Multiple Ukrainian drones hit a Moscow oil refinery on the morning of June 18, according to Russian officials, in what was the second attack this week on the largest fuel supplier to the Moscow region. At least 16 people were injured in the attack, according to authorities.

The first shipments of Iranian crude oil in two months have departed the Strait of Hormuz, according to ship-monitoring firm TankerTrackers.com. This comes just days before senior Iranian and US officials are expected to sign a preliminary agreement in Switzerland aimed at ending the war.

Videos posted online captured drone attacks on sites in Moscow and the surrounding region early on June 16. The Kapotnya oil refinery near the capital was seen in flames. Kyiv has intensified its attacks on Russia's energy infrastructure as it tries to disrupt the funds driving Russia's war effort.

Dozens of soccer fans displayed Iran’s pre-revolutionary Lion and Sun flag at the country’s World Cup opener in defiance of FIFA, which won a court hearing allowing it to prohibit the symbol inside venues. The Lion and Sun flag has become a mark of resistance to repressive theocratic rule in Iran.

Despite Russian strikes from the Black Sea, real estate agents say Odesa’s property market is surging. Seaside homes and apartments are selling fast, driven by locals, Kyiv buyers, and displaced Ukrainians. For many in the city, life by the sea continues -- guarded by air defenses.

Locals evacuated paintings and other artworks from the Kharkiv Art Museum after it was struck by a Russian drone on June 14. The attack started a fire in the building, which houses thousands of works by prominent Ukrainian artists.

Parts of the UNESCO-protected Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Ukraine's most revered Orthodox monastery, were set ablaze during a Russian missile and drone barrage.

This year, Serbia granted citizenship to four times as many Russians as people of all other nationalities combined, and some of them were under international sanctions, an RFE/RL analysis shows.

Ukraine's city of Odesa is welcoming beachgoers for the summer season on its Black Sea coast. Despite the risk of Russian strikes, Odesa's beaches offer a temporary respite to war-weary Ukrainians. On the coast, divers help keep Odesa's waters safe by removing debris from downed Russian drones.

The United States and Iran have traded strikes for a second day as tensions rise in the Middle East. US Central Command released video of strikes targeting Iranian military sites. Iran responded by attacking US allies in the Persian Gulf region.

Russian drone attacks are a daily reality in Kherson, a frontline city in southern Ukraine. Residents say the threat is growing, with drones increasingly targeting residential neighborhoods and forcing people to seek cover. Yet many refuse to leave.

Afghan Talliban forces used gunfire to disperse a women’s rights protest in the western city of Herat on June 9 after residents demonstrated against the recent arrest of women accused of violating the mandatory dress code. One eyewitness said at least one person was killed.

Kyiv Residents have mixed reactions over the removal of a statue of writer Mikhail Bulgakov, author of The Master And Margarita. Born in Kyiv, the novelist penned sharp satires of Soviet society. But Ukrainian officials said Bulgakov also symbolized Russian imperial thinking.

The summer tourist season is starting in Russian-occupied Crimea, but with Ukrainian drone attacks and fuel shortages, how many people will visit? Current Time correspondent Andrey Cherkasov explains, tour operators are trying to put a positive spin on the crisis, but it's being met with skepticism.

Russian forces hit a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel near Ukraine's Chernobyl power plant, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said June 7. He called the strike an "extremely vile" attack as international atomic energy monitors announced it did not lead to a spike in radiation.

Kuwait's Civil Aviation Authority released images of an Iranian drone attack on the country's international airport that took place on June 3. Kuwait says one person was killed and more than 60 were injured in the attack.

Ukraine launched drone attacks on a Russian oil terminal and military sites in St. Petersburg on June 3 hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin was set to host a major international economic forum.

In Ukraine's Chernihiv region, along a section of the Dnieper River that divides Ukraine and Belarus, border guards are on the lookout for signs of another invasion from the north. In May, Kyiv warned that Russia was once again trying to draw Belarus into the war against Ukraine.

Two more men have been executed in Iran in connection with the January protests with human rights groups condemning growing repression in the country. An Iranian man was also sentenced to 10 years in prison for simply shooting video of protests that first erupted in December 2025.

A woman from Guinea who was deported from Belarus without her infant daughter has finally been reunited with the child after more than a year apart. Rights groups say the separation ended only after pressure from the UN, UNICEF, and Guinean diplomats.

Some 300 Ukrainian drone operators recently took a break from combat to compete in an event called Wild Drones. The competition in the Lviv region gives them a chance to earn bragging rights and give feedback to defense firms behind technology that is being used in the long-running war with Russia.

Internet access in Iran has been partially restored after the government shut down communications at the start of the US-Israeli bombing campaign in late February. Iranians told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that they had been unable to check on their loved ones' safety during months of deadly air strikes.

Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Olha Stefanishyna, told RFE/RL that Ukraine is "desperate" to strike an agreement with the United States on military support to intercept ballistic missiles launched from Russia, adding that Ukraine is prepared to finance the additional systems.

In Central Asia, newborn boys outnumber girls at a rate well beyond the worldwide average. That shift is the result of sex-selective abortion, in which families choose to terminate a pregnancy when a daughter is expected. Observers warn that this choice is not always made freely by pregnant women.

Afghanistan is drawing travel influencers, many of whom showcase the country’s beauty and hospitality under Taliban rule. But critics say these videos whitewash human rights violations and overlook the harsh restrictions Afghan women face, including strict bans on education, work, and public life.

In an interview with RFE/RL, Representative Don Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska, backed tough sanctions on Russia, saying that the United States should keep applying financial pressure. He said Ukraine's recent attacks on military targets inside Russia appear to be "a game-changer" in the war.

The public spectacle of hundreds of couples marrying in Tehran surrounded by armored vehicles and antiaircraft guns on May 18 demonstrates a new level of patriotic messaging from the country amid a fragile cease-fire with the US and Israel.

Friends, classmates, and teachers gathered in Kyiv to say goodbye to sisters Vira and Lyubava Yakovleva, killed in a Russian strike on May 14. Vira was 17. Lyubava was 12. Their father had already been killed in the war in 2023.

In the wake of massive drone strikes on Kyiv, Ukraine launched air attacks on May 17 called the heaviest to hit the Moscow area in over a year. At least four people died, officials said on Sunday, in strikes on the Moscow and Belgorod regions.

Mourners paid tribute to Ukrainians killed on May 14 when a Russian air attack caused an apartment building to collapse in Kyiv. "They just wiped out people," said one witness about the attack at a makeshift memorial near the ruins. Meanwhile, Russia followed up with more attacks May 16.