Russia has released 74-year-old US citizen Stephen Hubbard, who had been detained since 2022. He had been sentenced to prison for allegedly acting as a mercenary in Ukraine, charges his family disputed. President Vladimir Putin announced Hubbard’s release during talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff.

In what Ukraine's military is calling a historic first, a soldier who suffered injuries to both legs on the battlefield was evacuated by an unmanned aerial drone. His fellow servicemen say the soldier is "a hero" who didn't hesitate to strap himself to the hexacopter drone and fly back to his unit.

Ukraine’s forces have retaken 26 settlements in the Dnipropetrovsk region, but the villages are largely destroyed and uninhabitable. As Russian troops are pushed back, Ukrainian forces face the challenge of holding the reclaimed territory under constant threat from drones.

A funeral was held in Radushne in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk Region on October 19 for five children from one family who were killed in an air strike on July 30. Their burial was delayed as investigators used DNA analysis to identify the victims. Five other family members had already been laid to rest.

Iran’s Islamic republic has survived war, economic crisis, and widespread protests. So why is the system still standing? Vahid Pourostad of RFE/RL's Negah-e-Farda (Iran Tomorrow) program explains that its survival rests on entrenched networks of power and a fractured opposition.

The popular Iranian music group Pallett is refusing to play concerts in Iran after authorities barred a female band member from performing on stage. Iranian authorities continue its harsh repression of women, enforcing rules that limit their freedom to sing and perform in public.

Christopher Walker, vice president of the Washington-based Center for European Policy Analysis, speaks to RFE/RL Senior International Correspondent Ray Furlong in Prague on October 14.

A new dress-code dispute in Azerbaijan’s public schools has sparked protests by parents and students after reports that girls wearing hijabs, or Islamic headscarf, were turned away from classes. The protests come after a new ban on clothing deemed incompatible with the secular nature of education.

Ukraine is increasingly using artificial intelligence in drones and other battlefield systems to track, identify, and attack targets. Military officials say humans still remain in control of lethal decisions, but developers warn that fully autonomous weapons are moving closer to reality.

Moscow launched a wave of ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv overnight, killing at least three people and injuring more than 20. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country once again received no advance warning from its Western partners about the Russian attack.

Ukraine has struck three of Russian tech giant Yandex’s data centers in four days. Known as "Russia's Google," Yandex said it shut down a facility in the country's Vladimir region following an attack on October 11. The strikes have reportedly caused huge disruptions to digital services in Russia.

Is Russia about to attack the Baltic states? There are no signs of an imminent conventional invasion, but concerns are growing that Moscow could test NATO in other ways.

A Starlink trial on an Italian hilltop connected an ordinary smartphone to the Internet without mobile coverage, a satellite dish, or an external antenna. It drew attention in Iran, where Internet access is heavily filtered and authorities imposed a near-total blackout during the January protests.

As millions of Afghans struggle just to afford food, some have turned to selling one of their last remaining resources: a healthy kidney. The costs can be devastating: One woman said her health has deteriorated since she sold a kidney for a modest sum that failed to clear her family's debts.

More than 30 people were killed and several dozen others injured after a Russian attack on two passenger buses in Kramatorsk, according to Ukrainian authorities. Two buses were destroyed in the strike and public transportation was suspended.

Russia launched a massive overnight missile and drone attack across Ukraine, killing at least 22 people. Strikes severely damaged a 5-story apartment building in the northeastern city of Pryluky and caused extensive damage to homes and infrastructure in Kremenchuk in the central Poltava region.

A Liberian-flagged oil tanker caught fire off the Russian resort city of Sochi after an apparent drone attack, Russian authorities said on October 6. The 23 crew members, all Indian, were rescued. A Ukrainian monitoring site said the vessel as part of Russia’s so-called shadow fleet.

October 7 marks the 20th anniversary of the murder of prominent Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya, a tenacious investigative reporter who exposed the brutality of Russia's war in Chechnya and documented how President Vladimir Putin curtailed democracy in Russia.

Police fired tear gas at protesters outside the parliament building in Kosovo's capital, Pristina, on October 5. The protesters were demanding that lawmakers pass legislation that would limit the decisions of a special war crimes tribunal by imposing caps on prison terms for convicted criminals.

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.