A text co-written by a Ukrainian woman and a Russian woman and set to be included on April 15 at a Good Friday procession in Rome was scrapped after a Ukrainian archbishop called it incoherent and offensive. The participation of the two women in the candlelight Way of the Cross service had already been criticized by Ukrainian officials, with no response from the Vatican, but a decision was made to replace the text they wrote -- a meditation speaking of death, loss of values, rage, resignation, and reconciliation despite the bombings. Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of Ukraine's Byzantine-rite Catholic Church, said the text was "incoherent and even offensive, especially in the context of the expected second, even bloodier attack of Russian troops on our cities and villages." The traditional Way of the Cross procession at Rome's Colosseum became embroiled in controversy earlier this week when the program showed that the two women, who work together at a Rome hospital and are friends, would take part. The candlelight service consists of the 14 stations of the cross that trace events leading to the condemnation, death, and burial of Jesus. Participants who carry the cross from one station to the next often reflect world events in their meditations. Shevchuk initially complained about their inclusion, saying it was inopportune because it did not "take into account the context of Russia's military aggression against Ukraine." Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See, Andriy Yurash, joined the archbishop in objecting to the Vatican’s plan to include them, saying it projected the idea of reconciliation at a time when Ukraine is being ravaged by a war unleashed by Russia. Prior to the procession, the original text of their meditation of some 200 words was replaced with two sentences: "Faced with death, silence is the most eloquent of words. Let us all pause in silent prayer and each one pray in their hearts for peace in the world." The crowd of several thousand people fell silent for about as long as it would have taken to read the original, longer meditation. Francis, 85, watched the procession sitting on white chair. It was the first time the procession had been held since before the pandemic. In his own final prayer, the pope asked God to allow "adversaries to shake hands so they can taste mutual forgiveness, to disarm the hand raised by a brother against a brother, so that concord can spring from where there is now hate." Pope Francis, wearing red vestments to symbolize the blood of Jesus, presided earlier at a Good Friday service at the Vatican, recalling the last hours of Jesus’s life on Earth.
The service is one of the few events at which the pope does not deliver a homily, which was delivered by Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa.
"This year, we celebrate Easter not to the joyful sound of bells, but with the noise in our ears of bombs and explosions not far from here," Cantalamessa said, referring to the war in Ukraine.
Paraphrasing the biblical peace call to "beat your swords into plowshares and your spears into pruning hooks," Cantalamessa spoke of beating "missiles into factories and homes."
Good Friday is the most solemn day of Holy Week, which culminates in Easter Sunday. The holiday falls on April 24 this year for Orthodox Christians.
Francis will lead an Easter Vigil Mass in the basilica on April 16 before saying Mass in St. Peter's Square on April 17, and then delivering his twice-yearly Urbi et Orbi (To the City and the World) message and blessing.
While Francis has denounced the February 24 invasion and attacks on Ukraine as a “sacrilege,'' he has refrained from naming Russia as the aggressor, although references to Russian Vladimir Putin have been clear.
The pope is pressing for negotiations to cease the fighting and bring peace and has offered to go to Ukraine if his presence could further the cause of peace.
Speaking to Italian television station RAI, the pontiff reiterated his pacifist stance.
"We live according to an idea where we kill each other because of the need for power, for security, for many things," Francis said. "I understand governments that buy weapons. I understand them, but I don't approve of it."
BISHKEK -- Kyrgyzstan's State Committee for National Security (UKMK) says its officers have detained three alleged jihadists in the Central Asian country's southern region of Batken.
One of the suspects detained on August 26, identified as Abu Nur, was said by the UKMK to be the leader of the extremist group. The group was allegedly involved in robberies for many years to raise money to support terrorist organizations in Syria.
Another detained man was allegedly a member of a criminal group led by Kadyr Dosonov, also known as Jengo.
The third suspect, the UKMK said, was a member of the Caucasus Emirate (Imarat Kavkaz) terrorist group and was involved in the distribution of extremist materials.
Security officers confiscated three military grenades, ammunition, three military knives, as well "a large number" of extremist religious texts and books.
The European Union will hold emergency talks to address the energy crisis brought on by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, whose country currently holds the EU Presidency, announced in a tweet on August 26 that the bloc's energy ministers would soon convene "to discuss specific emergency measures to address the energy situation."
No date has been announced for the meeting.
The 27-country bloc has taken steps to lessen its dependence on Russian energy imports and recently introduced a plan calling on member states to cut natural gas use by 15 percent.
The plan was introduced to prepare for a possible halt of Russian natural gas supplies, a concern that has risen with the recent announcement that a key pipeline will be temporarily shut down for maintenance.
Russia's dominant role as an energy supplier to the European Union has led to concerns that Moscow could limit supplies during winter as payback for EU sanctions introduced to punish Russia for its unprovoked war against Ukraine.
Record natural gas and electricity prices have been reported in the European Union in recent weeks.
Czech Industry and Trade Minister Jozef Sikela wrote on Twitter on August 26 that the EU Energy Council should meet "at the earliest possible date".
"We are in an energy war with Russia and it is damaging the whole EU," he wrote.
PODGORICA -- Montenegro suspects Russian involvement in a massive cyberattack targeting government websites and infrastructure, the second such attack on the Balkan country in less than a week.
