Belarusian president and long-time central figure in post-Soviet politics
Since July 18 Ukraine has struck multiple Wildberries warehouses across Russia, causing fires, deaths and major stock losses. The campaign has put at least 1.5 million sq m of warehouse space out of operation, forced evacuations and pushed merchants toward bankruptcy. Wildberries and Russia are discussing compensation and possible state support.
Belarusian authorities have released 25 political prisoners as part of a U.S.-brokered interim deal, with sanctions relief on two state companies linked to the move. Washington says more releases and relief will follow as talks continue, while opposition figures warn that repression persists.
Belarusian potash shipments are weighing on US-Canada trade tensions as Washington explores a deal to buy potash at prices lower than Canada’s, amid sanctions and Minsk’s support for Russia. Trump has touted a “massive” deal, while Belarus warns volumes are limited and current contracts are tight.
Poland urges the EU to suspend asylum applications temporarily during mass migration episodes, prompting warnings from rights groups. The European Commission has proposed a flexible, emergency framework for engineered migration, with debates over its scope, legality, and impact on international asylum law.
Kremlin and White House officials have signalled ongoing dialogue on ending the Ukraine war, with discussions focusing on energy initiatives, potential prisoner exchanges, and trilateral talks that could bring Ukraine, Russia, and the United States to the negotiating table. Western mediation efforts continue ahead of winter.
Latvia reports armed, masked individuals escorted a group of irregular migrants toward the Belarus border, sabotaging border infrastructure before retreating. Belarus denies involvement, while Latvia and allied observers call the action an information operation tied to Minsk and Moscow.
Ukrainian drone strikes have damaged three of Yandex’s data centers in Sasovo, Kaluga and Vladimir, disrupting a wide range of services from search and maps to banking and cloud. Yandex reports ongoing restoration efforts, while authorities discuss decentralised backups and the broader resilience of Russia’s digital economy.
Ukrainian drone strikes have knocked out several major Russian data centers, disrupting services across Russia as Kyiv’s response to Russian attacks intensifies. Yandex experiences outages, with European-style AI centers and supercomputers affected; Moscow and regional authorities report ongoing disruption containment and retaliation efforts.