will fight. This sentence will be certainly appealed in all possible instances. We will do everything for Lilia's full release," Gatin said.

Chanysheva's lawyer Sergei Makarenko told RFE/RL that her client's sentence was "illegal, ungrounded, and purely political."

"Sooner or later, the sentence will be cancelled and Lilia Chanysheva will be exonerated. I am deeply confident about that because of my years of professional experience," Makarenko said.

Chanysheva was arrested in November 2021 and went on trial that was held behind closed doors on March 1.

She headed the local unit of Navalny's network of regional campaign groups until his team disbanded them after a Moscow prosecutor went to court to have them branded "extremist."

The request was accepted, effectively outlawing the group.

Chanysheva's defense team said at the time that her arrest was the first since the movement was banned. The charges appear to be retroactive since the organization she worked for disbanded before it had been legally classified as extremist.

"This sentence is a crime, and all those involved in fabricating this case will be punished sooner or later," Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh wrote on Twitter, while Navalny aide Lyubov Sobol said President Vladimir Putin had "put one more hostage in a penal colony."

Rostislav Murzagulov, the former chairman of Bashkortostan's Public Chamber, a group involved in establishing a dialogue between society and authorities, told RFE/RL that Chanysheva was sentenced because she "is a sincere person," who refused to accept Putin's "unwritten deal," according to which, the society "had agreed to allow Putin to become a tsar in exchange of money."

Murzagulov stressed that Chanysheva was one of several Kremlin opponents recently sentenced to lengthy prison terms for openly challenging Putin's policies. The list includes Ilya Yashin, Vladimir Kara-Murza, and others, he said.

Navalny himself has been in prison since February 2021 after he was arrested the month before upon returning to Russia from Germany where he had been undergoing treatment for a near-fatal poisoning with a Novichok-type nerve agent that he says was ordered by Putin.

The Kremlin has denied any role in Navalny's poisoning.

Several opposition leaders and associates of Navalny have been charged with establishing an extremist group. Many have fled the country under pressure from the Russian authorities.

Russian missile strikes killed at least six people overnight in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa and in the eastern region of Donetsk as Moscow continues its intense aerial attacks on its neighbor.

Russia has intensified its air attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks as Kyiv prepared to launch its long-awaited counteroffensive to reclaim territory occupied by Russian forces. Last week, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged the operation was under way, with Moscow responding by ratcheting up further its strikes with cruise missiles and drones targeting major cities around the country.

At least three people were killed and 13 wounded in a Russian missile strike on Odesa, the Ukrainian military's southern command said early on June 14.

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 in Ukraine, click here.

Russia fired four Kalibr missiles at the Black Sea port, hitting warehouses, a business center, a school, a residential complex, and a downtown store, the military said, adding that more people could be under the rubble. It said that two of the four missiles had been shot down.

The three victims were workers at a retail store warehouse, the military reported.

In Donetsk, three people were killed by Russian missiles in Kramatorsk and Kostyantynivka, regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Facebook.

"Two people were killed and two were wounded in Kramatorsk, one was killed and one wounded in Kostyantynivka," Kyrylenko said.

"Missiles launched by the Russians hit private homes and caused significant damage: in Kramatorsk, they destroyed at least five houses and damaged two dozen more, in Kostyantynivka -- two destroyed and 55 others damaged," he said.

The Ukrainian air defense said on June 14 that the Russian strike targeted military and civilian infrastructure facilities with air and sea-based cruise missiles as well as Iranian-made kamikaze drones.

"From the Black Sea, the enemy attacked with four Kalibr cruise missiles in the direction of Odesa. Three rockets were shot down, one hit a civilian objective," the air defense said in a statement.

Ukrainian air defenses also shot down nine out of 10 drones, the statement said.

Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region also came under attack for a second day in a row, regional Governor Serhiy Lysak said on June 14.

