Lithuania is seeking up to 120 million euros ($130 million) in compensation from Belarus, accusing its eastern neighbor of orchestrating the immigration of thousands of people, mainly from Africa and the Middle East. Since 2021, when the European Union imposed sanctions on Belarus and its longtime authoritarian ruler, Aleksandr Lukashenka, the number of people seeking to cross into Lithuania and enter the EU has dramatically increased. The Foreign Ministry said on April 6 that it has handed over a diplomatic note to Belarus, demanding compensation. Since mid-2021, Lithuania has refused entry to a total of 20,000 migrants from Belarus. To read the original story by AP, click here.

Protesters took to the streets of the Shahr-e Ziba neighborhood west of the Iranian capital, Tehran, late on April 5 to mark the birthday of Hamid Reza Ruhi, who was killed in the brutal state crackdown on anti-government protests sparked by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini following her detention by the morality police.

Ruhi, a 19-year-old university student, was reportedly shot dead near his home in Tehran on November 18.

Amateur videos posted online on April 5 showed protesters chanting antiestablishment slogans, including “Death to the dictator” and “Hamidreza is not dead, it is Seyed Ali [Khamenei] who is dead,” while also calling for “freedom, freedom.”

Women protesting Ruhr’s killing removed their mandatory head scarves while chanting “woman, life, freedom.”

Reports said the protesters honored Ruhi amid the heavy presence of security forces around his home. Some reports suggested there had been clashes between security forces and protesters.

Ruhi’s brother said on social media that security forces had removed photos of the young man that the family had installed in front of their house to commemorate his memory on what would have been his 20th birthday.

More than 500 people, including children, have been killed in Iran’s crackdown on antiestablishment protests, rights groups have reported. An estimated 20,000 have been arrested.

Iran's judiciary has warned of harsh sentences for those found guilty of crimes during the protests, and so far at least four people have been executed in connection with the unrest.

The protests that rocked the country for several months have become one of the biggest threats to the Islamic republic since the 1979 revolution.

Iranian leaders have blamed the country’s foreign enemies -- especially the United States and Israel -- for the unrest.

Official results published on April 6 confirmed a crushing defeat for Montenegro’s longtime leader Milo Djukanovic in last weekend's presidential election, signaling his departure from the small Balkan state’s political scene after more than 30 years in power. Economy expert and political novice Jakov Milatovic won the presidential runoff election held on April 2 with around 59 percent of the vote to Djukanovic's 41 percent, according to the final official results. Djukanovic led Montenegro to independence from much larger Serbia in 2006 and to NATO membership in 2017. To read the original story by AP, click here.

The U.S. government has charged an Estonian national with conspiracy related to the receipt of U.S.-made electronics by Russia's government and military that endangered citizens in Ukraine and the United States.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York unsealed an 18-count indictment against Andrei Shevlyakov on April 5, according to a press release issued by the office.

The 45-year-old, who was arrested on March 28 in Estonia, was on a U.S. list of banned importers and is alleged to have used front companies and fake names to skirt the restrictions.

“For more than a decade, the defendant has been acquiring sensitive electronics from U.S. manufacturers on behalf of the Russian government, in defiance of U.S. export controls,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace.

Shevlyakov is accused of procuring electronics, including radar components, from U.S. manufacturers on behalf of Russian defense contractors and government agencies. The indictment said that Shevlyakov's communications with Russia-based customers included explicit mention of "military" goods.

Shevlyakok allegedly operated an "intricate logistics operation" that required frequent smuggling trips by him and others across the Russian border to deliver the goods. A shipment bound for Estonia containing 130 kilograms of radio equipment was seized at the time of Shevlyakov's arrest, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Shevlyakov is also accused of attempting to procure computer-hacking software developed in the United States.

If convicted, Shevlyakov faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.

The United States and other countries maintain strict export controls limiting Russia's access to technology and other resources that can support its defense industry.

Shevlyakov was listed on the U.S. Commerce Department's “Entity List” designating individuals and companies barred from exporting items from the United States without a license in 2012.

A state actor's involvement in the explosions that damaged the Nord Stream pipelines under the Baltic Sea last year is the "absolute main scenario," although confirming identity will prove difficult, the Swedish prosecutor investigating the attacks said on April 6. The blasts in the Swedish zone of the pipeline occurred at a depth of 80 meters, which the Swedish prosecutor said made it complicated to investigate. "We believe it will be rather difficult to determine who did this," prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist told Reuters in a phone interview. To read the original story by Reuters, click here.

