RFE/RL joined Ukrainian soldiers on a dangerous journey toward Druzhkivka in eastern Ukraine, where Russian drones make roads nearly impassable. Around 2,000 civilians reportedly remain in the city as Russian attacks intensify.

Citizens in Bosnia-Herzegovina are casting their votes in elections to various bodies in the country’s multi-layered political system on October 4, with some candidates pushing for increased efforts at joining the European Union and NATO.

The prolonged closure of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border has brought cross-border trade to a standstill, leaving tens of thousands of people on both sides without work. It has also disrupted commercial activity and strained longstanding family and social ties.

Russia has vowed to intensify its relentless strikes against Kyiv and warned foreign diplomats and other visitors to leave the country or be exposed to “mortal danger,” while Ukraine's leader said his country will respond to the Kremlin's deadly air campaign.

Armed with rockets and storming target buildings, Chinese "robot dogs" have made their debut in Serbian military drills, signaling the expansion of defense and industrial ties between Belgrade and Beijing right on Europe’s doorstep.

A bipartisan, bicameral group of US lawmakers is pressing for tougher action on what they describe as democratic backsliding, corruption, and growing Russian, Chinese, and Iranian influence in Serbia, just weeks before snap parliamentary elections.

People in Russian-held Oleshky in Ukraine's Kherson region have endured war, occupation, and devastating flooding. Now, trapped by land mines and cut off from basic supplies, they face "hell," starving in a virtual ghost town, Ukrainian officials and volunteers say.

Historian Margaret MacMillan warns that increasingly interconnected wars are increasing the risk of a wider conflict, as she discusses Ukraine’s future, Putin’s Russia, NATO’s vulnerabilities, and an emerging “new world disorder.”

Georgian-Israeli dentist Shota Musayev told RFE/RL that he feared he might not survive when he left his wife’s side to help after the lead pilot was allegedly stabbed by his co-pilot during a Flydubai flight from Dubai to Israel on September 30.

US authorities designated the A7 financial network as a "significant transnational criminal organization," the latest in a series of steps by Western authorities to try and choke the sprawling Kremlin-backed sanctions-evading scheme.

Tajikistan has begun receiving oil and petroleum products from Iran in a move to diversify supplies long dominated by Russia. The volume, price, and route of the shipments remain unknown, raising questions about the commercial scale of the trade and potential US secondary sanctions risks.

In the days between the elections and his arrest, Aleksandr Kynev had pointed to evidence of falsifications benefitting the United Russia party. Some analysts see his arrest and reported beating as a sign of a power struggle pitting security agencies against political operatives in Putin’s Kremlin.

Pakistani air strikes hit targets in Afghanistan's Kunar and Helmand provinces overnight on October 1. Pakistani authorities said they were targeting militants operating near the border, but Afghan witnesses said civilians were among the dead, including children.

Ukraine is now using a fence-like device designed to snag and cut the cables of fiberoptic drones, weapons that have confounded militaries throughout the world.

In mid-September, Belarus released 25 prisoners held in politically linked cases after the United States agreed to ease sanctions. Now three US senators are calling on President Donald Trump's administration to pursue a similar approach to free political detainees in Azerbaijan.

The Lenin District Court in Bishkek found activist and politician Mavlyan Askarbekov guilty and sentenced to two years in prison on offenses related to a law on incitement of racial, ethnic, national, religious, or interregional hatred, a verdict he called "absurd."

Exports of crude oil from the Middle East hit their highest level in September since the war with Iran began, reinforcing a trend of increased supplies despite Iranian attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, according to analysis of shipping and commodity market data by industry observers.

Georgia has summoned Iran’s ambassador after his plans to publish a personal interpretation of Queen Ketevan’s history sparked criticism from ruling party lawmakers. Revered as a saint in Georgia, Ketevan was tortured and killed in Persia in the 17th century after refusing to renounce Christianity.

Pakistan carried out a round of air strikes on October 1 on two Afghan provinces near the border based on "credible evidence" of militant activity in the area.

The end of the United States’ two-decade-long military presence in Iraq has raised fears of a security vacuum. Neighboring Iran and its allies in Iraq, experts say, could attempt to exploit the situation.