President Vladimir V. Putin brought up a sale of Russian energy assets with President Trump’s envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, pushing a deal that raises new questions about conflicts of inter...

Russian president Vladimir Putin has instructed his military leaders to abandon the rules of war, prompting a steep increase in strikes on civilian targets amid a big push to regain the advantage in the conflict, according to intelligence intercepted by Kyiv. Speaking in a bomb shelter inside a school that had just been hit by a Russian jet-powered drone, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday that Ukrainian spy agencies had obtained information that the Russian president had scrapped the constraints that governed earlier air campaigns. “He said there are no rules now,” Zelenskiy said, referring to the intelligence that included intercepted communications from Kremlin officials. Zelenskiy said Putin gave the order in September, as Russia began intensifying its air strikes on Kyiv, hitting schools, hospitals and data centres. The Ukrainian president said the bombed school underscored how widespread such targeting had become. The latest Russian campaign comes in response to Ukrainian strikes on refineries, ports and warehouses deep inside Russia, which have caused fuel shortages and heightened a sense of insecurity in the country’s cities and tourist resorts. The escalating air war contrasts with the largely static front line in eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces have struggled to advance and...

Latvia will elect its 15th Saeima, or parliament, on October 3. September polls suggest seven political groups have a chance of winning seats. Two of them — the Sovereign Power / Young Latvians alliance and Latvia First — are competing vigorously to win over voters who once supported the “Russian”…

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken about new deadlines for Russian forces to seize the entire Donetsk region. Speaking at the plenary session of the Valdai Discussion Club on October 1, Putin...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken about new deadlines for Russian forces to seize the entire Donetsk region. Speaking at the plenary session of the Valdai Discussion Club on October 1, Putin claimed that Ukrainian forces currently hold just 11% of the region, and asserted that Kyiv is destined to lose the remaining territory. Putin said that the Russian army will occupy the rest of the …

Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken about new deadlines for Russian forces to seize the entire Donetsk region. Speaking at the plenary session of the Valdai Discussion Club on October 1, Putin claimed that Ukrainian forces currently hold just 11% of the region, and asserted that Kyiv is destined to lose the remaining territory. Putin said that the Russian army will occupy the rest of the …

Moldovan President Maia Sandu warned Friday that Russia will remain a major source of instability in Europe long after the war in Ukraine ends, regardless of whether Vladimir Putin remains in power, urging Europe to strengthen militarily, accelerate EU enlargement and treat Ukraine as a central pillar of the continent’s future security. Speaking alongside Finnish President Alexander Stubb at the fifth annual Helsinki Security Forum, Sandu described Moldova’s experience confronting Russian hybrid warfare – from political financing and voter bribery to cyberattacks, disinformation, energy pressure and repeated violations of Moldovan airspace. “Moldova enjoys peace today thanks to the courage of the Ukrainian people, of the Ukrainian leadership, and thanks to the support that you and many other friends of Ukraine have been providing,” Sandu told the forum. The Moldovan president argued that her small country also plays a significant security role because preventing Moscow from gaining political control over Moldova protects Ukraine’s southwestern flank. “If we would have allowed Russia to get to control power in Moldova, you could imagine what the situation would look today, given that Moldova has a pretty long border with Ukraine – 1,200 kilometers – and you can imagine what Russia could have done to...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken about new deadlines for Russian forces to seize the entire Donetsk region. Speaking at the plenary session of the Valdai Discussion Club on October 1, Putin claimed that Ukrainian forces currently hold just 11% of the region, and asserted that Kyiv is destined to lose the remaining territory. Putin said that the Russian army will occupy the rest of the Donetsk region sooner than experts in Ukraine or Europe expect. He questioned the point of continuing to defend the region and said Moscow values people, not land. “There, in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, 11% remains under Ukrainian control. Ukrainian leaders say they will hold on to those 11% for a year and a half. In Europe, they say two years. We believe it will happen sooner. The question is: if the loss of these territories is inevitable, does it make sense to cling to them? It’s not about a piece of territory, it’s about people. We need to create conditions for a lasting peace,” Putin said. He also claimed that certain provisions of the Minsk agreements had been designed to allow the southeast of Ukraine the right to secede if Ukraine were to join NATO. According to the Donetsk Regional Military Administration, as of October 1, 2026, Russian forces have killed 4,335 people and wounded 10,583 in the region since the full-scale invasion began. These figures do not account for casualties in Mariupol and Volnovakha. In just the last few weeks, eight people were killed and 19 wounded in a single day in Oleksandrivka, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk on September 23, and three more were killed in Kramatorsk on September 12. Since the start of the full-scale war, Putin has announced 15 separate deadlines for the capture of the entire Donetsk region, none of which the Russian military has met. The most recent date, December 31, 2026, has been described as unrealistic by analysts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Analysts estimated that by the end of August, Russian forces controlled 79.89% of the region. The Ukrainian defense forces have made gains in Donetsk region, recapturing the village of Serednie in mid-September. Areas remaining under Ukrainian control include Dobropillia and neighboring villages, part of Kostiantynivka, Druzhkivka, Sloviansk, and Kramatorsk. Russian forces remain about 15 kilometers from Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, and, according to Reuters, fighting for this “fortress belt” could be among the most intense battles this autumn. Igor Zhdanov, head of the Information Defense project at the Open Policy Foundation, analyzes scenarios under which Ukraine could be pressured to accept peace on Russian terms in an article titled “Military-Political Forecast: Scenarios for the Development of the Situation in Ukraine in 2026”.