A high-ranking source with the National Security Agency (ANB) told RFE/RL's Balkan Service that "critical state infrastructure" was targeted in the early morning cyberattack on August 26 and that Russian security services are suspected of involvement.
The ANB source, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, described the cyberattack as "unprecedented" in scale and said it was prepared over a long period of time.
The government has not announced the extent of the damage, but Public Administration Minister Maras Dukaj tweeted on August 26 that the attack was directed at the government's IT infrastructure and that "state authorities" were the primary target.
Dakaj said that some services had been temporarily disabled for security reasons but that the data of both citizens and businesses was secure. Dakaj also wrote that allies of Montenegro, a NATO member, had been notified of the attack.
Russian state security bodies have been accused of involvement in numerous hacking attacks and cyberattacks targeting Western governments and businesses in recent years. Experts have warned about the increased dangers of such attacks following Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February, which led Western countries to impose punitive sanctions against Moscow.
Russia has denied any involvement in the cyberattacks.
Montenegro was also hit by a cyberattack on August 23. The government's IT structures, Interior Ministry, and Prosecutor-General's Office were all involved in the investigation into that attack.
In the wake of the August 26 attack, the National Council for Information Security announced that it plans to hold a special session to discuss the issue.
Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic said on August 26 that the two attacks were politically motivated, suggesting that there was a link between the cyberattacks and the lawmakers' planned August 20 no-confidence vote on his government.
ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- The mayor of Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, says that all Soviet-era bomb shelters for civilians will be restored as security concerns grow across countries of the former Soviet Union after Moscow launched its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Erbolat Dosaev said at a meeting with residents of Almaty's Almaly district on August 26 that the bomb shelters will be restored and renovated over the next three years at the personal request of President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev.
Answering a resident's question about the reasons for the move, Dosaev said the program -- which he called part of the "restoration of Soviet-time historic sites" -- was launched because the commercial capital of the oil-rich Central Asian nation is located in a seismically unsafe area.
Media reports in Kazakhstan have said that of some 300 bomb shelters in Almaty that were built during Soviet times, only about 100 are still able to be used by civilians.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, many bomb shelters were turned into private businesses such as shops, beauty salons, casinos, bars, and restaurants.
The Kazakh leadership has been trying to strike a balance between Russia, China and NATO member-state Turkey amid fears that Moscow's geopolitical ambitions could spread well beyond Ukraine.
Last month, Toqaev signed a decree according to which an additional 441 billion tenges ($939.5 million) will be spent to support the nation's defense sector, a nearly 1.5-fold increase over last year’s budget of $1.7 billion.
Since Russia launched its full-scale aggression against Ukraine in late February, Kazakhstan has declined to officially offer its full support to either Moscow or Kyiv.
Germany's Foreign Ministry has confirmed the arrest of a German national in Iran for allegedly taking pictures in "prohibited areas."
The ministry declined to provide further details, but sources told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that the 66-year-old male has been in prison in Iran for more than a month.
The sources added that the man was arrested more than 40 days ago and has spent half of his time in custody in solitary confinement. He is now imprisoned in the general ward of Aran and Bidgol prison near the Iranian central city of Kashan, they said. The man reportedly visited several cities as he toured Iran on a motorcycle, including Tehran and Tabriz. German authorities only found out about his arrest after he lost contact with his family, which prompted them to seek help from the German Embassy in Iran. The German Foreign Ministry said its mission in Tehran has had access to the man, but further details could not be disclosed. Iranian judicial and security authorities have yet to announce the arrest of the German citizen. Two Iranian-German dual citizens, Jamshid Sharmahd and Nahid Taghvi, were already being held in Iran, which has arrested dozens of foreigners and dual nationals in recent years, often on widely criticized espionage and security-related charges. Western countries have repeatedly charged that Iran is trying to take advantage of foreign countries by taking dual and foreign nationals hostage. The arrest of the German national also comes as Iran and world powers are reportedly about to reach agreement on reviving the 2015 deal over Tehran's nuclear program.
BAKU -- Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev says his country’s armed forces have taken control over the key town of Lachin, which links the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, that had been under the control of Russian peacekeepers since November 2020.
Aliyev wrote on Twitter on August 26 that Azerbaijani armed forces also now control the villages of Zabux and Sus in the Lachin district.
Armenia lost control over parts of the breakaway region and seven adjacent districts, including Lachin, as part of the Russian-brokered cease-fire after a six-week war over Nagorno-Karabakh broke out in 2020, leaving more than 6,500 dead. An estimated 2,000 Russian troops have been deployed to monitor the situation.
The peace agreement signed by Yerevan, Baku, and Moscow to end the 2020 war said that the 5-kilometer-wide Lachin corridor, including the town of Lachin, would remain under Russian peacekeeping control until the construction of a new route connecting Armenia with Nagorno-Karabakh is outlined in three years.
Earlier this month, Baku forcibly took control of several strategic heights near the disputed region, and Aliyev said in a public statement that people who "illegally settled" in Lachin, Zabux, and Sus should leave the area "on their own will."
He added that families of Azerbaijanis who had been forced to leave the territory 30 years ago would be returning.
Many ethnic Armenians in Lachin, Zabux, and Sus -- known as Berdzor, Aghavno, and Nerkin Sus by Armenians -- have left their homes in recent weeks after de facto officials of the disputed region said that Russian peacekeepers will leave the area by August 25 as the new route connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia will start functioning in early September.
