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Newsweek first reported on Wednesday that the U.S. had made plans to send troops and tanks to guard Syria’s eastern oil fields despite President Donald Trump’s ambitions to pull forces from the region. Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Friday he was “concerned” with the move—disapproving of America’s continued presence in the country—and a Defense Ministry spokesman went a step further on Saturday, stating that the presence was maintained for the continued smuggling of Syrian oil....

But facts on the ground do not support the arguments. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken outlined the situation in his opening remarks at a virtual roundtable discussion on June 6 on “Food Security Issues Arising from Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine,” “A Russian naval blockade in the Black Sea is preventing Ukraine’s crops from being shipped to their normal destinations…President Putin is stopping food from being shipped and is aggressively using his propaganda machine to deflect or distort responsibility because he hopes it’ll get the world to give in to him and end the sanctions....

For the third time within a week, the country broke its record for cases, with government figures on Tuesday showing a new daily record for infections of 13,868. The daily death toll of 244 was also 12 more than the country’s previous record number of fatalities of 232, recorded on May 29. Russia registered a record 12,126 new infections last Friday, which was quickly topped by 13,592 on Monday. Moscow recorded 4,618 infections on Tuesday, its highest number since mid-May....

Governor of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Olexandr Starukh, announced the capture on his Facebook page on Sunday morning. “Military crimes are becoming systematic. The mayor of Dniproudnogo Matveev Sergeevich was abducted,” he said in the post according to a Google translation. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, accused Russian forces of a “turn to terror.” “I call on all states & international organizations to stop Russian terror against Ukraine and democracy,” he tweeted....

“Now that Russia has made these false claims, and China has seemingly endorsed this propaganda, we should all be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, or to create a false flag operation using them. It’s a clear pattern,” Psaki said in a series of tweets on Wednesday afternoon. Claims from Russian officials that have circulated on social media have accused the U....

The Tverskoy District Court on Monday ruled in favor of a lawsuit filed by Russian prosecutors to ban Facebook and Instagram, stating that Meta has been found guilty of “extremist activity.” The court ruled that WhatsApp, another Meta-owned platform, would be allowed to stay in Russia. Earlier this month, Russia moved to block Facebook over claims that it “discriminated” against Russian state media. Instagram was banned after Meta said it would temporarily allow users in Ukraine to post messages calling for violence against Russian soldiers and President Vladimir Putin during the ongoing war....

Reported uses of cluster bombs and artillery strikes on civilian targets last week prompted the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) chief prosecutor Karim Khan to launch an investigation into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine. Russia is “absolutely clearly” intentionally directing attacks against civilians, Michael Newton, a professor of the practice of law at Vanderbilt University, who previously served as the senior adviser to the Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, told Newsweek....

The U.S. 6th Fleet announced Monday that “Russian pilots flew in an unsafe and unprofessional manner while intercepting a U.S. Navy P-8A Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Aircraft” on Sunday in the second such incident in just four days. The latest encounter involving a Russian Su-35 involved two consecutive intercepts over the course of 100 minutes, the Navy said. It also criticized the second because the Russian aircraft allegedly conducted “high-speed, high-powered maneuver that decreased aircraft separation to within 25 feet, directly in front of the P-8A, exposing the U....

When Russia invaded Ukraine back in February, the gaming industry in both countries was greatly affected. Gaming giants such as Ubisoft, EA, and Epic suspended sales in Russia as a response. Esports teams competing in games like Valorant and Apex Legends were also affected with Ukranian players having to skip tournaments, or majority Russian teams renaming themselves to put some distance from their government’s actions. Now, there have been reports that Russia was extending its censorship to video games....

The U.N. Security Council gave unanimous approval to the delivery of aid on Friday. The key issue had been whether the council should approve deliveries through the Bab al-Hawa crossing to northwest Idlib for another year, which the West, U.N. and humanitarian groups said was critical, or for six months as Russia, Syria’s closest ally, insisted on. The current one-year mandate for aid through Bab al-Hawa expires on Saturday. Russia’s U....

Speaking during an online conference, Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF)—which is backing the vaccine—added the country has already received requests for around a billion doses from various nations across the globe. “The topic of the vaccine is extremely important for all countries,” Dmitriev said during the conference, which was focused on explaining the science behind the preventative. “This type of briefing is very important for us because we do see that a number of countries have opened up an information war against Russia....

