The Kremlin has lashed out at European critics including leaders of EU states and besieged Ukraine over their calls for all Russians to be banned from the West until their country ends its invasion of Ukraine along with the underlying mindset.

The sharp response follows encouragement by the Finnish and Estonian prime ministers for a ban on visas to Russians and news that the French military has banned Russian nationals from a medieval fortress and touristic site outside Paris that houses military archives.

Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has killed tens of thousands of troops and civilians since it was launched in late February, sparked unprecedented financial and other sanctions, flight and airspace bans, and contributed to a global food crisis.

Some EU countries, including Latvia, have already stopped issuing visas to Russians, citing the war.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, whose defiant leadership has included nightly video messages imploring international assistance, this week urged the West to ban all Russians to discourage Moscow from trying to annex more territory.

Zelenskiy told The Washington Post that "whichever kind of Russian" should be made to "go to Russia."

But Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on August 9 that "the irrationality of thinking" behind calls for such bans "is off the charts."

Amid increasing tensions with the West, poisonings abroad allegedly ordered by senior Russian officials, and the creep of Russian troops and proxy fighters from Georgia to Ukraine to Syria and central Africa, Putin and other Russian officials have complained of growing "Russophobia."

Peskov said the fresh calls to ban Russians "can only be viewed extremely negatively" and warned that "any attempt to isolate Russians or Russia is a process that has no prospects."

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EU members and Russia neighbors Finland and Estonia have hinted they're willing to try a visa ban.

Finland Prime Minister Sanna Marin told Finnish broadcaster YLE on August 8 that "it is not right that while Russia is waging an aggressive, brutal war of aggression in Europe, Russians can live a normal life, travel in Europe, be tourists."

Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas followed with a call for countries to "stop issuing tourist visas to Russians."

"Visiting #Europe is a privilege, not a human right," Kallas tweeted. "Air travel from RU is shut down. It means while Schengen countries issue visas, neighbors to Russia carry the burden (FI, EE, LV – sole access points). Time to end tourism from Russia now."

Barring all Russians would also impact the tens of thousands of people who have left that country out of protest or disagreement with the actions of Putin and his administration.

"They'll understand then," the Ukrainian president told The Washington Post. "They'll say, 'This [war] has nothing to do with us. The whole population can't be held responsible, can it?' It can. The population picked this government and they're not fighting it, not arguing with it, not shouting at it."

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"Don't you want this isolation?" Zelensky added, speaking as if he were addressing Russians directly. "You're telling the whole world that it must live by your rules. Then go and live there. This is the only way to influence Putin."

The French military has imposed a ban on Russians visiting the storied Chateau de Vincennes, once the residence of French kings and a venue for tours and concerts as well as part of the French armed forces' historical archives.

AFP quoted two Russian women denied entry by French guards after showing their documents and being told they couldn't get in "because you're Russian."

Putin has spent the decades since taking office in 1999 consolidating and otherwise tightening the country's grip on media, including strictures in the past decade like laws on "foreign agents" and "undesirable" designations to punish activists, journalists, and any other perceived enemies.

Since the full-scale war in Ukraine was launched, criminal procedures and other punishments have been imposed for criticism of the Russian military or even just describing the conflict as a war, rather than the Kremlin's preferred term, a "special military operation."

With reporting by AFP and AP

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli President Isaac Herzog discussed the strained relations between their countries and the situation of the Jewish Agency in Russia in a phone call on August 9.

The Russian Justice Ministry has moved to disband the agency's Russian arm, which promotes emigration to Israel, despite protests from Israel.

Russia accuses the organization of violating the country's laws and, according to media reports, unlawfully collecting personal data from Russian citizens.

Some Israelis have seen this as retribution for Israel's criticism of Russia's military campaign in Ukraine.

The case against the Jewish Agency is due to be heard on August 19.

The discussion was "open and honest," Herzog's office said, adding that Herzog spoke at length about the activities of the agency.

Herzog was chairman of the Jewish Agency before he took over as president.

"The two presidents emphasized the important areas of cooperation between Israel and Russia, and agreed to stay in touch," Herzog's office announced.

Putin, he said, had stressed his personal commitment to remembrance of the Holocaust and the fight against anti-Semitism.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that the phone call also touched upon the Jewish Agency. Both sides had agreed that "contacts on this will continue along the responsible authorities of both countries," he said.

Peskov rejected reports that the dissolution of the organization was intended to prevent the departure of bright minds from Russia.

Based on reporting by dpa and Reuters

A Bulgarian court has ordered the extradition of a Russian man accused at home of large-scale tax evasion in a case complicated by the suspect's burning of his Russian passport during an antiwar protest in the Black Sea resort of Varna.

The suspect, 46-year-old Aleksei Alchin, has argued that Russian authorities are persecuting him for his political leanings and criticism of Russia's war on Ukraine.

Alchin says he has been living in Bulgaria for five years.

He was declared a fugitive by Russian prosecutors in April 2018 following an investigation into alleged tax evasion.

He took part in a protest in Bulgaria two days after the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24 in which he demonstratively burned his Russian passport.

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Months later, Bulgarian authorities were notified by Russian officials that Alchin was the target of an international manhunt and a formal extradition request followed.

He was detained by Bulgarian authorities last week and his extradition case was heard on August 8 by a district court in Varna, in eastern Bulgaria.

Alchin's wife, friends, and others protested outside the court for his release.

But the court ruled that the tax-evasion charges against him were of a sufficient magnitude to warrant his extradition.

Through its press service, the Bulgarian court also cited an assurance from a Russian deputy prosecutor-general, Pyotr Gorodov, that Alchin won't be tortured or otherwise abused and that he will be allowed counsel.

Russia's heavily prosecutor-friendly legal system leads to convictions in around 99 percent of all cases, and allegations are widespread of detainee and inmate abuse.

The Varna court also cited a guarantee by Russian prosecutors that Alchin will only be investigated for tax evasion and that, if he is convicted, he will be allowed to leave Russia after serving any possible sentence.

Alchin can appeal the first-instance ruling within seven days.

It is unclear what sort of leverage officials in Bulgaria -- a NATO and EU member whose relations with Moscow have markedly worsened since Russia's military invaded Ukraine -- might have if Russian authorities abandon their pledges concerning Alchin.

Alchin requested political asylum in Bulgaria only after being detained in connection with the extradition request, which prosecutors said hurt his chances of success.

Russian authorities have sought him internationally since February 2020.

Alchin has described past employment in Russia that includes work for a State Duma committee that he says he left "due to the high level of corruption in the system."

He said he fled Russia after being warned that his metals company had attracted interest from elites and he might be accused of tax crimes.

He also said he'd never received any subpoenas, as lawyers he approached before fleeing came under "pressure" and refused to represent his interests.

Belarus' air force is holding exercises on its territory and at a military training base in Russia, the Belarusian Defense Ministry said on August 9.

According to the ministry, the drills involve live fire and are to be held in two phases: the first from August 9 to August 11 in Belarus, while the second one on August 22-25 will take place at Russia's Ashuluk military training base located in Russia's southwest near the border with Kazakhstan.

Belarus' authoritarian ruler, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, has openly supported Russia's ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine that was launched in late February.

Although Belarusian troops have not taken part in the invasion, Belarusian authorities allowed Russia's military to use the country's territory to enter Ukraine and shell Ukrainian towns and cities from Belarus.

Based on reporting by Interfax, TASS, and Reuters

The Moscow-appointed deputy mayor of the occupied Ukrainian city of Nova Kakhovka, Vitaliy Efymenko, has been detained on criminal charges.

Russia-imposed authorities in the city in Ukraine's southeastern region of Kherson said on August 8 that they confiscated illegal weapons and tens of millions of rubles from Efymenko, who is also a local businessman.

According to the so-called Temporary Directorate of the Russian Interior Ministry in the region, Efymenko is suspected of being a member of a gang that conducted at least two attacks against two local businessmen in recent weeks.

After Russia occupied the Kherson region in the first days of its ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine launched in late February, he was appointed by occupying forces as Nova Kakhovka's first deputy mayor.

Last week, Efymenko survived an apparent car-bomb assassination attempt.

Ukrainian media reports cited sources at the time as saying that Efymenko was a criminal kingpin.

On August 6, another deputy mayor of Nova Kakhovka, Vitaliy Hura, was shot dead by an unidentified assailant while leaving his home.

On August 5, Russian news agencies reported that the Russia-appointed governor of the Kherson region, Volodymyr Saldo, had been hospitalized. Some reports said then that he may have been poisoned.

On June 24, a car bomb in Kherson killed the Russia-appointed head of the directorate for youth policies at the Kherson region's administration, Dmytro Savluchenko.

With reporting by Kommersant

The number of websites spreading Russia-Ukraine disinformation has more than doubled since Russia's unprovoked invasion was launched in late February, says a New York-based group that rates trustworthiness across media.

NewsGuard said on August 9 that its experts have identified 250 websites publishing disinformation related to those two combatant states, versus 116 in March.

It said digital platforms like Google, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok have imposed "temporary measures in some countries against well-known Russian propaganda outlets such as RT and Sputnik News, after the European Commission prohibited distribution or advertising support for these Kremlin-funded and operated propaganda sites."

"However," it added, "the large number of other sites identified by NewsGuard continue to spread myths freely on the Internet."

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It cited 54 leading myths being spread by those outlets about the five-month-old conflict or its roots in eight years of fighting between Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists.

They include "claims that the U.S. operates labs in Ukraine to develop bioweapons, that Russian troops were not responsible for the massacre of civilians in Bucha in March, and that Russian did not attack the railway station in Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine," the group said.

Many of the sites avoid disclosing ownership or control but claim -- without evidence -- to be independent think tanks or other nonprofits.

European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova recently described disinformation as "a growing problem in the EU, and we really have to take stronger measures."

NewsGuard launched a Russia-Ukraine Disinformation Tracking Center in March, days after tens of thousands of Russian troops rolled across Ukraine's border.

With reporting by Reuters

A Russian rocket successfully launched an Iranian satellite into space on August 9 amid accusations that Moscow might use it to improve its surveillance of military targets in Ukraine.

The remote sensing satellite, called Khayyam, was launched by a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in southern Kazakhstan, at 08:52 a.m. Moscow time on August 9, according to a video broadcast by Russia's space agency on YouTube.

The Washington Post reported last week that U.S. officials are worried by the incipient space cooperation between Russia and Iran and fear the satellite will not only help Russia in Ukraine but also provide Iran "unprecedented capabilities" to monitor potential military targets in Israel and the Middle East.

Iran says the satellite is designed for scientific research including radiation and environmental monitoring for agricultural purposes and no other country will have access to information it gathers.

Russia has sought to deepen its ties with Iran since it invaded Ukraine in February.

Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Iran in his first international trip outside the former Soviet Union since the war.

Based on reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says Russia's "spurious" new charge against opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza is "a thinly veiled threat to the Russian public not to engage in dissent," as authorities there accelerate their long-running clampdown amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Kara-Murza's lawyer announced last week that his client had been charged with carrying out activities of an "undesirable" organization.

HRW demanded in an August 8 statement that Russian officials drop all charges against Kara-Murza and repeal the "abusive" law that underpins the latest accusation.

"It is now a pattern for the Kremlin to throw its critics behind bars on spurious charges and then continue to add new bogus charges against them to keep them there," HRW quoted its Europe and Central Asia director, Hugh Williamson, as saying. "The new charge against Kara-Murza is a blatant attempt to instill more fear among Russia’s civil society and deter it from mobilizing against the Kremlin and its war against Ukraine."

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A longtime Kremlin-critic who has survived at least two apparent poisonings, Kara-Murza was already in jail after he was arrested in April for allegedly spreading false information about the Russian army's activities in Ukraine.

According to his lawyer Vadim Prokhorov, Kara-Murza is now charged with holding a Moscow conference in October to support Russian political prisoners that was sponsored by the foreign-based Free Russia Foundation. That group has been recognized as "undesirable" in the country.

The new charge carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison, according to HRW.

"The fake charges against Kara-Murza are purely politically motivated, and he should be immediately and unconditionally released, as should the many other Russians prosecuted on outrageous 'fake news,' 'undesirable,' and similar charges," Williamson said. "The Russian authorities need to stop misusing and manipulating the justice system in their desperate efforts to stomp out dissent and opposition."

The "undesirable organization" law, adopted in 2015, was part of a series of regulations pushed by the Kremlin that squeezed many nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations that received funding from foreign sources -- mainly from Europe and the United States.

Russian lawmakers have since dramatically widened the scope of the law, including to bar Russian nationals and organizations anywhere in the world from taking part in activities of such "undesirable" groups.

A close associate of slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, Kara-Murza fell deathly ill on two separate occasions in Moscow -- in 2015 and 2017-- with symptoms consistent with poisoning.

Tissue samples smuggled out of Russia by his relatives were turned over to the FBI, which investigated his case as one of "intentional poisoning."

Russia has been "reinforcing defenses" in southern Ukraine while keeping up attacks on Ukrainian positions in the eastern Donetsk region but has only managed to advance about 10 kilometers in the past month on its "most successful axis" there, according to U.K. military intelligence.

In its latest regular assessment, on August 9, British Defense Intelligence said Russian forces had not advanced more than three kilometers elsewhere in Donetsk, one of the two eastern regions where Russia-backed separatists have held large swaths of territory for the past eight years.

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Such a pace is "almost certainly significantly less than planned," the intelligence added.

"Despite its continued heavy use of artillery in these areas, Russia has not been able to generate capable combat infantry in sufficient numbers to secure more substantial advances," it said.

British intelligence previously warned on August 8 that Russia was using anti-personnel mines in an effort to defend and hold its defense lines, with resulting risks to both the military and local civilian populations.

The Ukrainian Army's General Staff said early on August 9 that a Russian offensive is continuing toward the hub cities of Bakhmut and Avdiyivka in the eastern Donetsk region as the enemy tries to inflict "maximum losses" on Ukrainian forces.

It said the Russian Air Force was bombarding military facilities in the direction of Donetsk in support of artillery and other ground operations aimed at dislodging Ukrainian units from the front lines.

Battlefield reports from either side in the rapidly developing conflict are difficult to confirm.

But Kyiv's military planners said their forces had repelled reconnaissance and offensive operations in a handful of settlements around Ivano-Daryivka, Bakhmut, and Zaitseve.

They said Russian forces had withdrawn after unsuccessful pushes around Avdiyivka and Krasnohorivka.

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Kyiv said two Russian warships armed with Kalibr cruise missiles are poised for battle off Ukraine's Black Sea coast.

Meanwhile, international concern persisted over the weekend shelling of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant over potential for disaster at Europe's largest atomic facility.

The head of the Ukrainian nuclear power company Enerhoatom has urged that Zaporizhzhya be declared a military-free zone to avoid nuclear catastrophe.

Zaporizhzhya was seized early in the five-month-old invasion but continues to be manned by Ukrainian staff.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that "any attack to a nuclear plant is a suicidal thing" in calling on August 8 for international inspectors to be given access to Zaporizhzhya.

The Russian-installed head of the local administration was quoted by Interfax as saying on August 8 that the facility was operating "in normal mode."

Washington and the World Bank announced more support for Ukraine on the heels of U.S. President Joe Biden's committing this week to the single largest package of security assistance under his so-called drawdown authority with $1 billion in aid that includes long-range weapons and medical transport vehicles.

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The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said on August 8 that Washington would provide $4.5 billion more in economic funding, nearly doubling the budgetary support so far since Russia's invasion began in February.

The World Bank said it will implement the U.S. grant, which it said is aimed at urgent needs including health-care, pensions, and social payments.

Also, Reuters cited a document in which Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, and the United Nations pledged to ensure a 10-nautical-mile buffer zone for ships exporting Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea.

The long-awaited procedures are part of intense international efforts to unblock millions of tons of grain stuck at Ukrainian ports since the invasion began.

With reporting by Reuters

Russia has informed the United States of a freeze on U.S. inspections of its nuclear weapons under the New START arms control treaty, claiming Western sanctions have hampered similar inspections of U.S. facilities by Russian monitors.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the sanctions on Russian flights imposed by the United States and its allies over Russia's invasion of Ukraine along with visa restrictions and other obstacles have effectively made it impossible for Russian military experts to visit U.S. nuclear weapons sites.

It said the conditions "create unilateral advantages for the United States and effectively deprive the Russian Federation of the right to conduct inspections on American territory."

The United States had no immediate response to the move.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the freeze is temporary and allowed under the pact "in exceptional cases."

It noted that Russia "highly values" the New START treaty and said it remains "fully committed" to complying with all its provisions.

It also said that after the problems are resolved Russia will "immediately lift the exemptions from inspection activities that we have announced."

The ministry also urged a "thorough study of all existing problems in this area, the successful settlement of which would allow a return to full-scale application as soon as possible of all verification mechanisms of the treaty."

The New START treaty, signed in 2010 by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers, and envisages sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance.

Just days before the New START was due to expire in February 2021, Russia and the United States agreed to extend it for another five years.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has called on Armenia to "refrain from new provocations" several days after Yerevan and Baku traded accusations over an escalation of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh that left at least three people dead.

Speaking at a gathering of Turkish diplomats in Ankara on August 8, Cavusoglu reiterated his country’s vision of peace in the South Caucasus region.

"Since the end of the war, Turkey continues to make efforts to ensure peace in the region," Cavusoglu said, alluding to the deadly six-week war between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas that ended with a Moscow-brokered cease-fire in November 2020.

Backed by Turkey, an archfoe of Armenia, Azerbaijan gained control of swathes of territory that had been controlled by ethnic Armenians since the former Soviet republics fought a war over Nagorno-Karabakh in the 1990s.

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"Now we are talking not about Azerbaijan's occupied territories, displaced people, refugees, and a conflict that can start again at any moment, but about regional peace and cooperation," Cavusoglu said. "We again call on Armenia to refrain from participating in new provocations [against Azerbaijan in Karabakh]."

On August 3, ethnic Armenian authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh said that two Armenian soldiers were killed and nearly two dozen others wounded in what they described as an attack by Azerbaijani forces against their military positions along the Lachin corridor conducted with the use of drones, mortars, and grenade launchers.

The Lachin corridor connects Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh and is currently controlled by Russian peacekeepers under the terms of the 2020 cease-fire.

Baku, for its part, said the operation was in retaliation for the killing of one Azerbaijani soldier by ethnic Armenian forces in the area on August 1.

Azerbaijan also claimed to have captured some strategic heights in the mountainous region overlooking the Lachin corridor.

Nagorno-Karabakh's ethnic Armenian leader Arayik Harutiunian ordered a "partial mobilization" of army reservists in the wake of the incidents. However, the situation did not further escalate amid reported agreements that ethnic Armenians would be leaving several villages along the Lachin corridor that are to be handed over to Azerbaijan as part of the cease-fire agreement.

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Despite what appears to be a deescalation of conflict in keeping with calls by Russia, the United States, and the European Union, the situation in and around Nagorno-Karabakh remains relatively tense as Armenians and Azerbaijanis continue to accuse each other of regular cease-fire violations.

Armenia said one of its soldiers was wounded along the border with Azerbaijan on August 6, a claim denied by Azerbaijan but confirmed by the Russian Defense Ministry in its latest news bulletin on the Nagorno-Karabakh peacekeeping operation.

Turkey, which is Azerbaijan's top military and political ally and has no diplomatic relations with Armenia, has been engaged in a normalization process with Yerevan since late last year.

Ankara, however, has made it clear that establishing diplomatic relations and opening borders with Armenia depends on Yerevan's acceptance of Baku's key demands.

Commenting on the prospect of normalizing Turkish-Armenian relations in July, Cavusoglu said that Yerevan should specifically negotiate a peace accord sought by Baku and open a land corridor to Azerbaijan's Nakhichevan exclave.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a conflict over Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh for years.

Nagorno-Karabakh, which had been populated mainly by ethnic Armenians, declared independence from Azerbaijan amid a 1988-94 war that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

Internationally mediated negotiations with the involvement of the OSCE's so-called Minsk Group -- co-chaired by France, Russia, and the United States -- failed to result in a resolution before war broke out again in September 2020.

In the aftermath of the war that killed more than 6,500 people, Armenia agreed to hand over three districts ringing Nagorno-Karabakh that had been under Armenian control since the 1990s, including the Lachin corridor, and Russia deployed some 2,000 peacekeepers to oversee the truce.

With reporting by RFE/RL Armenian Service correspondent Armen Koloyan

The United States has obtained a warrant to seize an Airbus jet owned by Russian oligarch Andrei Skoch, the Justice Department says.

The aircraft, valued at $90 million, is currently in Kazakhstan, according to an affidavit in support of the seizure warrant.

The warrant was signed by a U.S. district judge in New York after a federal agent submitted the affidavit, which also said Skoch was the owner of the Airbus "through a series of shell companies and trusts tied to his romantic partner."

Skoch, who is a member of the Russian State Duma, has been designated for sanctions since 2018 for alleged "long-standing ties to Russian organized criminal groups."

Further sanctions were imposed on him and his assets following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The Justice Department said after the Treasury Department designated Skoch in 2018 and continuing through 2021, U.S. dollar transactions were made to pay for the registration of the Airbus in Aruba and for aviation insurance premiums -- each necessary to maintain and operate the Airbus.

The United States and European Union have stepped up a crackdown on Russian oligarchs following Russian leader Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

They have moved to seize luxury estates, superyachts, and aircraft of Russian billionaires known to have ties to Putin in an effort to pressure people close to him and in turn influence his decisions on the war.

The United States had already revealed it was seeking to seize a $156 million superyacht belonging to Skoch. The 98-meter yacht is registered in the Cayman Islands but has most recently been docked at Port Rashid in Dubai.

With reporting by AFP and AP

An Armenian pro-government lawmaker has denied any major differences between Yerevan and Moscow over the role of Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh following deadly clashes in the disputed region last week.

Vigen Khachatrian, a member of the ruling Civil Contract faction led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, said on August 8 that there was no "tension" or "differences" with the Russian peacekeeping operation that has overseen a Moscow-brokered cease-fire between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces since November 2020.

The deadly clashes broke out between ethnic Armenian and Azerbaijani forces in early August along the Lachin corridor, an area that links Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh and which is under the control of Russian peacekeepers as part the trilateral cease-fire deal that ended a six-month war in 2020 between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions.

Following the renewed fighting last week that reportedly left two Armenian and one Azerbaijani soldier dead, Armenia accused Azerbaijan of violating the cease-fire, and Pashinian on August 4 called for "adjusting" the Russian peacekeeping operation.

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Azerbaijan has denied any cease-fire violations in or around Karabakh and accused Armenia of violating the agreement. The situation in the Lachin corridor and the "line of contact" monitored by Russian peacekeepers had been relatively calm since March.

Pashinian in particular suggested that the Russian contingent could be given a "broader international mandate."

"If we see that solutions are not possible in a trilateral [Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani] format, we will have to think about activating additional international mechanisms," Pashinian said on August 4.

The following day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow had not received any concrete proposals for any changes to the peacekeeping mandate from Pashinian and said that Russian peacekeepers were "making every effort to stabilize the situation on the ground."

However, Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vahan Hunanian said later on August 5 that in February 2021 the Armenian side submitted written concerns about the activities of the Russian peacekeeping contingent to Russia's top leadership, with the aim of improving efficiency and avoiding conflict in the future.

Armenia’s Foreign Ministry has not yet disclosed details of the 2021 document it says was submitted to Russia.

The exchange between the Armenian and Russian officials gave rise to speculation about a growing rift between Yerevan and Moscow.

Civil Contract lawmaker Khachatrian, however, said on August 8 it was more a lack of understanding.

"I don't think that the Foreign Ministry should publish the contents of every document. What was said is as much as could be said," he said.

Later on August 8, the Kremlin said in a statement that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Pashinian had discussed the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh by telephone.

Gegham Manukian, a member of the opposition Hayastan parliamentary faction who last year joined calls for Pashinian to step down following Armenia's defeat in the 2020 war, said it was unclear how the Armenian side envisions ways of raising the effectiveness of the Russian peacekeeping operation.

However, he did outline how his faction sees the situation.

"We should first discuss the issue of raising the number of Russian peacekeepers [deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh]," he said. "Secondly, we should reconsider the way the Russian force is deployed."

Baku and Yerevan have been locked in a conflict over Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh for years.

Armenian-backed separatists seized the mainly Armenian-populated region from Azerbaijan during a war in the early 1990s that killed some 30,000 people. Diplomatic efforts to settle the conflict between the two former Soviet republics brought little progress.

A multinational peacekeeping operation was discussed as part of the peace process before the renewed outbreak of war in 2020. But after Russia brokered the cease-fire, fellow OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs the United States and France welcomed Moscow's peacekeeping operation.

With reporting by Naira Nalbandian of RFE/RL's Armenian Service

The United States has announced another $1 billion in new military aid for Ukraine, pledging what will be the largest delivery yet of rockets, ammunition, and other arms from Defense Department stockpiles to Ukrainian forces.

The Pentagon announcement on August 8 came as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) pledged an additional $4.5 billion to Ukraine's government for basic services such as electricity flow to hospitals and the delivery of humanitarian supplies to Ukrainians.

The military aid includes additional rockets for high-mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS), which Ukraine says have been effective in helping its forces on the battlefield.

In addition to rockets for the HIMARS, the aid includes thousands of artillery rounds, mortar systems, Javelins, and other ammunition and equipment, the Pentagon said in a statement.

The aid is the 18th drawdown of equipment from Department of Defense inventories for Ukraine since August 2021.

"In total, the United States has now committed approximately $9.8 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration," acting Pentagon spokesman Todd Breasseale said in the statement.

Until now, the largest single security-assistance package announcement was for $1 billion on June 15. That aid included $650 million under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative in addition to a drawdown of $350 million.

USAID said the aid it announced on August 8 brings its total budgetary support since Russia's February invasion to $8.5 billion.

The funding, coordinated with the U.S. Treasury Department through the World Bank, will go to Ukraine's government in tranches, beginning with a $3 billion disbursement in August, USAID said in a news release.

The new funds are to help it maintain essential functions, including social and financial assistance for poor people, children with disabilities, and millions of internally displaced persons.

The World Bank estimates that 55 percent of Ukrainians will be living in poverty by the end of 2023 as a result of the war and the large numbers of displaced persons.

That compares with 2.5 percent living in poverty before the start of the war.

With reporting by AP

KALININGRAD, Russia -- A court in Russia's far western Kaliningrad exclave has sentenced an activist to one year in prison under a controversial law that criminalizes participation in more than one unsanctioned protest within a 180-day period.

Vadim Khairullin's lawyer, Maria Bontsler, told RFE/RL that her client was sentenced on August 8, emphasizing that the ruling will be appealed.

The case against Khairullin was launched in July 2021 after he staged three one-person pickets to support jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny.

The law under which Khairullin was sentenced was adopted in 2014 and heavily criticized by rights defenders, who called it an attempt to suppress dissent. The legislation is known as Dadin's law after Ildar Dadin, the first person convicted under the statute.

Dadin served more than a year in prison after he was convicted of the same offense in December 2015.

A court in Ukraine has sentenced a Russian soldier from Siberia to 10 years in prison for shelling a residential building in Ukraine's northern city of Chernihiv in late February.

A court in Chernihiv sentenced Sergeant Mikhail Kulikov on August 8 after he pleaded guilty to shooting a tank cannon at a high-rise building on February 26, two days after Russia started its ongoing, unprovoked invasion.

Kulikov said at the trial that he followed the command of his superior, who shouted that there was a person with a grenade launcher in the building, which later turned out to be false.

The shelling caused no casualties but destroyed two private apartments and technical premises in the building.

"I want to say to all who were affected by what I did both morally and physically that I am sorry. I have regretted what I did from the very beginning to this day. I am really sorry. Forgive me. I just want to go home to my family. Thank you for everything," Kulikov said at the trial.

Sources in Kulikov's native town of Zarinsk in the Altai region told RFE/RL that the 31-year-old Kulikov served as a gunner in a tank unit in the town of Aleisk.

Earlier in May, another Russian soldier from Siberia, Vadim Shishimarin of Irkutsk, was sentenced to life in prison for shooting to death a civilian in Ukraine's northeastern region of Sumy. That sentence was later changed to 15 years in prison.

Also in May, a court in the northeastern town of Kotelva sentenced two Russian soldiers, Aleksandr Ivanov and Aleksandr Bobykin, to 11 1/2 years in prison each after finding them guilty of shelling and destroying several residential buildings in the town of Kozacha Lopan and a school in the town of Veterinarne in the eastern Kharkiv region on February 24, the first day of Russia's full-scale invasion.

Iranian labor rights activist Narges Mansouri has not been released from prison despite her family having paid bail she was granted for temporary release, the watchdog Iran Human Rights says.

Iran Human Rights said a court six weeks ago granted Mansouri bail of 400 million tomans for her temporary release, and her family provided the amount and completed the registration process.

The rights group said the court continued to block her temporary release even while she is suffering from uterine fibroids and has been denied access to her chosen lawyer.

There has been no comment from the court to explain why she hadn't been released and no indication why she had been arrested, but Mansouri is one of 14 women activists in Iran who have publicly called for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to resign.

She and the other women also demanded a new political system to be installed that is framed by a new constitution that would secure dignity and equal rights for women.

Criticism of Khamenei, the octogenarian who has the last say on almost every decision in the Islamic republic, is considered a red line in Iran, and those accused often land in prison, where political prisoners are routinely held in solitary confinement and subjected to various forms of torture.

Mansouri has worked for the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company for more than 20 years and is a well-known labor rights activist. She has been arrested, interrogated, and tried many times in recent years.

On May 19, amid a wave of arrests of labor and political activists in Iran, the official IRNA news agency claimed that Mansouri was arrested by security agents while trying to leave the country.

Labor protests in Iran have been on the rise amid declining living standards, wage arrears, and a lack of insurance support. Labor law in Iran does not recognize the right of workers to form independent unions.

Authorities have cracked down on the protests, arresting many of those taking part.

With writing and reporting by Ardeshir Tayebi

The wife of a jailed Iranian filmmaker and activist says her husband was taken to the hospital for treatment of COVID-19 but was returned to prison without going through treatment.

Tahereh Saeedi, Jafar Panahi's wife, told RFE/RL that her husband was transferred to a hospital in Tehran and was expected to spend the quarantine period there. But the security agents suddenly removed an IV and took him back to prison.

"He has not had any contact with us since then and it is very unlike Jafar. It is not a good sign and I am very worried," Saeedi told RFE/RL on August 8.

The news of the well-known Iranian filmmaker's infection with COVID-19 was published on August 6, more than three weeks after his arrest.

In an audio file received by RFE/RL, Panahi said that after he tested positive for coronavirus he was transferred to the "patient room" to spend his illness and found it "ruined."

Then, with severe fever and chills, Panahi requested that prison authorities send him to a health center outside the prison for treatment, but his request was initially opposed.

Panah Panahi, Panahi's son, said on Instagram on August 7 that his father's transfer to the hospital was just for show.

"They brought him to say that we brought him to the hospital," he said. "They removed the serum from his hand in the middle of the treatment and put him in a car and returned him to prison."

Panahi, 62, was arrested earlier in July as part of a renewed crackdown by the Iranian authorities on dissent as anti-establishment sentiment and near-daily protests across the Islamic republic rattle the government.

Days prior to his arrest, Panahi was among more than 300 Iranian filmmakers and cultural activists who issued a statement condemning the arrests of activist cinematographers Mohammad Rasulof and Mostafa al-Ahmad.

SEE ALSO:

Iran Targets Cultural Elite In Bid To Stop Them Linking Up With Mass Protests

Panahi originally served two months in prison after his 2010 conviction before being granted a conditional release that was revocable. As part of his release, he was banned from directing or writing screenplays and from traveling abroad.

The filmmaker has won a number of international awards for films critiquing modern Iran, including the top prize in Berlin for Taxi in 2015 and best screenplay at Cannes for Three Faces in 2018.

With writing and reporting by Ardeshir Tayebi

Two more Russian sailors who were initially reported among 27 missing personnel after the Moskva missile cruiser sank off the Ukrainian coast in April have been confirmed dead.

Relatives of Vladimir Savin said on August 8 that they had received a death certificate for him.

Relatives of another sailor, Ivan Frantin, said the same day that the Defense Ministry informed them of Frantin's death and they were awaiting a death certificate.

Last week, Dmitry Shkrebets -- who had been demanding that Russian authorities find his son, who was serving aboard the Moskva -- said on social media that he had received a death certificate for his 20-year-old son, Yegor Shkrebets.

The Moskva missile cruiser sank on April 13. Since the ship went down, multiple reports have surfaced of relatives of those on board seeking information about their loved ones.

The ship's sinking was a significant blow to the Russian military in the weeks after it launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian authorities and the Pentagon have said the ship was hit by a Ukrainian missile attack, while Russian officials said the cruiser sank after by a fire on board detonated ammunition.

Russia's Defense Ministry said at the time that one crew member, identified as Ivan Vakhrushev, had died, and 27 were missing. Nearly 400 other crew members were evacuated to other ships in Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

Russian TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, known for delivering a live on-air anti-war protest in March, has been again convicted of "discrediting" the country's armed forces in social-media posts condemning Moscow's actions in Ukraine.

The Cheryomushki district court in Moscow on August 8 ordered the former editor of Channel One TV to pay a fine of 40,000 rubles ($660) for her latest online posts protesting Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine, which was launched unprovoked in February.

Ovsyannikova's lawyers insisted that the latest charges be returned to prosecutors, saying that their client was wrongfully informed about the case against her because investigators had sent the papers to the wrong address.

Ovsyannikova said at the hearing that she learned about the case from other journalists while she was abroad.

Last week, Moscow's Meshchansky district court fined Ovsyannikova 50,000 rubles ($825) on the same charge of discrediting the military in connection with her one-person protest in front of the Kremlin in early July in which she held a poster saying that Russian President Vladimir "Putin is a murderer, his soldiers are fascists" and displaying photos of children killed in Ukraine.

She was not detained at the time but was arrested days later on July 17 at her home in Moscow.

Ovsyannikova gained international recognition on March 14 when she burst onto the set of Channel One's Vremya news program holding a poster reading: "Stop the war. Don't believe propaganda. They are lying to you" in Russian. She also shouted: "Stop the war. No to war."

Ovsyannikova was a producer with Channel One at the time of her protest. She was later detained and fined 30,000 rubles by a court for calling for illegal protests.

Ovsyannikova resigned from Channel One and spent several months abroad, including in Ukraine, repeatedly expressing her condemnation of the war.

For three months she trained at the German publication Die Welt. In early July, she announced her return to Russia.

Russia has stepped up detentions and prosecution of journalists, activists, and others who challenge the Kremlin line on its invasion of Ukraine, which it calls a "special operation" and not a war.

The European Union has called on member states to cut natural-gas use by 15 percent under a new plan intended to prepare the bloc for a possible halt in Russian supplies.

The plan, approved two weeks ago and published as a European Council regulation on August 8, will apply for one year and is reportedly expected to go into force on August 9.

"Considering the imminent danger to the security of gas supply brought about by the Russian military aggression against Ukraine, this regulation should enter into force as a matter of urgency," according to the text of the regulation.

Under the plan, EU countries are expected to do their best to voluntarily reduce their gas consumption by 15 percent between August 1 and March 31 compared to the average consumption over the same period the past five years.

According to European Commission, a total of 45 billion cubic meters of gas must be saved to reach the target over the next seven months, and Germany alone would have to consume around 10 billion cubic meters less. Germany accounts for about 40 percent of the Russian gas imported by the European Union.

Some countries that depend heavily on Russian gas imports, such as Hungary, have demanded exemptions from the new gas-saving measures.

In the event that the European Commission determines there is a "severe gas supply shortage" or exceptionally high demand for natural gas, it can ask the 27 EU members to declare an alert that would allow the bloc to make the cuts binding and limit exceptions.

The aim of the gas savings is to prepare for a possible total cut of Russian gas supplies to the European Union.

SEE ALSO:

Boom To Bust: Putin Sacrifices Gazprom's Lucrative European Market, 'Geopolitical Heft' In War With Ukraine

While the bloc has not introduced sanctions against Russian natural gas over the war in Ukraine, Moscow has significantly reduced gas supplies to the bloc in recent months in what Brussels sees as a retaliatory measure following the imposition of other EU measures intended to punish the Kremlin for launching the war.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned last week that Europe must prepare for the "worst situation" with regard to Russian gas supplies.

With reporting by dpa and AFP

Yevgeny Balitsky, the Moscow-appointed head of Ukraine's southeastern Zaporizhzhya region, has officially ordered a local referendum on the possibility of the province joining the Russian Federation.

Balitsky signed the order at an event held by the We Are Together With Russia movement in the city of Melitopol on August 8.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, how Kyiv is fighting back, Western military aid, worldwide reaction, and the plight of civilians and refugees. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

The move comes hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that if referendums on joining Russia proceed in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, there can be no peace talks on ending the war launched by Russia against Ukraine nearly six months ago.

"Our country's position remains what it always has been. We will give up nothing of what is ours," Zelenskiy said in his nightly address on August 7. "If the occupiers proceed along the path of pseudo-referendums they will close for themselves any chance of talks with Ukraine and the free world, which the Russian side will clearly need at some point."

On August 8, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Zelenskiy's statement was misdirected if he was addressing Russian citizens or leadership, suggesting that the referendums were the will of the residents of Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, said on August 8 that Ukrainian armed forces had hit Russian occupying forces overnight, using U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers.

According to the Ukrainian side, a "significant" amount of Russian military equipment was destroyed and more than 100 Russian troops were killed in the attack.

A representative of the Russia-imposed authorities in Zaporizhzhya, Vladimir Rogov, rejected the Ukrainian statement, saying that Russian troops were able to fend off the Ukrainian attack in Melitopol.

A significant part of the Zaporizhzhya region, including Melitopol, was occupied by Russian troops in the first days of Russia's unprovoked and full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February.

Russia-appointed officials in Zaporizhzhya and another Ukrainian region, Kherson, have said they plan to hold referendums on joining Russia.

Moscow officials have said that such referendums may be held in September.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, TASS, and RIA Novosti

Russian troops shelled positions held by Ukrainian troops and several populated areas in various directions, Ukraine's General Staff said as Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) said it had foiled a plot to kill two top government officials.

In the Donetsk region, Russian troops are trying to inflict "maximum losses" on Ukrainian units and prevent their transfer to other fronts, the General Staff said in its evening assessment of the day's fighting.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, how Kyiv is fighting back, Western military aid, worldwide reaction, and the plight of civilians and refugees. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

"Our soldiers repelled enemy assaults in the direction of the settlements of Bakhmut, Zaytseve, Vershina, and Kodem," the General Staff announced.

It said Russian attempts to attack in the direction of Avdiyivka and Piskiv were stopped and the enemy troops withdrew.

Attempts to break through the defense of the Ukrainian forces in the directions of Maryinka and Shevchenko were also unsuccessful, the report said.

In the north, the shelling of border settlements in the Chernihiv and Sumy regions, as well as Russian aerial reconnaissance, continued.

"In the Kharkiv direction, enemy units using tanks, barrel, and rocket artillery are trying to restrain the Defense Forces from advancing deep into the territory temporarily captured by the enemy," the report said.

Russian ships on the Black Sea launched four Kalibr sea-based cruise missiles early on August 8. All were shot down by Ukrainian air defenses, the Ukrainian military said.

The claims, which could not be independently verified, came as the SBU said it had arrested Russian agents who were planning to assassinate the defense minister and the military intelligence chief.

The SBU said it arrested "killers from the Russian special services" who were plotting the assassinations of Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov and military intelligence boss Kyrylo Budanov.

It published a video on Telegram showing an armed group subduing and handcuffing two men in civilian clothing who were approaching a car.

The arrests took place in Kovel in northwestern Ukraine. The SBU said one of the alleged plotters arrived in the country from Russia via Belarus.

It claimed the men were preparing "the physical liquidation" of the two top officials and an unnamed "Ukrainian activist." It said each killing was to be rewarded with a sum of $100,000 to $150,000.

SEE ALSO:

In Ukraine, New Battle Lines Are Drawn: Look To The South

Earlier on August 8, Kirill Stremousov, the Moscow-appointed deputy head of the military-civilian administration of the Kherson region, told reporters that Ukrainian rockets again damaged the Antonivskiy Bridge overnight, destroying equipment being used to repair the bridge.

Stremousov added that the reopening of the bridge, which has been closed to all traffic since it was attacked by Ukrainian-operated HIMARS on July 26-27, will be postponed for an unspecified period. The bridge was first targeted by Ukrainian forces on July 19-20, seriously damaging the bridge and temporarily halting heavy truck traffic.

The Antonivskiy Bridge is the only bridge in Kherson that links the banks of the Dnieper River. About 1 1/2 kilometers long and 25 meters wide, the bridge is the only route to supply Russian occupying forces in Kherson.

The United States announced later on August 8 that it will supply Ukraine with an additional $1 billion in military aid, including rockets for the HIMARS and other ammunition. It is the largest delivery yet to Ukraine of arms from Department of Defense stockpiles.

SEE ALSO:

U.S. Announces Billions In Military, Budgetary Aid To Ukraine

The U.S. Defense Department also said up to 80,000 people have been killed or injured on the Russian side in the war.

Pentagon official Colin Kahl told reporters in Washington that Russia had suffered a "tremendous number of casualties" in its war on Ukraine.

He said the estimate was "pretty remarkable considering that in Ukraine, the Russians have achieved none of Vladimir Putin's objectives at the beginning of the war."

With reporting by AFP

Police in Iran have arrested an Afghan national suspected of stabbing 10 people to death following a dispute over land, domestic media reported on August 8.

Rahman Jalali, deputy governor of Iran's southeastern Kerman Province, told state media that the unidentified man was arrested on suspicion of killing six Afghans and four Iranians in Rafsanjan on August 7 over “personal differences.”

Jalali said eight people were wounded in the attack.

The state broadcaster said the suspect was reportedly "mentally unstable."

Some reports suggested that the man had attempted to commit suicide before his arrest.

Iran has hosted millions of Afghan refugees for decades.

With reporting by AP and IRNA

Former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich has been reelected as the head of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), defeating a Ukrainian challenger who said the incumbent was part of Moscow's "war machine."

A total of 157 out of 179 national chess associations voted for Dvorkovich on August 7 at FIDE's general assembly in India, the international governing body said in a statement.

Ukrainian grandmaster Andriy Baryshpolets, who challenged Dvorkovich, won just 16 votes.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov welcomed Dvorkovich's victory.

"The election of the head of FIDE is very important, it's a global event, and of course we were rooting for Dvorkovich, a Russian citizen," Peskov was quoted as saying by Russian media.

SEE ALSO:

Former Chess Champion Kasparov Says Russian Opposition Can Only Exist Outside The Country

A number of Russian officials have been hit with sanctions since the Kremlin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February, and Russian competitors have been banned by numerous international sports governing bodies.

But Dvorkovich, 50, who served under President Vladimir Putin as deputy prime minister from 2012-2018 when he was elected FIDE president, retained his position.

Baryshpolets had said before the vote at the FIDE general assembly in Chennai that Dvorkovich has "tremendous ties to the Russian government."

"You, Arkady, are responsible for what is happening in Ukraine now. You are responsible for building up the Russian government and Russia's war machine. And we as a chess world, how can we afford this?" Baryshpolets said.

But Dvorkovich said that he took "a strong position [on the] tragic events in Ukraine" and that he had backed the scaling down of Russian involvement in FIDE.

In March, Dvorkovich appeared to criticize the Russian invasion, saying in an interview that his "thoughts are with Ukrainian civilians."

"Wars do not just kill priceless lives. Wars kill hopes and aspirations, freeze or destroy relationships and connections," Dvorkovich told the U.S. news site Mother Jones.

The comments drew flak in Russia and Dvorkovich later seemed to walk back the comments, saying there was "no place for Nazism or the domination of some countries over others.”

The Kremlin has often described its war effort as a part of a campaign to defeat alleged Nazism in Ukraine and the West.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters