Ukraine
Kremlin Expands Global Influence Network
The Kremlin is expanding an established global influence network by training foreign journalists, supporting state-backed media programmes and investing in digital tools designed to spread Russian narratives abroad, according to assessments by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and European counter-disinformation institutions. Russia's influence infrastructure has moved beyond traditional state broadcasting. A SputnikPro internship session held in Moscow in July 2026 drew young journalists from sub-Saharan Africa, run jointly with Rossotrudnichestvo's "New Generation" project, Russia's state agency for cultural and humanitarian cooperation abroad. RT Academy runs a parallel track, training journalists from ASEAN, South Asian and African countries with Rossotrudnichestvo's support. The programmes aim to cultivate local voices that can distribute Kremlin-aligned narratives even where Russian state media face formal restrictions. European governments have moved to counter that expansion. On July 29, 2026, the French Interior Ministry issued an expulsion order against Xenia Fedorova, former head of RT…
Russia Rejects Black Sea Shipping Truce Proposal
Russia rejected Ukrainian and Turkish proposals for a Black Sea maritime ceasefire on August 14, signaling it has no interest in limiting attacks on civilian shipping despite mounting disruption to global grain trade. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow saw "no grounds for half-measures," arguing such an arrangement would benefit Ukrainian forces, Reuters reported. The rejection covered both a Ukrainian proposal, relayed through a third party, to halt attacks on civilian targets and a separate moratorium initiative that Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Ankara had presented to both sides on August 8. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko had said days earlier that Moscow had received no formal proposal, according to the state news agency TASS. Zakharova also said reviving the 2022–2023 Black Sea Grain Initiative – the UN- and Turkey-brokered agreement that allowed both countries to continue exporting grain during the war – was not feasible, describing…
Washington Tests NATO Loyalty Again
The Trump administration has circulated a private questionnaire to NATO allies gauging their loyalty to the president's policies ahead of a possible reduction in U.S. military assets in Europe, according to Bloomberg reporting. The document asks whether each country has "been publicly supportive" of U.S. foreign policy and what restrictions it has placed on American forces using its bases. The questionnaire directly references disputes that have already divided the alliance. It asks whether allies align with the "strong, clear, and quiet" approach associated with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and revisits base-access restrictions after Spain barred the U.S. from using certain facilities for strikes on Iran, Raw Story reported. Bloomberg's reporting says the document also touches on European reaction to January's U.S. raid capturing Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, an operation widely viewed in Europe as a violation of international law. The review also probes defence-industrial loyalty, asking whether allies steer contracts…
Ukraine Submits New Proposals to End War
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Kyiv had submitted new proposals to Washington aimed at ending the war with Russia, though he gave no details on their contents, according to Al Jazeera. In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said the US could help by strengthening Ukraine's air defenses while increasing pressure on Moscow to prepare "for an end to the war rather than prolonging it." Russia disputed that any proposal exists. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters Moscow is "unaware" of such a document and that the US never passed one along through diplomatic channels, according to TASS. Ryabkov added that Russia could promptly arrange a meeting with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner once their travel plans are known. Separately, Federation Council foreign affairs chief Grigory Karasin said Russia is prepared to discuss only whatever version the US itself puts forward, "regardless of what Zelenskyy has…
NATO Fighters Shoot Down Drone After Latvian Airspace Incursion
Latvia declared an airspace threat before dawn on Friday after a foreign drone entered its territory over the Balvi region in the country's northeast, prompting NATO fighters to scramble and shoot the aircraft down within roughly an hour. The incident is the latest in a series of drone incursions that has tested the alliance's Baltic air defenses since a Ukrainian drone struck an oil facility near Rēzekne in May, prompting a major review of Latvia's air-defense posture, and it comes days after monitoring groups reported a sharp rise in Russian jamming activity across the Baltic Sea. According to Latvia's National Armed Forces (NBS), the drone entered Latvian airspace in the Balvi region in the early hours of Friday, triggering an orange alert shortly before 04:00 across Augšdaugava, Preiļi, Rēzekne, Balvi and Alūksne municipalities, with cell-broadcast warnings sent to residents in the affected areas. NBS confirmed roughly an hour later that…
Iran and Russia Exploit Same Air Defense Gap
Two wars, fought thousands of kilometers apart, are converging on the same insight: the United States only has so many Patriot interceptors, and its adversaries have started counting them. From the deserts of Jordan to the skies over Kyiv, Iran and Russia are running versions of the same campaign – pairing cheap, disposable drones with expensive, hard-to-stop ballistic missiles, forcing American and Ukrainian defenders to burn through their most valuable interceptors just to stay even. Neither country is hiding the logic. Both have studied the other's battlefield, and both now know that a stockpile built for a Cold War threat has a bottom, and that bottom is closer than Washington would like to admit. Iran's Layered Assault in the Gulf Iranian forces have spent recent months refining a strike formula built to drain American air defenses rather than simply overwhelm them outright, according to reporting carried by Yahoo News, citing…