Nagorno-Karabakh, which along with seven adjacent districts had been under ethnic Armenian control for nearly three decades prior to the war in 2020, is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.
The United States is establishing a new ambassadorial position for the Arctic as NATO has stressed the strategic challenges Russia's increased activity in the increasingly competitive region poses for the military alliance.
"The ambassador-at-large for the Arctic region will advance U.S. policy in the Arctic, engage with counterparts in Arctic and non-Arctic nations, as well as indigenous groups," the U.S. State Department said in an August 26 statement.
The United States is one of the eight littoral states of the Arctic and is a member of the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum that promotes cooperation in region.
Competition over the Arctic's natural resources has increased in recent years, with Russia investing heavily in military security, mining efforts, and expanded trade routes.
Moscow has also attempted to expand its zone in the Arctic region, based on its claims that a ridge beneath the Arctic Ocean is an extension of its territory.
During a visit to the Canadian Arctic on August 26, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg lauded Canada's recently announced investments in new defense systems in the region.
"The importance of the High North is increasing for NATO and for Canada because we see a significant Russian military buildup," Stoltenberg said.
Stoltenberg noted that Moscow had reopened hundreds of Soviet-era military facilities in the Arctic and warned that Russia and China were partnering to challenge NATO's values and interests in the region.
Following Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February, Canada announced in June that it plans to invest $3.8 billion to upgrade NORAD, a joint U.S.-Canadian defense organization for North America, over the next six years.
Climate change is also a great source of concern in the Arctic region, which is home to numerous indigenous peoples whose livelihoods have been greatly affected by environmental changes.
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev has approved a new leader for the Central Asian nation's Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan, where 21 people were killed last month during unrest sparked by a move to curtail the region's autonomy.
Mirziyoev attended a session of Karakalpakstan's Supreme Council (Jokargy Kenes) in the regional capital, Nukus, on August 26, where, after his approval, Amanbai Orynbaev was elected as council chairman.
Orynbaev's predecessor, Murat Kamalov, was removed from the post earlier in the day.
On July 1, mass protests broke out in Nukus and other cities in the republic after changes initiated by Mirziyoev were proposed to the Uzbek Constitution, including the removal of language that guaranteed the right of Karakalpakstan to seek independence should its citizens choose to do so in a referendum.
Amid a darkening protest mood in the region, Mirziyoev visited Nukus on July 2, where he publicly backed away from the plans.
The European Union has called for an independent investigation into the violent events in Karakalpakstan at the time.
Karakalpaks are a Turkic-speaking people of Central Asia. Their region used to be an autonomous area within Kazakhstan before becoming an autonomy within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1930 and then part of Uzbekistan in 1936.
Thousands of Iranians attended a funeral procession in Tehran for prominent poet Houshang Ebtehaj, whose life and work spans many of Iran's political, cultural, and literary upheavals.
Born in 1928, Ebtehaj, considered by many as the last living old-school Iranian poet, died on August 10 in Germany. According to his daughter Yalda Ebtahaj, the cause of death was kidney failure. Local media reported that after the funeral ceremony in front of Vahdat Hall in Tehran, Ebtahaj's body will be transferred to his hometown, Rasht, to be buried.
In addition to romantic themes in Ebtehaj's poems, socialist politics was considered the center of his identity. Ebtehaj sympathized with the Tudeh Communist Party of Iran and spent some time in prison after the overthrow of the monarchy in Iran in 1979. Ebtehaj was finally released in 1984 after the famous Iranian poet Mohammad Hossein Shahryar requested Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the president of Iran at the time, release him. Ebtehaj had lived in Germany since the late 1980s.
French President Emmanuel Macron says it is now up to Iran to decide whether a 2015 nuclear pact can be revived amid signs of momentum toward an agreement is building.
Speaking to reporters during a trip to Algeria on August 26, Macron declined to speculate on the chances of an agreement being reached but said a deal based on the terms presented by the EU would be "better than no agreement."
"Now the ball is in Iran's court," Macron said.
After the EU sent the proposed text to both Tehran and Washington in late July, Iran responded with several comments last week.
Washington formally responded to Tehran's comments on the draft text two days ago, with Iranian officials saying they are now reviewing the U.S. response.
Washington has said it was encouraged by Iran appearing to drop some of its demands such as the lifting of the terrorism designation for Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) but added there were still outstanding issues that must be resolved.
Iran reached the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015 with the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Russia, and China. The deal saw Iran agree to limit its enrichment of uranium under the watch of UN inspectors in exchange for the lifting of most economic sanctions.
In 2018, Washington unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear pact under then-President Donald Trump, reintroducing crippling sanctions. Iran reacted by gradually backtracking on its obligations under the deal, such as uranium enrichment.
Negotiators from Iran, Russia, and the EU -- as well as the United States, indirectly -- resumed talks over Tehran’s nuclear deal on August 4 in Vienna after a months-long standstill in negotiations.
Iran has sought to obtain guarantees that no future U.S. president would renege on the JCPOA if it were revived.
However, President Joe Biden cannot provide such ironclad assurances because the deal is a political understanding rather than a legally binding treaty.
MINSK -- Belarus's authoritarian ruler, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, says his country's Su-24 military planes have been re-fitted to enable them to carry nuclear weapons.