IN PHOTOS: Journalists were given access to the newly liberated Ukrainian village of Neskuchne on June 13, confirming that Kyiv's forces have made modest gains in the early phase of their counteroffensive against Moscow's forces.

• Reuters

Journalists were given access to the newly liberated Ukrainian village of Neskuchne on June 13, confirming that Kyiv's forces have made modest gains in the early phase of their counteroffensive against Moscow's forces.

Three drones were shot down by air defenses, Lysak said, adding that Nikopol was shelled by Russian heavy artillery. There were no immediate reports of casualties, Lysak wrote on Telegram.

On June 13, 12 people were killed and 13 more, including three children, were wounded in a Russian missile strike on a five-story apartment building in the Dinipropetrovsk city of Kryviy Rih.

Meanwhile, Rafael Grossi, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, postponed a visit to the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine scheduled for June 13, an unnamed senior Ukrainian government official told Reuters. "He's waiting to be able to travel safely," the official said, after Grossi met with Zelenskiy on June 12 in Kyiv.

Grossi told journalists after his meeting with Zelenskiy that the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant faces "a relatively dangerous situation" from both the Kakhovka dam burst last week and the start of Ukraine’s counteroffensive.

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Meanwhile, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine was making progress in its counteroffensive and predicted NATO leaders will increase military assistance to Kyiv when they meet next month.

Stoltenberg made the comments as he met at the White House with President Joe Biden on June 13.

Stoltenberg's visit to Washington came as Ukraine attempts to seize back territory as part of a long-awaited counteroffensive against the Russian invaders.

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"The support that we are providing together to Ukraine is now making a difference on the battlefield as we speak because the Ukrainians have launched the offensive," he said. "They are making advances; they are gaining ground."

Biden reiterated that the U.S. commitment to NATO was rock-solid and that NATO allies would "be building on that momentum" when they meet in Vilnius next month.

As the meeting took place, the U.S. State Department announced a new $325 million package of ammunition and heavy weaponry to top up Ukraine's supplies.

The Ukrainian military said that seven settlements had been liberated in the southern and eastern regions of the country and further advances had been made in Bakhmut amid heavy fighting.

"Both defensive and offensive fierce fighting is ongoing in the east and south of our nation. We have certain gains, implementing our plans, moving forward," said Valeriy Zaluzhniy, commander in chief of Ukrainian forces.

The claims could not be independently confirmed, and Moscow has not acknowledged any Ukrainian gains.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin who has been one of the most virulent defenders of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, on June 14 said that Moscow had "no constraints" to prevent it from destroying Western undersea communications cables following what he said was the West's "proven complicity" in the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines last year.

The Washington Post reported earlier this month that the United States had learned of a Ukrainian plan to attack the pipelines three months before they were damaged by the underwater explosions.

The Ukrainian government has repeatedly denied any involvement in the explosions. Russia has also denied it was behind the blasts.

"If we proceed from the proven complicity of Western countries in blowing up the Nord Streams, then we have not even moral constraints left to prevent us from destroying the ocean floor cable communications of our enemies," Medvedev, who is now deputy head of Russia's Security Council, said on Telegram.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and dpa

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on June 13 after a deadly Russian missile attack on his hometown that foreign countries, including Ukraine's partners, should take measures against companies that help Russia circumvent sanctions and supply it with missile components.

"Unfortunately, Russia is still able to receive critical components for the production of missiles, which are created by companies from different countries of the world, in particular, companies from some partner countries," Zelenskiy said.

One of the missiles that hit Zelenskiy's hometown, Kryviy Rih, had about 50 components -- mainly microelectronics -- that were produced in other countries, Zelenskiy said without naming the countries.

Ukraine's partners have a list of companies that supply Russia with components, he said, adding that Kyiv was "waiting for conclusions and quick actions that will stop the Russian missile terror."

Ukraine has implemented sanctions against all companies in Russia that produce missiles, he said, calling for complete sanctions at the global level against the companies and a strengthening of export controls to the maximum extent possible.

