Belarus

Lexie Limitless, a US YouTuber who became the youngest person to visit every nation in the world at the age of 21, has named her four least-favourite European countries

A globe-trotting YouTuber who has visited every country in the world has shared her thoughts on the 44 nations in Europe, saying there are four she would not return to. American Lexie Limitless holds the impressive title of being the youngest person to visit every country in the world at just 21.

In her latest video, ‘I travelled to every country in Europe so you don’t have to’, Lexie reveals some of her favourite “hidden gems” from the continent – including Slovenia, Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Cesky Krumlov in Czech Republic.

However, she also discusses four nations that didn’t quite hit the mark for her.

Lexie said: “Alright, it’s time to talk about one of my least favourite subjects, and I got to say in advance that travel is so subjective. Places that I’ve been that I didn’t necessarily connect with might not be the same for everyone.

“Everyone’s preferences are different, but I think that the countries that didn’t really leave as much of an impression on me as some of the others in Europe would probably be Belarus, Slovakia, Moldova and Bulgaria.”

She continued: “If I had to name a few specifically, I think it was just that in those countries, in particular, it’s so important to know a good local who’s going to show you around and show you all the best spots.”

Lexie believes travel is “mostly about” the people you meet along the way. As she didn’t know anybody in these countries, she had a “really difficult” time obtaining “unique experiences”.

She added that it’s almost “unfair” to compare smaller nations like Moldova or Bulgaria, to a country like Italy, as they have some “advantages” geographically, noting the “diversity” in their “environment“.

The seasoned traveller also stated that she tries to “avoid” naming specific countries that she may not necessarily recommend and would “absolutely love” to go back if she had “more of a purpose” or reason to be there beyond sightseeing.

Belarus, a former Soviet republic, is a landlocked nation in Eastern Europe that shares its borders with Russia, Ukraine, and Poland, among others. Since 1994, it has been ruled by President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been dubbed “Europe’s last dictator.”

Situated within the heart of the continent, Slovakia borders the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Poland and Ukraine. It was formerly part of Czechoslovakia until the so-called “velvet divorce” in 1993.

Meanwhile, Moldova, another landlocked country and former Soviet republic, is nestled between Ukraine and Romania. The BBC reports that two-thirds of its population share Romanian roots, highlighting their shared heritage.

Bulgaria, situated in the eastern Balkans with a coastline along the Black Sea, is predominantly Slavonic-speaking. Since the fall of Communism, it has been steadily transitioning towards a market economy.

Just in case anyone might have wondered whether there was any lingering animosity between Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka after their French Open final, the two tennis stars offered proof that all is well by dancing together at Wimbledon and posting videos on social media.

A day after dancing together on the  Centre Court, the two tennis players faced more questions on Saturday about the aftermath of Sabalenka’s comments right after the final, when she said her loss had more to do with her own mistakes than Gauff’s performance.

The Belarusian later said her comments were “unprofessional”, but not before she faced some major backlash from fans and pundits, especially in the United States.

“TikTok dances always had a way of bringing people together,” Sabalenka wrote on her Instagram feed below a clip of the duo showing off their moves on the Centre Court grass to the strains of the 1990 hit Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) by C+C Music Factory.

Gauff, a frequent TikTok user, put up a video of the pair standing together and mouthing along to a track with the words: “OK, guys, we’re back. Did you miss us? ’Cause we missed you.”

“The olive branch was extended and accepted! we’re good so you guys should be too,” she wrote.

Pretty iconic 😎#Wimbledon | @SabalenkaA | @CocoGauff pic.twitter.com/biHPvsSaBR

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) June 27, 2025

‘Hakuna Matata and be happy’

Now, with Wimbledon about to start, Gauff is hoping everyone else can also forget what the top-ranked Sabalenka said.

“I’m not the person that will fuel hate in the world,” said Gauff, who opens her Wimbledon campaign against Dayana Yastremska on Tuesday. “I think people were taking it too far … It was just really targeting and saying a lot of things that I felt were not nice. I didn’t want to fuel that more.”

Sabalenka, who faces Carson Branstine on court number one on Monday, said she hopes the TikTok video shows that all is well between the two.