Lukashenka, who has allied himself with the Kremlin in Russia's war against Ukraine, said on August 26 that he had agreed to the move with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"[The West] must understand that neither helicopters nor planes will save them if they go for escalation. We, along with Putin, said once in St. Petersburg that we will adapt the Belarusian Su [-24] planes as well to make them capable to carry nuclear arms. Do you think we were just yakking? Everything is ready!" Lukashenka told reporters in Minsk.
He did not present any evidence to back up his claim. Belarus does not have its own nuclear weapons, and it supposedly decommissioned its fleet of Su-24 jets a decade ago, though it is possible the aircraft could be overhauled and put back into service.
Putin and Lukashenka met in St. Peterburg on June 25, and the Russian leader said at the meeting that Moscow would supply Belarus with Iskander-M missile systems, adding that delivery would take place within a few months.
The Iskander-M is a mobile guided-missile system with a range of up to 500 kilometers.
Lukashenka's statement comes as Moscow-launched invasion of Ukraine entered the seventh month.
Belarus is not a direct participant in the war in Ukraine, but it has provided logistical support to Moscow's invasion that began on February 24 by allowing Russian forces to enter Ukraine via the Belarus border.
Western nations have slapped Belarus, like Russia, with an ever-increasing list of harsh financial sanctions in response to the Kremlin's war on Ukraine and for Belarus's efforts to aid the Russian invasion.
Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, known as a close associate of President Vladimir Putin, has asked the Investigative Committee to check a report by the newspaper Fontanka about the recruitment of inmates in penitentiaries to fight in the war launched against Ukraine.
Prigozhin's company Konkord said on August 26 that the businessman, who is believed to run Russia's private Vagner paramilitary group, asked investigators to look into the report's author, Ksenia Klochkova, and Fontanka's chief editor, Aleksandr Gorshkov, calling the report about recruitment by Vagner of inmates in Russian prisons "fake" and aimed at "creating a negative image" of Russia and its leadership.
Neither journalist nor the newspaper has commented on the request for a probe to be launched.
The report tells the story of a mother -- whose identity is not revealed for safety reasons -- who is trying to find her son, who disappeared from a prison where he was serving a two-year sentence for auto theft. The son eventually was located in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk, which is controlled by Russia.
Facing heavy casualties in a war whose end may be months or years away, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government and the military have taken numerous steps to bolster recruitment without, at least for now, ordering a general mobilization that could be politically risky. On August 25, Putin signed a decree to increase the size of the armed forces from 1,902,000 to 2,039,758.
Vagner has never admitted to recruiting fighters who are in prison, but human rights groups say they have heard hundreds of cases where inmates are being lured into fighting in Ukraine.
Last month, the Gulagu.net human rights group that monitors the treatment of inmates at Russian penitentiaries said hundreds of men at a prison in the North Caucasus region of Adygea had agreed to be sent to fight in Russia's war against Ukraine after a round of aggressive recruiting that included promises of cutting sentences and financial remuneration.
Earlier this month, the founder of the Russia Behind Bars right group, Olga Romanova, said that the program wasn't limited to convicts. She said suspects at pretrial detention centers are being recruited as well to the armed forces.
WATCH: Bodies Of Russian Mercenaries Litter Field After Donetsk Battle
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On August 26, the Meduza online newspaper reported that a 44-year-old inmate Yevgeny Yeryomenko was buried in the northwestern region of Karelia. Yeryomenko's mother and girlfriend told Meduza he had eight years left in his a 10-year prison sentence for extortion and was recruited to the Russian Army in June and killed in Ukraine's Donetsk region in July.
Ukrainian authorities have claimed that Russia has lost more than 46,200 soldiers and officers since it launched the large-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, while Western intelligence agencies have said the number probably exceeds 20,000. The Russian Defense Ministry last released casualty figures in late March, saying that 1,351 of its personnel had died.
Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhniy said earlier this week that nearly 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Russia launched its ongoing unprovoked invasion six months ago.
A court in Moscow has issued an arrest warrant for Svetlana Valeryevna Timofeyeva, whose personal data fully coincides with those of a woman detained in Albania on espionage charges.
The Meshchansky district court said on August 26 that it also added Timofeyeva, who Russia has accused of illegally obtaining classified information, to its international wanted list.
The full name and date of birth mentioned by the court with regard to Timofeyeva is the same as that of Russian photographer Svetlana Timofeyeva, also known as Lana Sator, who was arrested along with two men several days ago in Albania.
Timofeyeva is known as a photographer who takes pictures of functioning and abandoned plants and factories and places them on her Instagram account, which has more than 250 subscribers.
Timofeyeva and two men identified as a Russian citizen, Mikhail Zorin, and Ukrainian national Fedir Mykhaylov, were detained on August 20 on the territory of a former weapons manufacturing plant in Albania, a member of NATO and a supporter of Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion, now in its seventh month.
The Gramsh military plant opened in 1962 to produce AK-47 rifles and other weapons. It stopped production after the fall of communism in 1990 and began to dismantle the weapons.
The plant is still used to repair other military weapons, but there is no longer any production there.
Authorities said that Timofeyeva and Mykhaylov were detained near the facility while Zorin was detained inside the plant and used pepper spray on two military guards trying to capture him.
On August 24, the trio was sent to pretrial detention.
U.S. special envoy for the Western Balkans Gabriel Escobar, who is on a visit to the region, vowed Washington's support for the European Union's efforts to resolve an ongoing dispute between Kosovo and Serbia and urged both sides to refrain from violence as longstanding differences between Belgrade and Pristina flared again.