Three police officers have been killed in a shoot-out with an armed group in the Malgobek district of Russia's North Caucasus region of Ingushetia, independent news agencies reported on April 6. State media didn’t report on the casualties but said police this week raided a hideout of a group that had attacked a security checkpoint late on March 27. That incident prompted police to impose a so-called “counterterror operation regime” in the area, it said. To read the original story from RFE/RL’s Russian Service, click here.

Tajik prosecutors have brought new charges against prominent opposition lawyer Buzurgmehr Yorov, who is serving a 28-year prison term. The Buzurgmehr Foundation, an independent group that advocates for political prisoners in Tajikistan, said Yorov has recently been charged with fraud, punishable by up to 12 years in prison. The details of the new charges aren't known, and officials haven’t commented on the case. Yorov, 52, was jailed in 2015 on dubious charges, including fraud and insulting a government official. The U.S. State Department and rights groups have condemned Yorov's arrest. To read the original story from RFE/RL’s Tajik Service, click here.

Bilateral relations between Sweden and Hungary are at a low point, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, told a media briefing on April 6, calling on Stockholm to take steps to boost confidence. Finland and its neighbor Sweden applied together last year to join NATO, but Sweden's application has been held up by NATO members Turkey and Hungary. Hungary cites grievances over Swedish criticism of Orban's record on democracy and the rule of law. To read the original story by Reuters, click here.

Pakistani security forces killed eight insurgents in an overnight operation at a militant hideout near the Afghan border, the military said, and the shootout left one soldier dead and four wounded. According to a military statement on April 6, the shootout took place in the Shin Warsak area of South Waziristan, a district in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, where an intelligence-based operation was conducted. It said the dead militants were actively involved in attacks on security forces and killing innocent citizens. The military did not identify the militant group to which the slain insurgents belonged. To read the original story by AP, click here.

Russia deported 136 Kyrgyz nationals last week on charges of undermining the country’s migration rules, while some 100 others are being held at a detention center pending possible deportation, Kyrgyz authorities said on April 5. Migrant workers are often detained for failing to renew mandatory work and residency permits that require lengthy paperwork and medical checkups. Some migrants say they pay bribes to obtain the documents. Russia hosts hundreds of thousands of workers from Kyrgyzstan. To read the original story from RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, click here.

Ukraine's president has pushed for the formation of a coalition of Western powers to supply modern fighter aircraft to Kyiv and suggested that while his forces continue to control the battleground eastern city of Bakhmut, a withdrawal would be possible if it meant sparing Ukrainian soldiers' lives.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

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Speaking during a visit to Warsaw on April 5, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy noted Poland's role in convincing Western countries to provide battle tanks to Ukraine and suggested that a similar "planes coalition" could be formed.

Zelenskiy's comments came as his Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda, pledged to give Ukraine more updated Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets and Warsaw agreed to supply more defense equipment and military support to help Ukraine fend off invading Russian forces.

On top of the eight MiG-29s that have either been delivered to Ukraine or are on the way, Duda said that Poland is preparing to give six more, bringing the total to 14 aircraft.

"We assume they could be transferred soon," the Polish president said.

Duda's foreign policy adviser, Marcin Przydacz, said Poland would not decide soon on whether to send any of the U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets that Ukraine has consistently called on NATO to provide, however. There has been no agreement from Washington or other Western states who have provided military aid to Ukraine to send F-16s.

Zelenskiy did sign agreements for the supply of Polish "Rosomak armored personnel carriers, Rak self-propelled mortars, air-defense systems, in particular the very effective Peruns, MiGs, and other weapons that we badly need," he said at a news conference following talks with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

Turning to the intense battle for the city of Bakhmut in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, Zelenskiy said that Ukrainian forces continue to hold the city, despite Russian claims to have captured it.

• RFE/RL

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

"We are in Bakhmut and the enemy does not control it," he said. But he also indicated that a withdrawal of Ukrainian forces was a possibility.

"For me, the most important is not to lose our soldiers and, of course, if there is a moment of even hotter events and the danger we could lose our personnel because of encirclement -- of course, the corresponding correct decisions will be taken by generals there," Zelenskiy said.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Kremlin-connected businessman who controls the Wagner mercenary group, says he has seen no signs of Ukrainian forces withdrawing from Bakhmut.

