Russia has issued a new history textbook for students in their final year of high school with a section about the war in Ukraine that echoes Russian propaganda. The textbook contains a completely rewritten history from 1970 to 2000, reducing the general history section and expanding parts about Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The 17 paragraphs in the chapter on the war in Ukraine include Russian propaganda claiming the United States is the main beneficiary of the war and describing occupied territories of Ukraine as "new regions" of Russia. The textbook will be included in the curriculum from September 1. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

Prosecutors in Russia's second-largest city, St. Petersburg, asked a court on August 8 to convict and sentence anti-war activist Olga Smirnova to seven years in prison on charge of spreading fake news about the armed forces. The prosecutor also asked the court to ban Smirnova from administering websites for four years. The 54-year-old activist of the Peaceful Resistance movement was arrested in May 2022. Investigators say she placed materials about Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine on the Internet that contradicted the Defense Ministry's official statements about the aggression. To read the original story by RFE/RL's North.Realities, click here.

As Iranian media workers marked the country's Journalists' Day, the head of the Tehran Journalists' Association, Akbar Montajabi, on August 8 highlighted the plight of the scores of journalists arrested amid the latest wave of anti-regime protests, speaking of a "dark era" for journalism.

"Investigations indicate that over the past year more than 100 journalists have been arrested. Nevertheless, the flow of information continues uninhibited, always finding its way, much like water," Montajabi said.

"This dark era persists, with the system's main agenda being the arrest, elimination, expulsion, and now the recent trend of exiling journalists," Montajabi said.

Marking the occasion, Tehran-based HamMihan newspaper published the names of scores of detained media workers, shedding light on the detention of at least 76 journalists, reporters, and photographers since the start of protests across Iran in September 2022 following the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman arrested for wearing her head covering improperly.

The newspaper said that the detention in November of Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, two female journalists who reported on Amini's death, marked the start of the current wave of repression against Iranian journalists.

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Hamedi took a photo of Amini's parents embracing in the Tehran hospital where their daughter was lying in a coma while in police custody.

Hamedi's post of the photo on Twitter was the first media mention of the case and one of her last posts before being arrested days later.

Amini died days after being detained by the notorious morality police for allegedly violating the country's strict female dress code. Authorities have blamed "underlying diseases" for the cause of death, but witnesses and family members say Amini was beaten while in custody.

Elaheh Mohammadi covered Amini's funeral in her hometown of Saghez, which marked the beginning of the mass protests that have swept the country.

Both journalists, during their final court session at Tehran's Islamic Revolutionary Court, rejected all accusations and said they were proud to be the voice of the Iranian people.

HamMihan also highlighted the names of Yalda Moayeri, Hoda Tohidi, Alireza Khoshbakht, Jabbar Dastbaz, Samira Ali Nejad, and many other journalists detained since the onset of the protests.

Other Iranian journalists that suffered legal punishment for their coverage of the protests include:

• Behrouz Behzadi, editor in chief of the Etemad newspaper, who received a six-month prison sentence, later converted to a one-year media activity ban;
• Marzieh Mahmoudi, editor of the Tejarat News website, who was fined 240 million rials ($480) and exiled to the northwestern city of Torbat-e Jam for a year;
• Saeedeh Shafiei and Nasim Soltanbeigi, sentenced by Tehran's Islamic Revolutionary Court to a cumulative 4 1/2 years in prison on charges including "assembly and collusion" and "propaganda" against the system;
• Ali Pourtabatabai, editor of Qom News, detained for weeks after reporting on the suspicious poisoning of female students in the central city of Qom, who currently awaits his sentence.

The sentences come amid unprecedented shows of defiance by women and schoolgirls in what appears to be the biggest threat to the Islamic government since the 1979 revolution.

Several thousand people have been arrested since Amini's death, including many protesters, lawyers, activists, and digital-rights defenders.

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

A delegation led by representatives of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff, Sarah Arkin and Damian Murphy, has visited the site in Armenia's southern Syunik Province where an Armenian convoy of 19 trucks carrying humanitarian aid to the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh has been stranded for nearly two weeks by Azerbaijan's closure of a checkpoint on the only access road to the region. Syunik Governor Robert Ghukasian on August 8 accompanied the visiting U.S. officials, who did not wish to talk to the media. The United States and the European Union have urged Azerbaijan to allow humanitarian supplies to Nagorno-Karabakh via the Lachin Corridor road. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Armenian Service, click here.