Tensions between Kosovo and Serbia resurfaced late last month over an announced change in border policy that would have meant Serbian identity documents and vehicle license plates would no longer be valid in Kosovo territory.
Ethnic Serbs, who live mostly in northern Kosovo, reacted with fury, putting up roadblocks and firing their guns into the air and in the direction of Kosovo police officers. No one was injured.
Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti postponed the implementation of the measure until September 1, after apparent pressure from the West.
The two sides fought a bloody war in the late 1990s, with Kosovo eventually declaring independence from Serbia in 2008. Belgrade -- as well as Russia, China, and five EU member states -- has not recognized its former province's independence and accuses Pristina of trampling on the rights of minority Serbs, who account for 5 percent of Kosovo's 1.8 million population, which is 90 percent Albanian.
For the past several years, the EU has mediated negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia to normalize relations, seeking to kickstart their efforts to join the European Union.
Escobar and the EU envoy Miroslav Lajcak both met with Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade on August 25 after holding talks in Kosovo with Kurti and ethnic Serb leaders as part of the efforts to resolve the disputed issue.
"We want both sides to commit that there will be no violence," Escobar said at a press conference on August 26 at the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade.
Escobar said the talks were difficult, "but I saw the will to find a solution, the will to build trust in the process."
Lajcak described the talks as "difficult but responsible."
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic admitted at a press conference in Belgrade on August 26 that little headway had been made on some key issues such as the license plate registration but said he was still hopeful "some compromise" could be found in further talks, though none has been officially scheduled.
Serbia is a candidate to join the EU, but Brussels has warned it must improve relations with Kosovo before its application is considered.
NATO peacekeepers have stepped up their presence in northern Kosovo in response to the increased tensions.
Ukraine's state nuclear company, Enerhoatom, has said that both functioning reactors at the Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant have been reconnected to the electrical grid after Kyiv earlier claimed that the plant was cut from the national power grid by Russian shelling.
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, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.
Enerhoatom announced at midday on August 26 that the first nuclear reactor had been reconnected to the power grid. In announcing that the second had been reconnected in the evening, Enerhoatom said in a statement that "the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, despite numerous provocations by the occupiers, continues to function."
The nuclear plant was disconnected for the first time in its four-decade history on August 25 because of a fire that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said was caused by Russian shelling that struck the last working power line linking the plant to the grid.
Enerhoatom on August 26 also accused Russia of damaging three other power lines linked to the Zaporizhzhya facility.
Earlier, Enerhoatom said there were no issues with the plant's machinery or its safety systems, as electricity for the plant's own needs was currently being supplied through a power line from Ukraine's electricity system.
On August 25, Zelenskiy said a nuclear radiation disaster was narrowly avoided after Russian shelling in the area caused the electricity to Zaporizhzhya, Europe's largest nuclear plant, to be cut for hours.
Russian bombardment triggered fires in the ash pits of a nearby coal power station that disconnected the Russian-controlled plant from the power grid on August 25, Zelenskiy said, but back-up diesel generators provided the electricity supply vital for cooling and safety systems at the plant.
Russia has denied responsibility, with the Moscow-installed officials in Zaporizhzhya region blaming the fire and subsequent outage on Ukraine's armed forces.
Zelenskiy praised the Ukrainian technicians who operate the plant, which has been under the Russian military's control since early in the war. The plant has six Soviet-designed reactors, but just two have remained in operation amid the fighting.
"Russia has put Ukraine and all Europeans in a situation one step away from a radiation disaster," he added.
Disconnecting the plant from the grid posed a potential danger as a failure in backup power systems could have led to a loss of coolant and brought about a melting of the fuel in the reactor core.
PHOTO GALLERY: Ukrainian Forces Use Poland's AHS Krab Howitzer Against Russian Invaders
Foreign officials have warned of a potential catastrophe and continue to push Russian and Ukrainian forces to do more to safeguard Europe's largest nuclear station.
Russia has controlled the facility since about two weeks after invading Ukraine on February 24, keeping workers prisoner and holding them at gunpoint to operate the plant, whose first reactor went into operation in 1985.
Western leaders have demanded that Russia hand the plant back to Ukraine, while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for it to be "demilitarized."
On August 26, French President Emmanuel Macron warned against the use of civilian nuclear facilities as an instrument of war.
"War in any case must not undermine the nuclear safety of the country, the region, and all of us. Civil nuclear power must be fully protected," Macron said during a visit to Algeria.
Western leaders have previously demanded that Russia hand the plant back to Ukraine, while the UN chief has called for it to be "demilitarized." The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has declared its intention to send a mission to inspect the power station.
In Washington, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on August 25, "Russia should agree to the demilitarized zone around the plant and agree to allow an International Atomic Energy Agency visit as soon as possible to check on the safety and security of the system."
On the battlefield, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said on August 26 that its forces had repulsed Russian assaults on the towns of Bakhmut and Soledar in the eastern Donetsk region and struck ammunition depots and enemy personnel in the southern Kherson region.
The Ukrainian General Staff earlier said that Russian forces conducted unsuccessful offensive operations in the direction of Slovyansk in the Donetsk region and kept pounding Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, as well as Kramatorsk, Novopavlivka, Zaporizhzhya, and the area of the Pivdenniy Buh river with artillery, tank, and rocket fire.