A company or individual who acts as an intermediary or works with Russia so that "terrorists can continue to blow up residential buildings and kill people" deserve an appropriate response from the world, Zelenskiy said. "The partners have all the information about this."

The strike on Kryviy Rih killed 11 people and injured about 30 more. Some of the missiles launched at Ukraine early on June 13 were shot down by air defenses.

Zelenskiy said it would be cheaper to block the supply routes of components for missiles than to constantly spend resources on air defense.

The United States has imposed multiple rounds of sanctions on firms and individuals accused of procuring equipment used to make drones that Russia has purchased from Iran but has imposed fewer sanctions to curb the procurement of missile technology.

The United States on October 19 blacklisted one individual and two entities that the Treasury Department said procured electronics used in fighter jets, missiles, and other weapons systems.

The designated Russian network procured both military and sensitive dual-use technologies from U.S. manufacturers and supplied them to Russian end-users, the department said.

The Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine faces "a relatively dangerous situation" from both the Kakhovka dam breach last week and the start of a Ukrainian counteroffensive, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said on June 13.

Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), spoke to journalists in Kyiv after a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and just before leaving for the plant.

"I am very concerned," Grossi said. "Quite close to the plant there is active combat."

This increases the mathematical probability that the plant could be hit, he said, adding that the IAEA was "trying to make our presence as visible and as impactful as possible to avoid a nuclear accident."

The rupture of the dam downstream from the plant reduced the supply of water in a reservoir used to refill a pond that the plant uses to keep its six reactors from overheating.

The reservoir can no longer refill the pond because of its falling water level, but the pond can be replenished using deep underground wells, Ukrainian nuclear authorities have said.

Enerhoatom, Ukraine's nuclear energy company, said on June 13 that the level of the pond was stable and that the water was high enough to meet the power plant's needs.

Grossi said that while there was no immediate danger, it is still a serious situation.

"It is a step in the wrong direction," he said. "It is yet another step into the weakening of the safety net that one has in any nuclear power plant."

He said his visit to the facility, Europe's largest nuclear power plant, would provide a more accurate assessment of the risk and allow his team to gain clarity about the water supply to the cooling system and the level of water in the dam's reservoir.

Each side has accused the other of sabotaging the dam, leading to catastrophic flooding. The Ukrainian Security Service has opened an investigation into war crimes and ecocide over the rupture of the dam.

The dam and the nuclear plant have been under Russian control since shortly after Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The power plant has been shut down but remains connected to Ukraine's power grid so that it has electricity for internal needs and to run cooling systems.

Grossi said there was no sign Russian forces had moved heavy military equipment to the site of the power plant, but that his visit would aim to clarify that.

"We do not have any indication at this point, but it could not be excluded," he said.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and dpa

The U.S. Defense Department has announced an additional $325 million in security assistance "to meet Ukraine’s critical security and defense needs." The authorization is the 40th drawdown of equipment from Defense Department inventories for Ukraine since August 2021 and includes "key capabilities to aid Ukraine’s efforts to retake its sovereign territory and support Ukraine's air defenders," the department said in a statement on June 13.

Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti on June 13 presented a five-point plan that includes the prospect of fresh local elections in northern Kosovo and a reduction in the presence of special police to defuse tensions in the region.

Kurti's announcement at a news conference came as Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla announced the arrest of a suspect in an attack on KFOR members two weeks ago.

Svecla identified the man as Milun Milenkovic-Lune and said he was the main organizer of the attack on KFOR forces and the Kosovar police in Zvecan.

Milenkovic-Lune is one of the leaders of criminal groups "that have been terrorizing our citizens for years, attacking members of the Kosovo Police and the institutions of the Republic of Kosovo," Svecla said.

Three Kosovar police officers were injured during the operation to arrest Milenkovic-Lune, he said.

Tensions flared earlier on June 13 when a group of Serbs gathered in North Mitrovica to protest the arrest. Kosovar police in riot gear were present, and soldiers with the KFOR peacekeeping force were also in the vicinity.

The Serbs dispersed after the additional forces of Kosovar police began to withdraw. According to RFE/RL journalists, this was requested by a member of the U.S. KFOR contingent.

Some 30 peacekeepers and 52 Serbs were injured in clashes two weeks ago after ethnic Albanian mayors took office following elections that local Serbs boycotted.

The ethnic Albanian mayors were installed with the help of Kosovar police in three towns with overwhelming ethnic Serbian majorities -- Zvecan, Leposaviq, and Zubin Potok -- following by-elections in April with a turnout of under 3.5 percent amid the Serbs' boycott.

Kurti, who has been under pressure from key Western supporters of Kosovo's independence, said the five-point plan would contribute to calming the tensions.

He said he met with the ambassadors of the United States, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy to convey the proposal, which he had previously conveyed to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

Kosovo will "coordinate with all the actors and announce early elections in four municipalities in the north," Kurti told a press conference after meeting with the five ambassadors, whose countries form the Quint group.

Holding new elections is a request of the international community, which condemned the decision of the Kosovar authorities to forcibly take over municipal buildings in the north.

The United States and European Union have called on Kurti to withdraw the mayors, remove special police used to install them, and uphold a 2013 deal for an association of autonomous Serbian municipalities in the region.

Kurti said that "violent (Serbian) groups have been withdrawn from Kosovo territory [and therefore] the presence of Kosovo police troops in three municipal buildings will be downsized."

He said he had presented his plan to EU and U.S. envoys and called for a follow-up meeting between Serbian and Kosovo officials in Brussels.

Officials in Serbia have demanded as part of EU- and U.S.-mediated talks over the past decade that Pristina fulfill the 2013 Brussels agreement to establish an association of Serbian municipalities to represent the Serb-majority communities.

Kurti said nothing during his press conference about setting up the association, which would ensure greater autonomy for the Serb-majority area. He has resisted implementing the deal to create the association, citing fears that it would spur the region to seek to rejoin Serbia.

With reporting by Reuters

Men from Central Asia are being forced to support Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine in a penal colony in the Russian city of Samara by doing things such as producing military equipment for the country's armed forces, two letters obtained by RFE/RL from inmates at the colony show.

One of the letters was written by Zafar Yakubov, an ethnic Tajik born in Uzbekistan who for many years lived in Russia’s Republic of Tatarstan before he was convicted in April 2018 of being a member of the Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamic group, which is banned in Russia. The second letter is anonymous but also mentions Yakubov, RFE/RL reported on June 13.

Yakubov, who is recognized by the Memorial human rights group as a political prisoner, says in his letter that the guards at the penitentiary force inmates from Central Asia to work at the plant inside the penal colony in programs on producing military equipment for the Russian armed forces involved in the war in Ukraine.

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"Last year, the colony's administration sent dozens of citizens of Central Asian countries...to the special military operation (the term officially used in Russia for the war in Ukraine). After the administration was unable to continue that, it started forcing citizens of Uzbekistan to support the special military operation by making them produce the state defense program's outputs. Those who refuse to work are being placed in inhumane conditions," Yakubov’s letter says, adding that such inmates are usually placed in punitive solitary confinement.

The second letter says Yakubov was placed in solitary confinement several times when the terms for his wife's visit to the penitentiary were set.

Yakubov's wife, Alsu Nasybullina, confirmed to RFE/RL that she has been unable to see her husband for a long time as he was placed in solitary confinement for what she called "ungrounded reasons" ahead of each visit.

In his letter, Yakubov asks Russian prosecutors to "investigate the cases of illegal use of the citizens of Uzbekistan in works related to the war in Ukraine and humiliation of their dignity by Russian officials, and to hold them responsible," adding that "officials of Central Asian nations must be informed about the situation."