Five nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan region have been closed down over the past six months due to what authorities claim are links with local criminal groups amid ongoing tensions following protests last year against the regional authorities in the authoritarian Central Asian country.

Deputy Justice Minister Asadullo Hakimzoda told a news conference on August 8 in Dushanbe that the closures followed inspections at more than 140 NGOs and associations in the region.

The five NGOs that were banned are three human rights groups -- Nomus va Insof, Pyanj, and the Pamir Lawyers Association -- and two youth groups -- Youth of Ishkashim District and Klubi Gushtini Shaidon.

Hakimzoda did not say what criminal groups were linked to the banned NGOs.

The closures came amid warnings by civil society representatives in the region that they were facing increased pressure from the authorities following a deadly crackdown on protests last year.

The protests broke out last year when people demanded a thorough investigation into the death of an activist in May 2021 while in police custody.

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In May, civil activists said they were coming under increased pressure from the authorities to halt their activities.

Representatives from several local civic groups said security forces demanded that they voluntarily declare themselves bankrupt and liquidate their organizations. The government has rejected their accusations.

Protests are rare in the tightly controlled country of 9.5 million where President Emomali Rahmon has ruled with an iron fist for nearly three decades.

Two people were killed and four others injured after an explosion caused by a gas leak hit a five-story apartment block in Russia's southwestern city of Astrakhan, local emergency officials said on August 8. The explosion caused a fire in four apartments that was extinguished by firefighters. Seventy residents were evacuated. Gas explosions occur frequently in Russia due to aging pipelines and infrastructure, as well as lax safety standards. (TASS, RBK)

Poland's Defense Ministry has agreed to send additional troops to the border with Belarus following a request from the border-guard service, state-run news agency PAP reported on August 8. Poland's border-guard service asked the defense ministry to send an additional 1,000 troops to the border, the deputy interior minister said on August 7, amid an increase in attempts to illegally cross the frontier. Poland has built a fence on the border with Belarus, equipped with electronic protection. In recent weeks, Wagner mercenary group fighters have appeared near the border, a development Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said was aimed at destabilizing the situation on NATO's eastern flank. To read the original story by Reuters, click here.

The Supreme Court of Russia's Republic of Bashkortostan on August 7 extended until November 10 the pretrial arrests of Yury Yefimov and Aleksei Dmitriyev, two members of a neo-communist group known as the Marxist Circle, who are charged with planning terrorist activities to overthrow Russia's constitutional order and with illegal possession of explosives. Last week, the court also extended the pretrial arrests until November 10 of three other members of the group -- regional lawmaker Dmitry Chuvilin, Rinat Burkeyev, and Pavel Matisov. The five men were arrested in March last year after police searched their homes. The men deny any wrongdoing. The Marxist Circle was established in 2016. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Idel.Realities, click here.

Kyrgyz authorities say they have shut down 39 mosques and 21 religious educational organizations in the Osh region. The press service of Kyrgyzstan's State Committee of National Security said the move followed an investigation that revealed noncompliance with the law on religious freedom and religious organizations, construction standards, hygiene, and fire safety. No further information was immediately available. According to official information, there are around 2,600 mosques, more than 100 madrasahs, and 10 Islamic higher schools in Kyrgyzstan. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, click here.

A court in Kazakhstan's southern city of Taraz, on August 8 acquitted Nursultan Quatbaev, one of five men posthumously convicted after they had been shot dead during unprecedented anti-government protests in January 2022. The verdicts against the other four dead men convicted in February of taking part in mass unrest and illegal weapons possession were upheld. Relatives have protested for months, saying that the men were victims of police and security officers who opened fire on demonstrators following a presidential order "to shoot to kill without warning." At least 238 people were killed across Kazakhstan during the protests. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kazakh Service, click here.

Azerbaijani economist Fazil Qasimov has been detained in Turkey and handed to Baku on unspecified charges, Azerbaijan's Interior Ministry said on August 8. Media reports said earlier that the Turkey-based Qasimov is a suspect in a case against Qubad Ibadoglu, the chairman of the unregistered opposition Azerbaijan Democracy and Welfare Party. Ibadoglu was arrested last month on a charge of counterfeiting after police claimed they found counterfeit money in his abandoned apartment in Baku. Ibadoglu rejected the charge, while Human Rights Watch demanded his immediate release, calling the charges against him "spurious." To read the original story by RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service, click here.

Self-exiled Chechen opposition activist Abubakar Yangulbayev said on Telegram on August 7 that four of his relatives were forcefully sent by Chechen authorities to serve in the Russian armed forces in the war in Ukraine. According to Yangulbayev, an uncle and three cousins were detained by police in recent weeks, then went through expedited military training, and sent to Ukraine's Donetsk region, where heavy fighting is under way. Yangulbayev said the move was in retaliation for his criticism of Chechnya's leadership. Abubakar Yangulbayev and his two brothers, Ibragim and Baisangur, are well-known critics of the authoritarian leader of Russia's North Caucasus region of Chechnya, Ramazan Kadyrov. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Caucasus.Realities, click here.

A court in Ukraine has sentenced Ukrainian Orthodox Church Metropolitan Ionafan (Anatoliy Yeletskykh) to five years in prison on charges of justifying Russian aggression. The Security Service of Ukraine said on August 8 that Ionafan, the metropolitan of Tulchyn and Bratslav, was sentenced after a court in the city of Vinnytsya found him guilty of calls to violate Ukraine's territorial integrity, actions against Ukraine's constitutional order, and premeditated violation of citizens' equal rights. The diocese said an appeal has been filed. Ukrainian authorities have accused it of disseminating materials on Moscow's policies against Ukraine. To read the original story by UNIAN, click here.

A leading international humanitarian organization has expressed concern over decreasing funding for humanitarian operations in Afghanistan, where almost three-quarters of the country's population is in need of assistance.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC), a U.S. nongovernmental organization, said in a statement on August 7 that almost 30 million Afghans “remain in dire need of assistance” as funding shortfalls jeopardize the humanitarian response in the country of more than 40 million.

“Nearly the entire population lives in poverty,” said Salma Ben Aissa, IRC Afghanistan director, adding that two years after the Taliban seized power on August 15, 2021, “the Afghan economy remains cut off from international systems and 28.8 million people require humanitarian assistance.”

Aissa said that almost 80 percent of those in need are women and girls who have been deprived of education and work by the Taliban’s hard-line Islamist government.

Afghanistan, one of the most aid-dependent countries in the world, lost development assistance and financial support from Western donors after the Taliban seized power in the wake of the final withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces at the end of August 2021.

The Taliban’s unrecognized government was slapped with sanctions as it faced international isolation because of its extensive human rights abuses.

The fledgling Afghan economy rapidly collapsed, which prompted previously self-sufficient Afghans to rely on humanitarian aid.

The IRC said that humanitarian operations averted famines during the past two winters while increased aid reduced the number of Afghans threatened by famine from 6 million to 3 million.

“The IRC is growing deeply fearful for the future of the humanitarian response in Afghanistan in the face of continued funding shortfalls,” Aissa said.

The organization says that only 23 percent of this year’s $4.6 billion proposed funding has been covered. In comparison, 40 percent of the previous plan was funded by the same time last year.

IRC called on donors to “commit to supporting the humanitarian response in a long-term and flexible manner” to ensure that the most vulnerable Afghans can receive aid.

“Without this commitment, millions will continue to face hunger and an uncertain future,” Aissa said.

The Taliban is increasing its influence over aid organizations working in Afghanistan, including programs managed by the United Nations, a U.S. government report warned. "According to multiple UN officials across different agencies, the Taliban have effectively infiltrated and influenced most UN-managed assistance programming," said a quarterly report made public on August 8 by the U.S. Inspector-General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. Increasing influence over aid programs is "one facet of an intensive strategy to consolidate power," the report said, adding that any form of humanitarian help is vulnerable to manipulation by the hard-line Islamist rulers.