Russia's offensive in eastern and southern Ukraine has slowed down in recent weeks, apparently hampered by high losses in personnel and military equipment, despite Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu's recent claim that Moscow was reducing the pace intentionally in order to avoid collateral damage among civilians.
Britain's Defense Ministry said in its daily intelligence bulletin on August 26 that Shoigu's statement was "almost certainly deliberate misinformation."
British intelligence said Russia's offensive had stalled because of poor Russian military performance and fierce Ukrainian resistance.
It said that Shoigu and President Vladimir Putin have "very likely" fired at least six generals for not advancing quickly enough.
The intelligence report said a Russian missile strike on a railway station in central Ukraine on August 24 that Moscow said was targeting a Ukrainian military train highlighted "Russia’s willingness to cause collateral damage when it perceives there is military advantage in launching missile or artillery strikes."
The strike left at least 25 people dead, including children, Kyiv has said, while Russia's Defense Ministry claimed, without producing any evidence, that the strike targeted and killed more than 200 Ukrainian soldiers who were on their way to fight in Donbas.
Neither the Russian nor the Ukrainian claims could be independently verified.
U.S. air strikes this week targeted Iran-linked targets in Syria and were carried out to protect and defend American personnel, U.S. President Joe Biden said. The attacks came amid a significant uptick this week in fighting involving U.S. forces.
Biden made the comments in an August 25 letter to the leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, and it comes amid three days of skirmishes involving U.S. military forces and their allies.
In the letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Biden said he ordered the strikes "consistent with my responsibility to protect United States citizens both at home and abroad and in furtherance of United States national security and foreign policy interests."
Local military officials said the U.S. military hit several targets on August 25 in the Syrian city of Mayadin in parts of Deir al-Zor Province under Syrian government control.
At least three members of an Iran-aligned militia were killed when they were targeted by a U.S. helicopter, news reports said.
The attack occurred in a town along the western bank of the Euphrates River.
Iranian militias have a strong presence in the town and have long targeted the nearby al-Omar oil field on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, where the U.S. coalition has a major base.
In the past 24 hours, the U.S. military said, four militants have been killed and seven rocket launchers destroyed.
The Pentagon said three U.S. personnel suffered minor injuries as a result of the back-and-forth on August 24.
Deir al-Zor is an oil-rich strategic province bordering Iraq that is controlled by Iran-backed militia groups and Syrian forces. The groups have been targeted in the past by Israeli warplanes.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry on August 24 denied Tehran had any link to the sites targeted.
"The U.S. attack on Syrian infrastructure and people is a violation of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," spokesman Nasser Kanaani was quoted as saying on the ministry's Telegram channel. "The sites targeted had no links to the Islamic Republic."
Latvia toppled a towering Soviet-era monument commemorating the Red Army victory over Nazi Germany, the latest in a series of monuments that have been pulled down in Eastern Europe amid growing hostility toward Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine.
Workers brought down the 80-meter-high obelisk on August 25, eliciting cheers and applause from onlookers as it crashed into a nearby pond in downtown Riga.
Erected in 1985, the monument was intended to commemorate the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, which occupied the Baltic states during World War II.
But for many Latvians it was an offensive reminder of the decades of oppressive occupation by the Soviet Union, which ended in 1991 when Latvia declared independence.
Latvia’s parliament voted to approve the demolition of the Victory Park monument in May, about three months after Russia's invasion of Ukraine prompted alarm bells throughout Central and Eastern Europe, where memories of the Soviet-imposed communist regimes remain painful.
Ethnic Russians make up about 25 percent of Latvia's population.
There was no immediate reaction to the monument's demolition from Moscow.
In the past, Russian officials have reacted angrily to any suggestion that it, or other similar monuments, might be demolished. In 2007, when Estonia removed a similar World War II monument from the center of Tallinn, the city was rocked by violent riots, and the country suffered a massive cyberattack that was later blamed on Russian hackers.
A day earlier, workers in the southwestern Polish town of Brzeg began demolishing a Soviet war memorial there, the 24th to be brought down in Poland since March.
Estonia's government last week also started removing a Soviet World War II monument from a city near the Russian border.
A Russian court released former Yekaterinburg Mayor Yevgeny Roizman from detention but ordered him not to communicate with anyone without permission as it imposed pretrial restrictions a day after police arrested the outspoken Kremlin critic.
Roizman, who faces charges of "discrediting the armed forces," was also ordered by the Yekaterinburg court on August 25 to not use the Internet, telephones, or mail and not attend any public events. His communications are limited to family members and his lawyers.
The court rejected prosecutors' request that Roizman be restricted to leaving his apartment for only one minute a day before midnight only.
Roizman, who won election as mayor following opposition protests in 2012, entered a not-guilty plea as he made his first court appearance on August 25.
Yekaterinburg authorities said earlier he was being investigated for "discrediting the Russian Army," an offense for which he could face up to five years in prison. Rights activists say Russian authorities are using the charge broadly to silence critics of the Ukraine invasion.
A charismatic and sometimes profane public figure, Roizman served as mayor of Russia's fourth largest city from 2013 until 2018, when authorities ended direct elections for mayor.
Since leaving office, he has gained a popular following for his campaigns to raise money for ill children, and he is known for his regular jogs around the city, which attract supporters and journalists alike.
Since Russia's February 24 invasion of Ukraine, Roizman has been outspoken in his criticism and has been fined three times on misdemeanor charges of "discrediting the Russian Army."
Shortly after the invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law criminalizing any criticism regarding the armed forces or the conduct of the Ukraine war, which the Kremlin calls a "special military operation."
According to the watchdog group OVD-Info, more than 3,800 administrative, or misdemeanor, cases have been brought against people between March and August on the charge of discrediting the armed forces. In all, 224 Russians have been prosecuted on anti-war charges.
Protesters in the western Iranian city of Hamedan have taken to the streets for the second day in a row to demonstrate against cuts in water supplies.
According to videos posted on social media on August 24, large crowds gathered holding placards criticizing government officials.
Security forces and special guards were reportedly dispatched to quell the protests. One of the videos shows a woman being injured when police clashed with the protesters, but the extent of her injuries is not known. Residents of Hamedan have been without drinking water for more than a week. During this time, water has been supplied through tanks placed on streets, the latest sign of the building pressure on the country as a water crisis intensifies along with the summer heat. Several parts of the country have experienced water shortages -- and protests over the crisis -- in recent weeks, including the cities of Shahrekord in central Iran and Hamedan in the west. Diminishing water supplies are seen as an existential threat to Iran, where poor water management, drought, and corruption-ridden infrastructure projects have contributed to water scarcity and resulting protests across the country in recent years. Experts say climate change has amplified the droughts and floods plaguing Iran and that their intensity and frequency in turn threaten food security. The Iranian Meteorological Organization has estimated that 97 percent of the country is experiencing drought to some degree. Mismanagement by authorities has also been cited as a main cause for the water crisis.
Iranian rights activist Maryam Akbari Monfared, who has spent 13 years in prison for protesting the execution of her two siblings, was reportedly beaten by prison officials after an argument broke out over her children being forced to wear a hijab.
Iran Human Rights quoted a source on August 24 as saying a prison official "grabbed her [Monfared] by the throat and tried to strangle her while using profanity" after they refused to let her two daughters visit unless they wore a Chador hijab.
The prison head eventually intervened and Monfared was allowed to meet with her family. Monfared was arrested on December 2009 and was forcibly disappeared for five months. She was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran in May 2010, which condemned her for "acting against national security" and "enmity against God." Hassan Jafari, Monfared's husband, told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that a judge convicted his wife in a four-minute trial because of her family, who were members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO). Three of her siblings were executed by the state in 1988 while a fourth died while being tortured in 1985. Monfared has been in prison since her conviction without being granted any leave. She reportedly has been suffering health problems. In 2015, after the release of audio from Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri, then the country's deputy leader, regarding the mass killing of prisoners, including her siblings, Monfared filed a lawsuit with the Tehran Prosecutor's Office. Jila Bani Yaqoub, a journalist who was in the women's ward of Evin prison with Monfared, said in an interview with Radio Farda that after Monfared's complaint and lawsuit, prison officials "specifically told her that they will not let her go on leave, and they have stuck to this."
Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant, which has been controlled by Russian forces since early March, has been disconnected from the national power supply.
State energy operator Enerhoatom said on Telegram on August 25 that the last two working reactors at Europe's largest nuclear power plant were disconnected from the power grid after nearby fires damaged overhead power lines connecting the nuclear plant to the grid.
"As a result, the two working power units at the station were disconnected from the network. Thus, the actions of the [Russians] caused a complete disconnection of the plant from the power grid -- the first in the history of the plant," the statement says, adding that efforts to restart one of the power units to connect it to the network are under way.
The plant has been under Russian control since March 4, nearly two weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine. Ukrainian engineers have been allowed to continue operating the plant under Russian supervision. It has been the site of fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces in recent weeks, sparking fears of a nuclear disaster.
Both Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of shelling the plant.
The United Nations has offered to help facilitate a visit by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors, but Moscow has insisted the inspectors travel to the plant via Russian-controlled territory rather than Ukraine proper.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said earlier on August 25 that Kyiv and Moscow agree that UN personnel need to go to inspect the situation at the nuclear power plant.
The European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) has called on Kazakh authorities to release all political prisoners and stop the criminal prosecution of those who died during unrest in the Central Asian nation in January.
The group of MEPs highlighted in a statement issued on August 24 "the importance of a transparent, comprehensive, and fair investigation into January 2022 events" and called on Nur-Sultan to stop the criminal prosecution of those killed during the unrest.
The January unrest occurred after a peaceful demonstration against a fuel-price hike in the tightly controlled country's western region of Manghystau led to widespread anti-government protests that were violently dispersed by law enforcement and the military.
Thousands of people were detained during and after the protests, which President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev said were caused by "20,000 terrorists" from abroad, a claim for which authorities have provided no evidence. Authorities said 238 people, including 19 law enforcement officers, were killed during the unrest. Authorities labeled many of those killed during the unrest "terrorists" and launched probes against them posthumously.
The DROI statement called for the "immediate halt to the harassment and intimidation of political and civil society activists and the release of all political prisoners...and the criminal prosecution of people deceased in the course of the January events."
Several participants in the protests have been handed lengthy prison terms across the country in recent months on charges of organizing mass disturbances and riots. More trials are pending.
Officials said six people had been tortured to death after being arrested for taking part in the January protests, adding that 15 law enforcement officers had been arrested in connection with the alleged torture.
The Prosecutor-General's Office said earlier that 25 people were officially considered victims of torture by hot irons during interrogations.
The DROI statement specifically called for the release of Zhanbolat Mamai, a journalist and leader of the unregistered Democratic Party of Kazakhstan, who has been in custody since mid-March.
The 34-year-old Mamai faces up to 10 years in prison on charges of organizing mass riots and knowingly disseminating false information during the protests in January, which he and his supporters reject as politically motivated.
Mamai, known for his harsh criticism of the nation's authoritarian government, has been trying to register the Democratic Party of Kazakhstan but claims he is being prevented from doing so by the government. He says officials only permit parties loyal to the political powers to be legally registered.
Christian Sagartz of Austria, who led the DROI delegation to Kazakhstan, said the European Parliament "fully supports Kazakhstan on its path toward a democratic state and offers its assistance as a potential facilitator between the civil society, new political forces, and the government."
"Universal human rights apply to everyone and everywhere. We acknowledge the recent efforts of the country in order to improve democratic structures for their citizens. We will follow them thoroughly and expect a fast implementation. We call for the rapid publication of the findings of the investigation into the January events, in order for Kazakhstan to be credible to its citizens as well as the international community,” Sagartz said in the statement.
The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to meet in Brussels on August 31 for talks mediated by the European Union, the Armenian government said on August 25.
European Council chief Charles Michel will be present at the meeting.
The meeting comes after an outbreak of fighting over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh on August 1-3 in which at least one Azerbaijani and two ethnic Armenian soldiers were killed. The two sides blame each other for the violence.
The last meeting between the two leaders was held in Brussels on May 22, at Michel's initiative.
Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh for years.
The mostly Armenian-populated region that had the status of an autonomous oblast within Soviet Azerbaijan declared its independence from Baku amid the Soviet Union's disintegration, triggering a 1992-94 war that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
The war ended in a Russia-brokered cease-fire, leaving Nagorno-Karabakh's ethnic Armenians in control of most of the region as well as several adjacent districts of Azerbaijan proper.
Internationally mediated negotiations with the involvement of the OSCE Minsk Group -- co-chaired by the United States, Russia, and France -- failed to result in a resolution before another large-scale war broke out in September 2020. The 44-day conflict that killed more than 6,500 people ended in a Moscow-brokered cease-fire, with Azerbaijan regaining control of all districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh as well as large swaths of territory inside the former autonomous region itself. Some 2,000 Russian peacekeepers were deployed in the region to oversee the truce.
Armenia and Azerbaijan fought two wars -- in 2020 and in the 1990s -- over Azerbaijan's Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Six weeks of fighting in the autumn of 2020 claimed more than 6,500 lives and ended with a Russian-brokered cease-fire agreement.
Armenia was forced to cede swathes of territory it had controlled for decades, and Russia deployed some 2,000 peacekeepers to oversee the fragile truce, but tensions persist despite the cease-fire agreement.
In early August, new tensions flared as Azerbaijan said it had lost a soldier and the Karabakh army said two of its troops had been killed and more than a dozen injured.
Two Uzbek para-powerlifters are on trial in South Korea on charges of sexual abuse amid accusations that Uzbek officials have been trying to cover up the case.
A representative from the Pyeongtaek city prosecutor’s office in South Korea told RFE/RL that the first hearing for the two Uzbek para-athletes was held on August 24. A relative of one of the two men who took part in a para-powerlifting competition in Pyeongtaek from June 14-20 told RFE/RL that the pair has not been given any support by Uzbek authorities, while the officials from Uzbekistan's National Paralympic Committee (UPK) have been making efforts to keep the situation from being made public. UPK press secretary Malika Murodova told RFE/RL that she has no information about the case. A source close to the sports officials confirmed that the two athletes were arrested in South Korea. The court has not revealed the identities of the two athletes. According to the source, five Uzbek para-athletes were detained on the last day of the competition after two female para-athletes from Australia turned to police, claiming they were sexually harassed by the men, who allegedly touched their bodies against their will. A coach for the Uzbek national powerlifting team, who asked not to be identified, "recommended" to RFE/RL that it refrain from covering the situation around the two Uzbek men, saying "they will soon be released." The father of one of the athletes facing trial also asked RFE/RL not to cover the case. A representative of Australia’s Paralympic Committee told RFE/RL that it doesn't comment on sexual harassment cases. If convicted, the two Uzbek para-athletes may face up to 10 years in prison. Despite promised reforms by President Shavkat Mirziyoev, activists have recently voiced concerns over limits on free speech and the press and the lack of progress toward political liberalization in the Central Asian nation.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi says Kyiv and Moscow agree that the UN watchdog's personnel need to inspect the situation at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, which has been caught in the cross fire of fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops.
Speaking to France 24 TV on August 25, Grossi said talks on gaining access to the facility were making headway and that "we are very, very close" to agreeing on a visit to Europe's largest nuclear station within days. The plant has been under Russian control since March 4, nearly two weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine. Ukrainian engineers have been allowed to continue operating the plant, under Russian supervision. It has been the site of fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces in recent weeks, sparking fears of a nuclear disaster. Both Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of shelling the plant. The United Nations has offered to help facilitate a visit by IAEA inspectors, but Moscow has insisted the inspectors travel to the plant via Russian-controlled territory.
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