“We are good, we are friends,” the three-time major winner said. “I hope the US media can be easy on me right now.”

Sabalenka reiterated that she never meant to offend Gauff.

“I was just completely upset with myself, and emotions got over me,” she said. “I just completely lost it.”

Gauff did acknowledge that she was initially tempted to hit back publicly at Sabalenka, who said the American “won the match not because she played incredible, just because I made all of those mistakes from … easy balls.”

Gauff also said she was slightly surprised that it took a while for Sabalenka to reach out to apologise. But once that happened, the American was quick to bury any grudge.

“I preach love, I preach light,” Gauff said. “I just want us to be Kumbaya, live happily, Hakuna Matata [“no worries” in Swahili], and be happy here.”

Other players were also pleased to see the top two women’s players getting along again.

“I’m happy to see that they turned the page about it,” said Frances Tiafoe, who is seeded 12th in the Wimbledon men’s bracket. “That’s the biggest thing, because they’re the best players in the world. So those relationships you kind of need.”

Then the American added with a laugh, “But also it wouldn’t be too bad if they were also back-and-forth. That’d kind of be cool if they kind of didn’t like each other.”

Gauff vs Sabalenka head-to-head

Three-time Grand Slam champion’s loss to Gauff in Paris followed her loss to the American in the US Open final in 2023, and she trails their head-to-head 6-5.

Asked whether she would relish the chance to avenge the loss by beating Gauff in the Wimbledon final, she sounded unsure.

“I don’t know, in this case, maybe I don’t want to see Coco if I make it to the finals. But if she’s going to be there, I’m happy because I want to get the revenge!”

A jovial Sabalenka was joined for the last minute of her media address by seven-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic, with whom she said she had a long chat this week after hitting with the Serb on the grass.

“Novak is the best. First of all, I was able to hit with him. Then you can chat with him. He will give his honest advice,” she said. “It’s amazing to hear the opinion of such a legend. We were just chatting about stuff that I’m struggling a little bit [with]. I’m really thankful for the advice he gave me.”

The women’s world number one tennis player says she was ‘super emotional’ and ‘completely unprofessional’ after losing the French Open final to the American.

Aryna Sabalenka says she has written to Coco Gauff to apologise for the “unprofessional” comments she made following her loss to her American rival in the final of the French Open.

The top-ranked Sabalenka said on Tuesday that her remarks after her loss to Gauff at Roland-Garros were a mistake.

In her post-match media address in Paris, the Belarusian had suggested that the American’s win was more due to her own errors than Gauff’s performance.

Sabalenka had been poised for victory after claiming the opening set in a tiebreak, only to watch Gauff orchestrate a stunning 6-7(5) 6-2 6-4 comeback to claim her second Grand Slam title.

The 27-year-old made 70 unforced errors in the final and later said at the news conference that Gauff won “not because she played incredible, [but] because I made all of those mistakes” – comments she has since regretted making.

“That was just completely unprofessional of me,” Sabalenka told Eurosport Germany.

“I let my emotions get the better of me. I absolutely regret what I said back then. You know, we all make mistakes. I’m just a human being who’s still learning in life. I think we all have those days when we lose control. But what I also want to say is that I wrote to Coco afterward – not immediately, but recently.”

She said she wrote to Gauff to apologise and “make sure she knew she absolutely deserved to win the tournament and that I respect her”.

“I never intended to attack her,” Sabalenka added. “I was super emotional and not very smart at that press conference. I’m not necessarily grateful for what I did. It took me a while to go back and think about it, to approach it with open eyes, and to understand. I realised a lot about myself. Why did I lose so many finals?”

Sabalenka, a three-time major champion, had lost to Gauff in the 2023 US Open final, where she also won the first set.

“I kept getting so emotional,” Sabalenka added. “So I learned a lot. Above all, one thing: I’m the one who always treats my opponents with great respect, whether I win or lose. Without that respect, I wouldn’t be where I am today. So it was a tough but very valuable lesson for me.”

These are the key events on day 1,191 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here’s where things stand on Friday, May 30:

Fighting

• The Russian army said on Thursday that it had captured three villages in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Kharkiv regions in its latest advance.
• Authorities in Ukraine said Russia had fired 90 drones overnight and at least seven people were killed in drone, missile and artillery strikes across five front-line Ukrainian regions.
• Russia said it had repelled 48 Ukrainian drones overnight, including three near Moscow.
• Drones made a night-time attack on Russia’s western Kursk region, damaging a hospital and apartment buildings, and injuring at least one person, the regional Governor Alexander Khinshtein said.
• Ukraine’s military said its forces remained active in small areas of Kursk, though Russia’s military said last week it had completed the ejection of Ukrainian forces from the Russian region.

• Across the border in Ukraine’s neighbouring Sumy region, the regional governor reported new fighting in villages near the border where Russia has been seizing territory. He said various areas in his region were constantly changing hands as both sides continued to battle for control.
• “Active battles continue in certain border areas, notably around the settlements of Khotyn and Yunakivka,” Sumy Governor Oleh Hryhorov wrote on Facebook. “The situation on the line of contact is constantly changing. In some places, we hold the initiative, in others, the enemy is proving to be active.”
• Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had captured three more villages as it slowly advances through parts of eastern Ukraine. These were Stroivka in the northeastern Kharkiv region, and Shevchenko Pershe and Hnativka near the town of Pokrovsk, the focal point of Russia’s westward drive for months.
• Ukrainian military reports made no mention of any of the three villages coming under Russian control. Russian forces had launched 53 attacks over 24 hours near Pokrovsk, the military said.

Ceasefire

• The Kremlin said on Thursday that it was waiting for Kyiv’s response to its proposal for new talks in Istanbul next Monday.
• Ukraine said it was ready to hold more talks with Russia in Istanbul but demanded that Moscow supply a document setting out its conditions for peace in the war, adding that Kyiv had already submitted its vision of a peace settlement.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia was engaging in “yet another deception” by failing to hand over its peace settlement proposal in advance of the next potential meeting. “Even the so-called ‘memorandum’ they promised and seemingly prepared for more than a week has still not been seen by anyone,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.
• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Kyiv’s demand on the “memorandum” was “non-constructive”.
• Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Heorhii Tykhyi, said Moscow’s refusal to send the document “suggests that it is likely filled with unrealistic ultimatums”.

• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who will host the new talks, called on Russia and Ukraine not to “shut the door” on dialogue.
• The Russian delegation to the second round of talks in Istanbul will be the same as for the first round, the Russian TASS news agency cited Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying.
• United Nations Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo told the Security Council that the “cautious hope” she expressed a month ago for a ceasefire in Ukraine has diminished in the face of the “brutal surge in large-scale Russian attacks” against Ukraine.
• Ukrainian Deputy Ambassador to the UN Khrystyna Hayovyshyn told the council that “Russia is not signalling any genuine intention to stop its war”, and said that increased political, economic and military pressure on Moscow was required.
• Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia rejected the accusations, instead accusing Kyiv of “attempting to prolong the war” and warning that Ukraine’s defeat was inevitable. “No new anti-Russian sanctions, nor deliveries of weapons to Ukraine or any other hostile steps vis-a-vis Russia will be able to prevent the inevitable military defeat of the Zelenskyy regime,” Nebenzia said.
• John Kelley, the United States’s alternate representative at the UN meeting, said that if Russia “makes the wrong decision to continue this catastrophic war”, Washington will consider “stepping back from our negotiation efforts to end this conflict”, adding that additional sanctions against Moscow were “still on the table”.

Military aid

• Zelenskyy said he discussed the possible delivery of German Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during his visit to Berlin. “The Taurus issue was discussed in a one-to-one meeting between the chancellor and me,” the Ukrainian president told the German broadcaster RTL.
• Russia accused Serbia of exporting arms to Ukraine, saying it was a stab in the back by its longtime Slavic Balkan ally.
• “Serbian defense enterprises, contrary to the ‘neutrality’ declared by official Belgrade, continue to supply ammunition to Kyiv,” Russia’s foreign intelligence service said in a statement.
• The statement alleged that exports of Serbian arms to Ukraine are going through NATO intermediaries, “primarily the Czech Republic, Poland and Bulgaria”. It added: “Recently, exotic options involving African states have also been used for this purpose.”

Regional security

• A Belarusian radio station has been flouting European Union sanctions to spread “disinformation” and back a pro-Russian candidate on social media in advance of Poland’s presidential election, according to reports.
• A Polish-language radio station, set up by Belarus, has been posting pro-Russian narratives on social media for almost two years “despite EU sanctions”, experts said in a report published by three think tanks. Poland votes on Sunday in a hotly contested presidential run-off between pro-EU and nationalist candidates, which is being closely watched in Europe.

Economy

• The International Monetary Fund announced it had reached an agreement with Ukraine on a loan programme review to unlock about $500m dollars of funds to support macroeconomic stability.

European Parliament backs bill that will enact duties in July and gradually increase them over three years.

The European Parliament has voted to impose tariffs on fertiliser and certain farm produce imports from Russia and its ally Belarus, despite European farmers’ fears that the move could lead to higher prices.

The European Parliament on Thursday voted 411 to 100 in support of the bill that will enact duties in July and gradually increase them to a point where they would make imports unviable in 2028.

In 2023, more than 70 percent of EU fertiliser consumption was of nitrogen-based fertiliser, of which Russia accounted for 25 percent of EU imports worth about 1.3bn euros ($1.5bn).

According to the bloc, the tariffs for certain fertilisers will increase over three years from 6.5 percent to an amount equivalent to about 100 percent, effectively halting trade by 2028.

For farm produce, an additional 50 percent duty will apply.

While Russia and Belarus were hit with prohibitive tariffs last year over the war in Ukraine, the new measures will apply to 15 percent of agriculture imports from Russia that were not previously hit, including meat, dairy produce, fruit and vegetables.

EU lawmaker Inese Vaidere, spearheading the push for increased tariffs, said the bloc must stop fuelling “the Russian war machine” and “limit the dependency of Europe’s farmers to Russian fertilisers”.

Member states still must formally give the bill their final approval, having already supported the idea.

Russia said on Thursday that the tariffs would cause fertiliser prices in the EU to rise.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that demand for Russian nitrogen fertilisers on other export routes remained high, adding that Russian fertilisers were of the highest quality.

Farmers’ fears

The pan-European farmers’ group Copa-Cogeca told the AFP news agency that using Russian fertilisers was the “most competitive in terms of price, due to well-established logistics”.

The tariff could be “potentially devastating” for the agriculture sector, the group warned, adding, “European farmers must not become collateral damage”.

A farmer in Belgium accused the EU of hurting its farmers.

Amaury Poncelet told AFP that he “doesn’t understand the European Union’s idea of punishing its farmers”.

“We’re losing money because of these European decisions that treat us like pawns who don’t matter,” he said.

The European Commission has argued the tariffs will help support domestic production and suggested duties on imports from other regions could be removed to alleviate price pressures, among other mitigating measures, in case of price shocks.

May 20 (UPI) — Lithuania on Monday filed a case against Belarus in the International Court of Justice, accusing its southern neighbor of facilitating a large-scale smuggling scheme.

The filing initiates legal proceedings against Belarus in the World Court, based in The Hague.

“We are taking this case to the International Court of Justice to send a clear message: no state can use vulnerable people as political pawns without facing consequences under international law,” Lithuanian Justice Minister Rimantas Mockus said in a statement.

Lithuania specifically accused Belarus of violating the United Nations Protocol Against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, which was adopted in 2000, to supplement the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

According to the application to the ICJ, the Baltic county accuses Belarus of “facilitating, supporting and enabling” the smuggling of migrants into the country while failing to implement smuggling protection measures at their shared border.

Vilnius also charges Minsk with failing to exchange information about smuggling with Lithuania’s border control agencies and neglecting to protect the rights of migrants.

“The smuggling of migrants through Belarus into Lithuania has caused serious harm to Lithuania’s sovereignty, security and public order, as well as to the rights and interests of the smuggled migrants themselves, who have been exposed to grave abuses in trying to reach Lithuanian territory,” Vilnius said.

“The large-scale smuggling of migrants has also overwhelmed Lithuania’s reception facilities and asylum systems, which has heavily affected Lithuania’s ability to respond to the migration crisis at the border.”

It said it has made “extensive efforts” to address the issue with Belarus, but that Belarus has “refused to engage in constructive and effective dialogue.”

Belarus not only continued to deny its responsibility under the U.N. protocol, it said, “but also the facts on the ground underlying those breaches,” it said.

Lithuania’s foreign ministry said the “unprecedented” flow of migrants from Belarus dates back to at least 2021, and that it has evidence confirming the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko is directly involved in the scheme.

According to the ministry, Belarusian state-owned companies have increased the number of flights from the Middle East and other regions and organized the issuance of visas and accommodations.

It said that when the migrants arrive in Belarus, many are taken to the Lithuanian border by security forces and are forced to cross into the country under what the ministry described as “dangerous and life-threatening conditions.”

Lithuania states that the smuggling scheme is an attempt to use migrants to retaliate against Vilnius and the European Union over their rejection of Lukashenko’s attacks on democracy and human rights abuses with sanctions.

Belarus has yet to respond to the development.

In December, the European Commission approved member states to adopt measures to country “the weaponization of migration by Russia and Belarus.”

It said Eastern EU countries that border both Belarus and Russia are at risk of migrants being used “as a political tool to destabilize our societies.”

The Baltic nation is seeking damages, including compensation for border reinforcement costs.

Lithuania has initiated legal proceedings against Belarus at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing its neighbour of orchestrating a refugee and migrant crisis by facilitating the smuggling of people across their border.

“The Belarusian regime must be held legally accountable for orchestrating the wave of illegal migration and the resulting human rights violations,” Lithuanian Justice Minister Rimantas Mockus said in a statement on Monday.

“We are taking this case to the International Court of Justice to send a clear message: no state can use vulnerable people as political pawns without facing consequences under international law.”

The case, submitted to the ICJ in The Hague, centres on alleged violations by Belarus of the United Nations Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air.

Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said attempts to resolve the issue through bilateral talks failed and it has evidence showing direct involvement by the Belarusian state in organising refugee and migrant flows, including a surge in flights from the Middle East operated by Belarusian state-owned airlines.

After landing in Belarus, many of the passengers were escorted to the Lithuanian border by Belarusian security forces and forced to cross illegally, Lithuanian officials said.

Lithuania also accused Belarus of refusing to cooperate with its border services in preventing irregular crossings and said it is seeking compensation through the ICJ for alleged damages caused, including costs related to border reinforcement.

Tensions between the two countries have simmered since 2021 when thousands of people – mostly from the Middle East and Africa – began arriving at the borders of Lithuania, Poland and Latvia from Belarus.

Belarus had previously deported Middle Eastern refugees and migrants with more than 400 Iraqis repatriated to Baghdad on a charter flight from Minsk in November 2021.

That same year, a Human Rights Watch report accused Belarus of manufacturing the crisis, finding that “accounts of violence, inhuman and degrading treatment and coercion by Belarusian border guards were commonplace”.

European Union officials have also accused Minsk of “weaponising” migration in an effort to destabilise the bloc. The claims are strongly denied by Belarus.

In December, the EU approved emergency measures allowing member states bordering Belarus and Russia to temporarily suspend asylum rights in cases in which migration is being manipulated for political ends.

These are the key events on day 1,178 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Saturday, May 17:

Fighting

• Russia is preparing for a new military offensive in Ukraine, the Ukrainian government and Western military analysts said, as Russia’s Defence Minister Andrei Belousov was in Minsk on Friday to discuss joint military drills in September and deliveries of new weapons to Belarus.
• A drone attack on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kupiansk killed a 55-year-old woman and wounded four men, said Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said that its forces seized six settlements in eastern Ukraine over the past week. According to a ministry statement, Russian troops advanced in the Donetsk region and took control of Torske, Kotlyarivka, Myrolyubivka, Mykhailivka​​​​​​, Novooleksandrivka, and Vilne Pole settlements, Tukiye’s Anadolu news agency reports.

• The Russian Defence Ministry released a video showing Russian forces raising the Russian flag in the settlement of Mykhailivka.
• A court in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Luhansk region sentenced Australian national Oscar Charles Augustus Jenkins to 13 years in jail at a high-security penal colony for fighting on behalf of Ukraine, Anadolu reports.

Ceasefire

• The first direct Russia-Ukraine dialogue in three years on Friday produced good results, Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy, said late on Friday. “1. Largest POW exchange 2. Ceasefire options that may work 3. Understanding of positions and continued dialogue,” Dmitriev said on the social media platform X.
• Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said following the talks that some 1,000 prisoners from each side will be swapped “in the near future”, in the largest exchange since the start of the war in 2022.
• Umerov led the Ukrainian delegation, which ended after 90 minutes in Istanbul, while Putin’s adviser, Vladimir Medinsky, negotiated on behalf of Russia. The United States delegation was led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
• Medinsky, who was the lead Russian negotiator, expressed satisfaction with the talks and said Moscow was ready for further negotiations, including on a ceasefire. “We have agreed that all sides will present their views on a possible ceasefire and set them out in detail,” Medinsky said after the meeting.

• A source in the Ukrainian delegation told the Reuters news agency that Russia’s demands were “detached from reality and go far beyond anything that was previously discussed”. The source said Moscow had issued ultimatums for Ukraine to withdraw from parts of its own territory in order to obtain a ceasefire “and other non-starters and non-constructive conditions”.
• Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who opened the talks by welcoming both delegations and calling for a swift ceasefire, served as a buffer between the negotiating tables in Istanbul’s Dolmabahce Palace.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed regret after the talks at what he called a missed opportunity for peace. “This week, we had a real chance to move towards ending the war – if only Putin hadn’t been afraid to come to Turkiye,” Zelenskyy posted on X from the sidelines of a European Political Community (EPC) summit in Albania.
• Zelenskyy, who did not attend the talks, said he had been “ready for a direct meeting with him [Putin] to resolve all key issues”, but “he didn’t agree to anything”.
• US President Donald Trump, who has pressed for an end to the conflict, said he would meet with Putin “as soon as we can set it up” in a bid to make progress in the peace talks. “I think it’s time for us to just do it,” Trump told reporters in Abu Dhabi as he wrapped up a trip to the Middle East.

• Zelenskyy was in Tirana, Albania, on Friday with European leaders to discuss security, defence and democratic standards against the backdrop of the war. He held a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
• European leaders also agreed to press ahead with joint action against Russia over the failure in Turkiye to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine, Prime Minister Starmer said after consultations with President Trump.
• Starmer said after the talks that the Russian position was “clearly unacceptable” and that European leaders, Ukraine and the US were “closely aligning” their responses.
• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced new plans for additional sanctions on Moscow after Putin failed to travel to Turkiye to negotiate with Ukraine.
• US senators renewed calls on Friday for Congress to pass sanctions on Russia after Russia-Ukraine ceasefire talks showed little progress, but no votes were scheduled on bills introduced six weeks ago aimed at pressuring Moscow to negotiate seriously.

Regional security

• Russia and Belarus are preparing a new, large military manoeuvre together, the Belarusian state agency BelTA reports. “We plan to jointly develop measures to counter aggression against the Union State,” Defence Minister Belousov said during a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart, Viktor Khrenin, in Minsk, according to BelTA. The Union State combines Russia and Belarus.
• The exercise, dubbed Zapad-2025, or West-2025 in English, will be the main event of the combat training of the regional troop formations, he said. The manoeuvre is planned for mid-September, according to the agency.

Economy and trade

• Russia’s economic growth slowed to 1.4 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025, the lowest quarterly figure in two years, data from the official state statistics agency showed on Friday.
• Economists have warned for months of a slowdown in the Russian economy, with falling oil prices, high interest rates and a downturn in manufacturing all contributing to headwinds. Moscow reported strong economic growth in 2023 and 2024, largely due to massive state defence spending on the Ukraine conflict.
• The Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS), which represents the democratic countries bordering the Baltic Sea, called for new shipping rules to allow for stronger joint action against Russia’s so-called shadow fleet.