Eastern Europe / News
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Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing seeks closer ties with Putin
Russia is one of the few major countries to have maintained close ties with Myanmar’s military rulers since the 2021 coup. Much of the West has instead isolated the government.
Poland says Russia hired an assassin to kill an American in Warsaw, as sabotage and covert operations raise their head again
Poland says it stopped a Russian-directed plot to murder a US citizen in Warsaw - the first time, its prime minister says, that Moscow has tried to kill an American inside another Nato country.
Ukraine starts burying power substations ahead of a fourth winter of strikes
Ukraine has begun putting parts of its electricity grid underground, betting that concrete and depth will do what air defence has not.
Russia charges an escort over the bin bomb that killed Ukraine's submarine defector
The officer who handed Ukraine's only submarine to Russia in 2014 has been blown up by a bomb hidden in a rubbish bin in Sevastopol.
Armenia orders its banks to block payments that dodge Russia sanctions
Armenian banks must now identify and freeze payments designed to slip past Western sanctions on Russia, under central bank rules that took effect on August 12.
Putin asked to place Nestlé's Russian units under 'temporary management'
Russian firm KS Logistika has asked President Vladimir Putin to place five of Nestlé's Russian units under "temporary management."
Russia demands answers from US, Turkey over cluster bombs for Ukraine
Turkey wants to hand Ukraine a stockpile of American cluster bombs that has been sitting in its depots since the 1980s. Moscow has asked Washington and Ankara to explain themselves.
The Black Sea war sends world wheat prices up
The US Department of Agriculture has cut its forecasts for Russian and Ukrainian grain exports because of the Black Sea shipping war. The prices of every rival exporter have gone up.
Russia's fuel crisis is back as Ukraine continues to knock out Russian refineries
Petrol rationing is back across Russia, and this time a governor has admitted his region's refinery will be out of action for six months.
Russia's defence ministry threatens to freeze Ukraine this winter
Russia's defence ministry has put its winter plan for Ukraine on Telegram: a photograph of attack drones in flight, captioned "just like snow on your head".
Ukraine starts testing interceptor drones that can bring down Russia’s new jet-powered drones
Ukraine has begun combat-testing jet-powered interceptor drones fast enough to run down Russia's new jet Shaheds.
Ukraine’s dragging of Wildberries into war hits Uzbekistan as exporters complain of lost business
With losses mounting up, Uzbek entrepreneur reflects that one of the Russian ecommerce giant’s warehouses “burns down almost every day."
Ukraine targeting Novorossiysk, Russia's last functioning Black Sea port
Ukraine, a country with no navy, has driven Russia's Black Sea Fleet out of Crimea to Novorossiysk, and has now struck its warships in that last refuge, damaging four.
Ukraine halted Black Sea tanker strikes after Vance's July 31 call with Zelenskyy, FT reports
Ukraine halted tanker strikes near Russia's Novorossiysk port after a July 31 Vance-Zelenskyy call, the Financial Times reported, as Washington moved to shield Chevron and Exxon's Kazakh oil interests.
Ukraine and Russia trade heaviest overnight strikes in weeks as 40-day campaign passes $8bn in damage
Ukraine hit Novorossiysk's grain terminal, a Wildberries warehouse and an Orenburg refinery overnight; Russia answered with a North Korean-missile strike on Zaporizhzhia that killed six and wounded dozens.
Ukraine stops publishing Russian missile-attack data as interceptor shortage bites
Ukraine's air force has stopped publishing how many missiles Russia fires each night, days after failing to intercept a single one of 28 missiles launched on August 5.
Russia releases former US Marine Robert Gilman without prisoner swap after Putin pardon
Russia has freed ailing former US Marine Robert Gilman on humanitarian grounds without a prisoner exchange, President Donald Trump said on August 11, after Vladimir Putin approved a pardon.
Ukraine hits Russia with hundreds of drones, Moscow warns even bigger missile salvos on the way
Ukraine launched a barrage of more than 450 drones against Russia overnight on August 10, targeting 16 regions and occupied Crimea in one of its deepest and broadest strikes of the war, as Moscow's own military says it plans to sharply scale up.
Hormuz shipping traffic halves as fading Iran deal hopes squeeze diesel supply
Hormuz shipping traffic fell to six vessels on August 10, half the 10-day average, as fading US-Iran deal hopes and fresh refinery attacks pushed diesel prices sharply higher.
Russia pounds Kyiv as Ukraine hits refineries and shadow fleet tankers over bloody weekend
"Last night, Russia killed three people in Pukhivka, Kyiv region, with drone strikes – a grandfather, a grandmother, and their grandson.