Current Time is the Russian-language TV and digital network run by RFE/RL.
The First Court of Appeals of Common Jurisdiction in Moscow has rejected an appeal filed by well-known Ukrainian human rights defender Maksym Butkevych against a 13-year prison sentence he was handed by Russia-imposed authorities in Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in March.
More than 30 residents from the village of Serebryanka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region have refused to evacuate as Russian forces increase rocket attacks nearby. Volunteers have been striving to get pensioners to leave areas in danger throughout Ukraine but many will not abandon their homes.
Vitaliy Shumey is being treated at a specialist neurorehabilitation center in Spain after losing part of his skull in a Russian attack. His case, and his father's devoted care, have attracted widespread attention in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived on August 21 in Greece for talks with the country's leaders and to attend an informal meeting of representatives of Balkan countries and top European Union officials.
The massive crackdown on dissent in Belarus over the past three years has left nearly 1,500 political prisoners behind bards, according to a prominent human rights group. Many of them have their young children waiting on the other side for them to be released.
The Russian Justice Ministry on August 18 added seven more individuals to its foreign agents list, including prominent Kremlin critics Andrei Piontkovsky, Andrei Illarionov, and Linor Goralik.
Lithuania closed two of its six border checkpoints with Belarus on August 18 in a move it announced earlier this month citing the security risk posed by Russia's Wagner mercenary group. Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland have increased border security since Wagner fighters from Russia arrived in Belarus.
The Minsk City Court has sentenced Natallya Petrovich, a 68-year-old Belarusian citizen, to six years in prison and fined her 3,000 Belarusian rubles ($1,183) for comments she made online about officials.
Belarusian authorities have designated two 19th-century poems by a writer who is considered a father of Belarusian literature as extremist.
Wearing pink fashion, young Russians are flocking to movie theaters to watch pirated versions of the Hollywood blockbuster Barbie. Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Hollywood studios halted releases in Russian cinemas.
Yelena Kostyuchenko believes she was poisoned last year in Germany, where she fled following her critical reporting in Ukraine while covering Russia's full-scale invasion. Kostyuchenko told Current Time that she experienced disorientation, stomach pains, swelling, and other symptoms.
Kazakh authorities have refused to grant asylum to two Karakalpak activists who face extradition to Uzbekistan, where supporters say they would face serious risk of politically motivated prosecution and torture over last year's mass protests in Uzbekistan's Karakalpak Autonomous Republic.
A court in occupied Crimea has imposed a 15,000-ruble ($152) fine on three young women for dancing to a song by a Ukrainian singer.
A court has ordered one of Russia's most prominent TV journalists, Aleksandr Nevzorov, who fled Russia in March 2022, to pay 20,000 rubles ($205) for "extremist" thoughts he expressed in his interview with RFE/RL's Belarus Service and on his YouTube channel about Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
On the third anniversary of a disputed presidential vote in Belarus, opposition activists demanded justice for protesters jailed and beaten in a brutal crackdown. Unprecedented demonstrations erupted after Alyaksandr Lukashenka declared victory in an election widely seen as rigged.
The director of the Russian soccer club Dinamo Moscow, Pavel Pivovarov, said on August 10 that Norwegian player Mathias Normann had terminated his contract with Russian clubs over recent drone attacks in Moscow.
A Russian strike on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhya killed at least one person and wounded 14 others, Ukrainian officials said on August 10, a day of heavy fighting across the front line that prompted the mandatory evacuation of dozens of settlements in an embattled eastern region.
A Ukrainian firm has developed low-cost boots that can help protect mine-clearance teams from injury. Owner Ihor Yefimenko says the boots, which cost $400 and are 3D-printed, are significantly cheaper than Western imports.
A court in Russian Urals city of Yekaterinburg on August 9 fined a local branch of the Memorial human rights group 300,000 rubles ($3,110) for allegedly discrediting Russia's armed forces involved in Moscow's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Local officials in Russia say an explosion at an optical plant in the city of Sergiyev Posad, about 70 kilometers outside Moscow, killed one person and injured at least 43 people on August 9.
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