"It must be said clearly that the enemy is not going anywhere," he said in a post on Telegram on April 6.

In an analysis of Zelenskiy's comments, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that while an expected Ukrainian spring offensive would reveal whether its defense of Bakhmut "is worth Ukrainian losses," the Ukrainian military continues to "clearly signal that Ukrainian forces are still not encircled and have the option to withdraw as necessary."

In its morning battleground update, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on April 6 that Russian forces were still trying to take full control of Bakhmut and were continuing to storm it. Both sides have incurred heavy losses during the monthslong battle for the city, despite questions about its strategic importance to the war.

According to the Ukrainian military command, Bakhmut as well as Avdiyivka, and Maryinka, two Ukrainian-held towns on the outskirts of Donetsk, remain at the epicenter of hostilities.

The authorities of the Donetsk region have been calling on residents to evacuate to safer regions, and there have been reports of the evacuations of children.

With reporting by Reuters

Top diplomats from Middle East rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia met in Beijing on April 6, pledging to work together to bring "security and stability" to their turbulent region following a surprise China-brokered deal. In a joint statement released after talks between Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the two sides vowed to continue to work together to improve ties. Tehran and Riyadh announced a Beijing-brokered agreement in March to restore relations that had been severed seven years ago when protesters in Iran attacked Saudi diplomatic missions.

Russian border patrol officers detained the pilot of a Ukrainian light aircraft that crashed in the southern Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, Russian state media said on April 5, quoting a statement from the Federal Security Service (FSB). "The aircraft, for unknown reasons, crashed near the settlement of Butovsk in the Bryansk region. The pilot (a citizen of Ukraine), who tried to escape to Ukrainian territory, was detained by a border patrol," the FSB was quoted as saying by state news agencies RIA Novosti and TASS. To read the original story by AFP, click here.

A 13-year-old Russian girl who was sent to an orphanage after her father was convicted of discrediting the Russian military has been picked up by her mother, the Kremlin children's rights commissioner said on April 5.

Maria Moskalyova was sent to the orphanage after drawing an anti-war sketch at school that led to the conviction of her father.

Children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova said Moskalyova was picked up from the orphanage by her mother just a day after saying she was looking for a foster family for the teenager.

Lvova-Belova said she had met the girl's mother, who had long been separated from her husband. The girl had previously refused to live with her mother but changed her mind, so the mother took her home, Lvova-Belova said.

The mother, Olga Sitchikhina, lives in the Tambov region with a 17-year-old daughter from another marriage.

The case brought against Moskalyova’s father, Aleksei Moskalyov, drew outrage from human rights organizations last week.

Moskalyov fled house arrest just before his sentencing hearing in the town of Yefremov south of Moscow. He was sentenced on March 28 in absentia to two years in prison after the court convicted him of "discrediting Russia's armed forces," a charge Russian authorities have been using against any criticism of the war in Ukraine.

Moskalyov, 54, was detained in Belarus two days later. A court in Yefremov is set on April 6 to consider a request by prosecutors to strip him of his parental rights.

According to his lawyer and supporters, the drawing by Moskalyov’s daughter depicted missiles flying over a Russian flag at a woman and child. The drawing also featured the words “No to war” and “Glory to Ukraine.”

The school called the police, and the girl was questioned. Moskalyov was fined and eventually prosecuted and convicted over his social media posts.

With reporting by AP

International police have shut down what they called "one of the world's largest" online markets dealing in millions of stolen identities and account details, Europol and U.S. officials said on April 5.

The global sweep targeting the Genesis Market, a website that the U.S. Treasury Department believes is located in Russia, resulted in about 120 arrests worldwide and involved 17 countries and was led by the FBI and the Dutch police, the EU's policing agency said.

Operation Cookie Monster, as the action was dubbed, was "an unprecedented law enforcement operation” that resulted in the takedown of Genesis Market, “one of the most dangerous marketplaces selling stolen account credentials to hackers worldwide," Europol said.

"This website has been seized" was the message that any users of the Genesis Market website saw when they tried to access it after the raids.

Suspects were targeted by law enforcement in Australia, Britain, Canada, the United States, and more than 10 countries in Europe.

Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) said police had arrested 24 people there in connection with the Genesis Market investigation. Another 17 people were arrested in the Netherlands.

"We assess that the Genesis is one of the most significant access marketplaces anywhere in the world," said Rob Jones, a top official with the NCA.

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement that many of the forum's users were arrested on April 3, and the investigation into Genesis is still ongoing.

Since its founding in 2018, Genesis Market offered access to data stolen from over 1.5 million compromised computers around the world containing more than 80 million account access credentials, the Justice Department statement said.

The market -- a “one-stop shop for account takeovers” -- was advertised on several predominantly Russian-speaking underground forums, the cybersecurity company Trellix said in a research report.

The U.S. Treasury Department also announced sanctions against Genesis Market on April 5. The sanctions block access to any bank accounts or other assets Genesis Market owns in U.S. jurisdiction and prohibit Americans from dealing with it.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

The U.S. State Department has blocked four Georgian judicial officials from entering the country due to their involvement in "significant corruption," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. Blinken named the officials as Mikheil Chinchaladze, Levan Murusidze, Irakli Shengelia, and Valerian Tsertsvadze. "These individuals abused their positions as court chairmen and members of Georgia's High Council of Justice, undermining the rule of law and the public’s faith in Georgia’s judicial system,” Blinken said in a statement on April 5. To read the original story by Reuters, click here.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar says Russian forces are carrying out "uncontrolled, barbaric" industrial-scale logging in Ukraine that will "inevitably lead to catastrophic consequences for the environment."

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

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Much of the forestland being destroyed by Russian forces and entrepreneurs in occupied areas of the Zaporizhzhya, Kherson, Donetsk, and other regions was planted to prevent wind and water erosion while also providing recreational benefits, Malyar said on April 5.

In the last 10 days of March, the defense official said, convoys of Russian trucks were reported to have removed freshly cut logs from areas near the occupied city of Mariupol in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.

Malyar also said that in some occupied territories, the Russian military command had forbidden local farmers from working in the fields, which she said would "probably lead to a disruption of this year's spring planting campaign" and leave farmland fallow.

In March, Ukrainian Environmental Minister Ruslan Strilets said the country's forests were suffering greatly from Russia's invasion, launched in February 2022. Strilets said that nearly 3 million hectares -- about one-third of Ukraine's forestland -- had been damaged.

About 500,000 hectares of forestland are currently in occupied territory, Strilets said, along with 10 national parks, eight nature preserves, and two biosphere reserves. Altogether some 600 species of fauna and 750 species of flora are under threat of destruction, he added.

Ukraine's Justice Ministry said on March 28 that it is working on ways to calculate the financial damages resulting from the environmental impact of the war. Thus far, damages of some 2 trillion hryvnyas ($54 million) have been reported by the State Environmental Inspectorate, not including forestland and nature reserves.

Damage to Ukrainian subsoil, according to preliminary estimates by the inspectorate, amount to 10 trillion hryvnya ($279 million).

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he has "no doubt" Russia has wrongfully detained a U.S. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), but that a formal determination must go through a process before a decision is announced.

Blinken made the comments on April 5 at a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, while in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir used a ceremony welcoming new ambassadors to Russia to berate the new U.S. envoy.

The correspondent being held by Russia, Evan Gershkovich, was detained last week on espionage charges widely seen as politically motivated.

“In Evan's, case we are working through the determination on wrongful detention. There is a process to do that,” he said. “In my own mind, there is no doubt that he is being wrongfully detained by Russia.”

A wrongful detention designation empowers the government to use a variety of tools, including diplomacy, to secure the release of a captured American rather than simply waiting for a criminal case to make its way through the system.

Blinken said the legal process for such a determination would be completed soon.

Gershkovich was detained in Yekaterinburg, where he was reporting about the attitude of Russians toward the Kremlin's war against Ukraine and on the Wagner mercenary group.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) alleged that, on instructions from the United States, Gershkovich "was collecting information about one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex, which constitutes a state secret."

Moscow claims, without evidence, that Gershkovich “was caught red-handed.”

The White House and The Wall Street Journal have denied the allegations. The reporter’s lawyers, who met with him in a Moscow prison on April 4 for the first time since his detention, have appealed his arrest.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that the United States had summoned the Russian ambassador over the detention of Gershkovich.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said she had spoken with her Russian counterpart to demand the immediate release of Gershkovich, and U.S. consular officials have requested a visit with Gershkovich, but access has not been granted.

The detention of Gershkovich comes with U.S.-Russian relations at a low point not seen since the Cold War, a fact that Putin acknowledged as he welcomed Lynne Tracy, the new U.S. ambassador to Moscow.

In a rare scene at such a diplomatic ceremony, Putin told Tracy to her face that relations between Moscow and Washington were in "a deep crisis" that was "based on fundamentally different approaches to the formation of the modern world order."

In the televised ceremony in the Kremlin, Putin falsely claimed Washington was responsible for the "Ukrainian crisis" and that U.S. support for Ukraine in 2014 had led to the current situation.

Under pressure from Putin, Ukraine's Russia-friendly president, Viktor Yanukovych, scrapped plans to sign a trade deal with the European Union in November 2013 and called for tighter ties with Russia instead, prompting the huge protests known as the Maidan and the Revolution of Dignity.

After Yanukovych fled for Russia in late February 2014 following deadly fighting between security forces and Maidan protesters, who accused the authorities of opening sniper fire into their ranks, the Russian military launched its occupation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and Moscow fomented separatism across eastern and southern Ukraine, igniting war in the region known as the Donbas. Moscow subsequently illegally annexed Crimea and continues to impose its rule on the peninsula.

That conflict is now part of the wider war Russia launched with the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

Tracy was just one in a group of ambassadors who formally presented their diplomatic credentials at the ceremony.

Putin also told the new EU envoy to Moscow, Roland Galharague, that the bloc instigated "geopolitical confrontation" with Moscow, an apparent reference to a barrage of sanctions imposed on Russia since Putin launched his Ukraine offensive against Ukraine.

With reporting by AP and Reuters, and AFP

Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, told a UN Security Council meeting on April 5 that Moscow is coordinating with international organizations to return Ukrainian children to their families. Russia, which holds the presidency of the Security Council this month, called the meeting to allow Lvova-Belova to speak by video link. Ambassadors from Western countries boycotted the meeting, and other diplomats walked out. The International Criminal Court last month issued an arrest warrant for Lvova-Belova and Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing them of war crimes in connection with the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children. To read the original story by AP, click here.

Poland's fencing federation (PZS) says it has withdrawn from hosting a World Cup competition this month after the International Fencing Federation ruled that athletes from Russia and Belarus could compete at the event under neutral status if they are not linked to Moscow's full-scale aggression in Ukraine.

The PZS said in a statement on April 5 that the change "deprived the organizers...of any influence on the process of accepting registered competitors and support staff." It added that the PZS could not guarantee the "proper verification" of competitors from Russia or Belarus.

"The procedure means that Ukrainian fencers will not participate in the competitions qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, and on the other hand, there is a risk that a large number of competitors with Russian and Belarusian passports will be admitted in a poorly controlled manner," it said.

Ukraine has said its athletes will not participate in any event where Russian and Belarusian competitors are allowed.

The move comes less than a month after Germany's fencing federation canceled a women's foil World Cup event for similar reasons.

Athletes from the two countries were banned from many international competitions after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 in what Moscow refuses to call a war, instead characterizing it as a "special military operation."

More than 60 percent of nations voted to allow Russians and Belarusians to resume competing in FIE events at an extraordinary congress in April.

The PSZ said it supports Ukraine's fencing federation "in its efforts to remove from the competitions and the world fencing environment people who support the brutal war in Ukraine and support the regime of Vladimir Putin."

The International Olympic Committee recommended at the end of March that international sports federations allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete in events as neutral participant, though they are still barred from team events.

Mothers in the unemployment-plagued Kazakh city of Zhanaozen have staged a protest demanding permanent jobs for their sons and loved ones.

Zhanaozen, located in Kazakhstan's southeastern Mangistau Province, is heavily dependent on its ailing oil industry. In 2011, it was the scene of mass anti-government demonstrations staged by oil workers that resulted in the deaths of at least 16 people when police opened fire on unarmed protesters.

The appeal said that many local men are afraid to approach government employment offices for work, and that those who do are often required to speak Russian. Protesting mothers said they are seeking assurances that their sons will not be taken away by police if they ask for jobs.

“We are sending this appeal to you because we, residents of the city of Zhanaozen, have been without work for several years," a group made up predominantly of mothers said as they read out their appeal to local officials. "But their answer is: 'There are no jobs.'"

As the mothers made their appeal outside the government building in Zhanaozen, several hundred former oil industry employees gathered in front of the nearby offices of OzenMunaiGas, a subsidiary of the state energy operator KazMunaiGas, which has come under criticism from labor-rights watchdogs for its treatment of workers.

The laid-off oil workers demanded jobs with the gas giant OzenMunaiGas and continued their demonstration into the morning of April 5.

A representative of the city administration, Galym Baizhanov, told RFE/RL that the issues of the city residents were being considered and that local lawmakers have been meeting with them regularly.

On April 3, the provincial government issued a statement stressing the need "to preserve existing and create new jobs," while backtracking on earlier statements by government officials that it was "impossible to employ all the inhabitants of the region in the oil and gas industry."

Demonstrations staged over six days in the village of Zhetybai in Mangistau Province ended on April 2 after protesters said they had received written assurances that their demands for jobs had been met.

Russia's announcement that it will station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus shows that a Russia-China joint statement days earlier amounted to "empty promises," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said. Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement came just days after Russia and China jointly declared countries should not deploy nuclear weapons outside their borders, Stoltenberg told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels. He said this showed such statements are "empty promises" and that "what we need to watch closely is what Russia is doing." To read the original story by Reuters, click here.

The leader of Bulgaria's center-right GERB party, coming off a narrow victory in snap parliamentary elections, has invited all other parties that gained seats in parliament to join talks on forming a government.

Former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said on April 5 that there would be "no dividing lines" as his party attempts to forge a government following the country's fifth inconclusive parliamentary poll in two years.

Borisov told journalists that the most stable government would include GERB, which won 26.5 percent of the vote in the April 2 election, and the second-place finisher, the pro-European We Continue the Change -- Democratic Bulgaria coalition, which took 24.5 percent.*

Borisov said that GERB's "natural partners" would support Ukraine in its ongoing war against invading Russian forces, as well as Bulgaria's efforts to join the eurozone and Europe's Schengen passport-free travel zone.

However, Borisov said he would not rule out talks with any of the six political bodies that will enter the next parliament, including the far-right, pro-Russian Revival Party that advocates for Bulgaria to leave both NATO and the EU. Revival finished third in the elections, with 14.15 percent of the vote.

We Continue the Change -- Democratic Bulgaria has already said it would not support a government that includes GERB, which through its victory earned the first chance to form a government.

Borisov said GERB will only discuss policies with parties that participate in a government, adding that without a regular cabinet there will be no state budget.

Facing lengthy and difficult discussions, Borisov stressed the importance of forming a new government "whatever the cost for the parties." Otherwise, he said, "new elections mean more of the same."

Rounding out the parties entering the new parliament are the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, a center-right party representing ethnic Turks and other Muslims; the Bulgarian Socialist Party; and the populist There Is Such a People party.

Bulgaria has been governed mainly by caretaker governments appointed by President Rumen Radev since public anger over years of corruption boiled over into massive protests in 2020. In February, Radev dissolved parliament and announced the April 2 vote.

In June, the pro-Western government of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov fell after a no-confidence vote in parliament after only six months in power.

Petkov and his fragile coalition took over in December 2021 following eight months of political impasse and two interim administrations after protests against high-level corruption ended the decade-long rule of former Prime Minister Borisov.

The political crisis has prompted Bulgaria to postpone adopting the euro by one year to 2025.

The Balkan country of around 6.5 million* is also struggling with rampant inflation that is hampering an economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that We Continue The Change took 14.5 percent, instead of 24.5 percent. The population of Bulgaria was also incorrectly reported.

With reporting by Reuters

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said he held talks on April 5 with Russian officials on the Moscow-held Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine. "I met high level officials from several Russian agencies today in Kaliningrad. I continue my efforts to protect the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant. My recent visit to ZNPP confirmed the urgent need to achieve this vital objective, which is in everyone's interest," the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog wrote on Twitter. The meeting was held in Russia's Kaliningrad region. He did not comment further.

French President Emmanuel Macron told China's President Xi Jinping on April 6 that he knows he can count on China to reason with Russia and bring everyone back to the negotiating table. Macron made the remarks during a state visit to Beijing while meeting with Xi. "The Russian aggression in Ukraine has dealt a blow to [international] stability," Macron told Xi. "I know I can count on you to bring back Russia to reason and everyone back to the negotiating table." Macron is in Beijing with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on a visit that could set a course for the bloc's future relations with China after years of strained ties.