With Moscow accused of meddling in the elections in the U.S. and elsewhere, Lavrov’s comments suggest that the Kremlin would blame Western countries should there be any protests as Russians go to the polls in September. He said that “it is not ruled out” that in the run-up to the elections for the lower house, or State Duma, “we will see new attempts to shake, destabilize the situation, to provoke protests, preferably violent protests, as the West is in the habit of doing....

For months, Ukraine’s Armed Forces have warned of an increase in military activity and troop levels near the border with Belarus, whose strongman leader, Alexander Lukashenko, has thrown his wholehearted support for the war started by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Belarusian mobilization training exercises this month in the Gomel region by Ukraine’s border hint at the prospect of eventual involvement from Minsk’s forces on the ground, especially as Putin’s troops are reportedly suffering heavy losses....

As reported by the Associated Press, as of Wednesday, about 219 Palestinians have been killed in the current fighting, while Israel has seen 12 casualties. The rising number of deaths and injuries have raised calls from around the world for Israel to mount a “proportionate” response to the attacks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, has denied Israel has done anything beyond defending itself and vowed to continue until Hamas is deterred from future violence....

The alleged arrests, which Newsweek could not independently confirm, come more than seven months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the so-called “special military operation” against Ukraine. Although Kremlin officials aimed for a quick victory, Moscow’s forces have struggled to achieve any substantial goals in the war. Meanwhile, Kyiv says its forces have taken back thousands of square miles of Russian-occupied territory in recent weeks. Putin appears to be facing mounting political pressure back at home as his loses in Ukraine continue to pile up....

Zelensky traveled to Washington, D.C., earlier this week for his first known trip outside Ukraine since the Russia-Ukraine war began in late February. Dmitry Polyanskiy, the first deputy permanent representative of Russia to the U.N., said Zelensky did not attempt to set up any U.N. meetings in New York, despite previously asking to address the U.N. Security Council virtually. “When we opposed @ZelenskyyUa speaking in UN Security Council via video link we were told that ‘due to war’ he is not able to come to brief us in person,” Polyanskiy said in a Friday afternoon tweet....

According to evidence uncovered by the Bellingcat investigative journalism organization, the killer could not have carried out the assassination of Georgian Zelimkhan Khangoshvili on August 23 without help from Russian officials. Khangoshvili fought against Russian forces in Chechnya. There are conflicting reports regarding the identity of the gunman, who has reportedly refused to speak with German law enforcement since his arrest, though he has met with Russia diplomats. Earlier this week, The New York Times named the gunman as Vladimir Stepanov, a disgraced St....

In a Telegram post Wednesday, Killnet, a notorious “hacktivist” group formed at the onset of the Ukraine war earlier this year, posted a list of several governmental websites it would be targeting in the coming days beneath an image of a nuclear explosion behind the Statue of Liberty and the words, “F**K NATO.” The targets, according to the post, include the governmental websites of Alabama, Alaska, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky and Mississippi, as well as an alleged attack on the website of the Internal Revenue Service....

The MiG-31 fighter took off to escort the U.S. Air Force RC-135 strategic reconnaissance aircraft over the Chukchi Sea, which is also known as the Sea of Chukotsk, a body of water between the Arctic Ocean and the Bering Strait that separates Alaska from Russia. Russia’s National Defense Control Center said in a statement that its jet was scrambled from its Pacific Fleet “to identify the air target and prevent violation of the border of the Russian Federation,” Tass reported....

During a Russian TV segment posted on Thursday by BBC Monitoring reporter Francis Scarr, host Vladimir Solovyov asked the officer on the show Solovyov Live about the “idea” of using tactical nuclear weapons. The officer, whose name wasn’t translated and included in the video’s subtitles, talked about how meteorological conditions might affect the use of tactical nuclear weapons. “Well, I have a favorable view on that! You know, in the 2000s, we did research in that area and I can tell you that in certain hydrometeorological parameters of atmosphere and land mass, hydrology and land mass, the efficacy of a tactical nuclear weapon can be increased at least 6- to 8-fold,” the officer said....