In a rare move, a Russian court has acquitted two Jehovah's Witnesses of extremism charges. The website of the religious group that is monitoring developments in Russia said on August 7 that a court in the Siberian city of Yugorsk found Ivan Sorokin and Andrei Zhukov, who were charged with organizing an extremist group's activities, not guilty. Russia banned the Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2017 and designated it an extremist organization. Hundreds of Jehovah Witnesses have been handed prison terms on extremism charges since then. Rights watchdogs and Western governments have condemned Russia's crackdown on religious minorities. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Siberia.Realities, click here.

Hundreds of people, mostly women, gathered on August 7 in the Turkmen city of Turkmenbashi to protest food shortages amid Turkmenistan's severe economic crisis. Protesters complained about the lack of food rations of flour and cooking oil since February and demanded that the mayor come out and talk to them. The protesters left after the mayor pledged to resolve the food crisis. Many Turkmen households remain dependent on relatively cheap state-subsidized food items. The protest was held as authoritarian President Serdar Berdymukhammedov was reportedly vacationing in the nearby Avaza summer resort. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Turkmen Service, click here.

An 18-year-old Bulgarian woman whose case of domestic abuse triggered nationwide protests has thanked Bulgarians for their support, which led to changes in the legislation against domestic violence in the Balkan EU member state.

“Thank you for supporting me, thinking about me, praying for me, and fighting with me in this very scary time for me,” Debora Mihailova said in a video message on Facebook.

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The video was posted after Bulgaria's parliament gathered in an extraordinary session on August 7 and approved changes to the Criminal Code and the law on protection from domestic violence.

The amendments provide for the right to protection for people who have experienced violence in the context of an intimate relationship or for victims of violence who are neither married to their potential abuser nor are they in an actual relationship.

Mihailova, from the central city of Stara Zagora, was hospitalized in June after being beaten and cut multiple times with a knife, allegedly by her former boyfriend. The man also broke her nose and shaved off her hair in the June 26 attack, the victim said.

The 26-year-old suspect, identified by the media as Georgi Georgiev, was arrested after the attack, but a court in Stara Zagora later released him after rating the woman's injuries as "light."

The incident was only made public on July 28 following her family's frustration with the slow pace of the investigation.

On July 31, thousands of people staged protest rallies in Sofia and other Bulgarian cities, calling for an overhaul of legislation and improved protection measures for women.

The suspect was rearrested on July 31 amid the public outrage and the prosecutor's office announced that it was "accelerating" the investigation.

Bulgarian police statistics show that 18 women were killed in the first three months of this year by suspected partners. Women's rights activists say the number is much higher.

Ukraine's security service (SBU) says it has detained an alleged Russian informant who was allegedly gathering intelligence on the eve of a working trip by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to the Mykolayiv region. "Members of the SBU caught the traitor red-handed when she was trying to pass intelligence to the invaders," the SBU said on August 7. SBU agents took additional security measures during the visit, the service said. The SBU did not give the name of the suspect, saying only that she is a woman. Zelenskiy visited Mykolayiv at the end of last month. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, click here.

Ukraine's counteroffensive against Russian forces continued in the country’s southeast, Kyiv said on August 8, as official casualty figures from a Russian missile strike in the eastern city of Pokrovsk have risen to at least seven dead and nearly 70 wounded.

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.

Ukrainian troops continue to carry out attacks against the invading Russian Army in the direction of Berdyansk and Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhya region, the military's General Staff said in its daily update.

It said that Ukrainian forces carried out nine strikes over the past day targeting the areas where the Russian Army's "personnel, weapons, and military equipment are concentrated."

Russian forces carried out seven missile attacks and 42 air strikes over the past 24 hours, the bulletin said.

Ukraine's Interior Ministry meanwhile updated initial casualty figures from the August 7 Russian missile attacks on the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region to at least seven dead and 67 wounded as rescue works resumed.

There were 29 police officers, two rescue workers, and two children among the wounded, according to the ministry.

A photo posted by the ministry on social media showed a badly damaged apartment block with its upper floor completely demolished, while piles of concrete and rubble could be seen on the ground.

Regional officials said that two missiles strikes hit Pokrovsk on August 7, damaging residential and administrative buildings, a hotel, catering establishments, and shops. The strikes were launched about 40 minutes apart, officials said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian nuclear power plants located in territory held by Kyiv will be fully operational by winter to provide electricity for the country, Ukraine's atomic energy operator said on August 7.

• RFE/RL

Two Russian missiles, launched 40 minutes apart, struck the city of Pokrovsk in Ukraine's Donetsk region on the evening of August 7, killing at least seven people and wounding nearly 70.

"All the power at our disposal will be given to the electricity grid" after the servicing of some reactors before winter, Energoatom chief Petro Kotin told journalists.

Ukraine currently has three power stations with a total of nine reactors in the territory under its control.

In other developments, the British government has announced new sanctions against an Iranian drone maker and two dozen other businesses and individuals, accusing them of supplying Russia with weapons and components in its war against Ukraine.

"Today's landmark sanctions will further diminish Russia's arsenal and close the net on supply chains propping up [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's now-struggling defense industry," British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said on August 8.

Western countries have imposed a wide range of sanctions against Moscow since February last year to punish Russia for its unjustified invasion of Ukraine.

The new round of British sanctions targets 25 individuals and businesses in Iran, Belarus, Slovakia, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, as well as Russia.

Among them are Iranian drone maker Paravar Pars and seven of its executives, and two Turkey-based exporters of microelectronics. The Iranian supplier has already been subjected to U.S. sanctions announced in February.

The action imposes asset freezes of the sanctioned businesses and individuals, and also prohibits British entities from doing business with them.

The British government said the latest penalties marked its biggest ever action on third-country military suppliers. Britain has placed sanctions on more than 1,600 individuals and entities since the start of the war.

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration will announce $200 million of new weapons aid for Ukraine as soon as August 8, U.S. officials told Reuters, as it begins to dole out $6.2 billion of funds discovered after a Pentagon accounting error overvalued billions of Ukrainian aid, two U.S. officials said on August 7.

In May, the Pentagon announced it had mistakenly assigned a higher-than-warranted value to the U.S. weaponry shipped to Kyiv when staff used "replacement value" instead of "depreciated value" to tabulate the billions of dollars worth of ammunition, missiles and other equipment sent to Ukraine.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters

A group of United Nations experts have voiced alarm over the ongoing blockade of the Lachin Corridor by Azerbaijan, which they say has led to a dire humanitarian crisis in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The corridor is the only link between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, and it has been blocked for months by Azerbaijan. An August 7 statement published on the website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights says, “The blockade of the Lachin Corridor is a humanitarian emergency that has created severe shortages of essential food staples including sunflower oil, fish, chicken, dairy products, cereal, sugar and baby formula.” To read the original story by RFE/RL's Armenian Service, click here.

The U.S. Justice Department is cooperating with the International Criminal Court and supporting Ukrainian prosecutors carrying out war crime investigations, Attorney General Merrick Garland said on August 7. Congress recently allowed for more U.S. flexibility in assisting the court with investigations into foreign nationals related to Ukraine, and the Justice Department will be a key part of U.S cooperation, Garland said in a speech to the American Bar Association in Denver. “We are not waiting for the hostilities to end before pursuing justice and accountability,” he said. To read the original story on RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, click here.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on August 7 commented on the 15th anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Georgia, saying that the “wound” caused by Russia’s occupation of the country remains.

Zelenskiy noted that many observers have said that had the world reacted more decisively when Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, things might be different for Ukraine now.

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"The Russian occupation remains -- this wound on the body of the Georgian state remains,” Zelenskiy said in his evening video address. “Many words have already been said about the fact that if the world had been decisive back then, in 2008, many things would have been different.”

Russia should have been made to understand then that the aggressor pays the most for its aggression and “must understand it now," he said.

Zelenskiy also said he believes that a Ukrainian victory would stop the spread of Russian aggression and protect other nations "from what we -- Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova -- are going through."

Georgia and Russia fought a brief war in 2008 over South Ossetia, a Russian-backed breakaway region of Georgia. Following the war, Russia formally recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states and substantially expanded its military footprint in both territories.

Russia also has troops stationed in the pro-Moscow breakaway Transdniester region of Moldova. They have been there ostensibly as peacekeepers since Chisinau and Russia-backed separatists fought a short war in 1992 that was curbed by Moscow's intervention on the side of the separatists.

In Georgia on August 7, the people of the central city of Gori and representatives of the local government gathered to pay their respects at a memorial to fighters who died in the Russian-Georgian war.

A candlelight vigil has been held annually since 2009 at the Heroes' Memorial. Government officials gathered again this year to lay wreaths and deliver speeches.

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"We traditionally gather on the 7th of August at the candlelight vigil and thus honor our heroes…who sacrificed themselves, and we try to always remember and appreciate this," Gori Mayor Vladimir Khinchegashvili said.

Events related to the 15th anniversary of the war will continue in Gori on August 8.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also noted in a statement the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Georgia.

“Fifteen years ago, Russia invaded the sovereign nation of Georgia and occupied 20 percent of its territory,” Blinken said. “The United States remains steadfast in our support for Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. The lives of the conflict-affected populations have forever been altered by Russia’s actions.”

Blinken said the United States remembers those killed, injured, and displaced “with deepest respect and heartfelt sympathy.”

He said as in Ukraine, the people of Georgia “have suffered the consequences of Russia’s contempt for international law and desire to dominate its neighbors.”

Belarus on August 7 began military exercises near its border with Poland and Lithuania, a move that comes with tensions already heightened between Belarus and the two NATO members over Russian-linked Wagner mercenaries moving to Belarus after their short-lived mutiny in Russia. Both Poland and Lithuania have increased border security since thousands of Wagner fighters arrived in Russian-allied Belarus under a deal that ended their armed rebellion in late June and allowed them and their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, to avoid criminal charges. To read the original story by AP, click here.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff said on August 7 that talks over the weekend in Saudi Arabia discussed no other peace initiative than the one put forth by Ukraine and that the participants agreed to hold another meeting within about six weeks.

"We will hold another meeting within a month, month-and-a-half and we will move toward [holding] a summit," Andriy Yermak told reporters at a briefing in Kyiv.

Officials from around 40 countries, including China, the United States, and European countries, took part in the talks.

Yermak, who headed the Ukrainian delegation, said all delegates at the talks had fully supported Ukrainian independence and territorial integrity.

Yermak promoted the Ukrainian peace formula at the talks. Zelenskiy himself has touted the set of 10 principles that Kyiv wants to serve as the basis for peace during recent visits to European and NATO-member countries.

Observers have said the most important points of the peace plan are those that demand respect for the UN Charter and the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said the talks in Saudi Arabia didn't have "the slightest added value," because Moscow wasn’t invited. Without Russia's participation and without taking into account Moscow's interests, the meeting was pointless, a ministry statement said.

It repeated previous assurances that Russia was open to a diplomatic solution on its terms that ends the war and is ready to respond to serious proposals.

Mykhaylo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskiy, once again ruled out Moscow's previous demands, saying they would give Russia time to dig in deeper in the parts of Ukraine it has occupied.

"Any scenario of a cease-fire and freezing of the war in Ukraine in the current disposition will mean only one thing -- Russia's actual victory and Putin's personal triumph," Podolyak said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

He said earlier in an interview with RFE/RL that Russian forces must fully withdraw from the occupied areas and there would be no compromise on that.

"The most difficult thing is always the discussion of the issue that Russia should leave the territory of Ukraine," he said.

Hanna Hopko, who previously headed the committee on foreign policy in the Ukrainian parliament, said the talks in Saudi Arabia pointed to the "deepening of the isolation" of Russia. She said Ukraine needed this along with "tougher measures to counter Russian aggression," including more weapons, financial aid, and more pressure on Russia.

"Ukraine wants more support, and not only transatlantic support or in the Ramstein format, but at the level of the whole world," she said, referring to the contact group formed to coordinate Western military support for Ukraine.

Hopko told RFE/RL in an interview that China's participation at the talks was important.

"The longer the war lasts, the more China sees that Russia has no chance of winning," she said, adding that Russia was getting more and more isolated, and "China understands that Russia is losing."

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on August 7 issued a statement saying China would be an "objective and rational voice" at any international multilateral forums and "actively promote peace talks."

The statement came after the ministry said earlier that the international talks in Saudi Arabia had helped "to consolidate international consensus."

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also spoke by phone with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, telling him that China would uphold an independent and impartial position on Ukraine as it strives to find a political settlement to the issue.

Beijing and Moscow have maintained a close bilateral relationship in recent years as both countries' relations with the West have worsened.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP