Russia

When it comes to what rifles, sidearms and optics work best in war, there is perhaps no better place to find out than Ukraine. During more than four years of intense defense of their homeland, Ukrainian troops have used an assortment of small arms and accessories, many foreign-made, others domestically produced, to fight the Russians.

To get a better sense of what Ukrainians are currently using on the front lines, what they like, and what they don’t, we reached out to the First Corps Azov of the National Guard of Ukraine. The unit is stationed in the bloody Dobropillia sector in the eastern Donetsk region and is in the middle of one of the toughest fights in Ukraine.

Five soldiers from different Azov units with a range of specialties offered their unique insights into the weapons, sights and scopes they like and the ones they don’t.

The soldiers are issued all their weapons exclusively through the brigade’s armament service, which obtains them from the Ukrainian Defense Ministry (MoD). Individuals, however, told us they sometimes purchase their own sights and scopes and other accessories, depending on the models.

Some of the questions and answers have been slightly edited for clarity.

Specifically, what rifles are the most coveted? And if they are AR-15s and AKs, which specific ones?

Tarantino, Chief Armorer, 12th Special Forces Brigade Azov, First Corps Azov of the National Guard of Ukraine.

When it comes to light weapon systems, the most common is an assault rifle based on the AR-15 [chambered 5.56mm], either domestic production or the one given to us by partner countries.

Chill, Chief Tactical Training Instructor, 41st Unmanned Systems Regiment Pilum, First Corps Azov of the National Guard of Ukraine.

So, in my personal opinion, the UAR-15 system is better for me because it’s lighter and it’s more reliable. I have worked with both platforms, both systems, and I can compare them based on my experience. And from my personal experience, the AR system is better.

The caliber is 5.56, and it’s also really convenient in terms of its modification and modernization because with the AK platform, you need to adapt it for further adjustments individually. But in the case of the UAR system, it’s really adaptable and you do not basically need anything in order to modernize it or modify it.

Made In Ukraine – The New Game-Changing UAR-15 Rifle

Khalepa, Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battery Commander, Air Defense Battalion Strazh, First Corps Azov of the National Guard of Ukraine.

Well, in our case, we are using larger calibers starting from 12.7mm up to 35mm. So we do not actually use the standard rifles.

Chewie, Deputy Commander for Logistics, Separate Special Operations Detachment Tuman, First Corps Azov of the National Guard of Ukraine.

When it comes to close combat, usually this is the UAR-15S of Ukrainian manufacturer called Zbroyar.

Barman, Tactical Training Instructor, Personnel Training Battalion, First Corps Azov of the National Guard of Ukraine.

So currently our key weapon platform is the UAR-15, but previously we also used the AK-74 and other modifications. The AK-74 fires 5.45mm rounds.

What is most conducive to fighting?

Tarantino

Well, the best weapon to work with is not the weapon itself, but the people we are working with. The weapon is only the instrument. But personally, the most reliable weapon is the one that has as few stoppages as possible because the last thing you want is to have a stoppage in the situation where you need to fire.

For me, that is the Heckler & Koch 416. But I am talking about my preferences and experience. That gun has a gas piston system that has proven itself the most efficient due to the fact that the movement of the piston back and forth is relatively short. That makes the weapon itself much more reliable.

Another system, called DI [direct impingement used in standard AR-15 pattern rifles], requires much more attention from the gunner who is shooting the rifle. Because in the conditions where the operator, the marksman, is sitting in the trench or in a bunker — especially now in autumn when the humidity is high — this DI system requires much more attention due to the wet weather around. The gas piston system has proven itself much more reliable and it doesn’t need that much attention.

Chill

We are using the Ukrainian-manufactured UAR-15 rifle, and you know, as they say, the best rifle is the one that you have.

Chewie

So the weapon system that I told you about, UAR-15, is indeed the most loved because, in addition to this weapon, we do possess small numbers of Beretta, Bren, and several other weapon systems.

The reason why we prefer the UAR-15 is, first of all, it is much lighter. Second, it’s shorter. Another reason is that, taking into account the combat warfare that we have right now, we have the manufacturer on the premises of our country. It means if something happens to the weapon, it doesn’t take much time to either send the request to the manufacturer for them to send us the spare details, or for us to send the weapon system to them for maintenance.

Barman

Our preference is of course the UAR-15, and we’re using the 5.56 UAR platforms because it’s more convenient to use, it’s easier to maintain, and it’s also more reliable. But we also need to understand that our enemy is using the AK platforms, the AK-12, the AK-74, and while of course we are carrying the 5.56 rounds, usually during the assault actions, we can take the AK rifles and the 5.45 rounds to be able to use our rifles in compatibly with the enemy’s rifles. We can use the AKs for the element of surprise and for deception. The way they look compared to the UAR rifles makes it easier to deceive the enemy.

Have you noticed any performance differences between the AR-15 piston and direct impingement (DI) versions?

Tarantino

Well, again, the biggest difference between this gas piston system and the DI system is that the gas piston system has a very short movement back and forth of the piston. It means that the chances of stoppage in this weapon are quite low, while the DI system is much more demanding because these exhaust gases go back into this tube that pushes the bolt carrier back. That means these gases make this tunnel much more dirty. And in a situation when the rotation of the soldier to the battlefield is for two weeks, and these are the two weeks of a very intensive fight, a soldier doesn’t always have the chance to disassemble a weapon and pull the bolt carrier out and clean it. 

Compared to the DI system, the Heckler & Koch quality of the barrel itself is exceptionally phenomenal. So the quality of the metal is good, and it allows you to shoot even four or five or even six magazines in a row without the barrel getting overheated.

Chill

Well, talking about the piston system, the only AR-15-based rifle which I know has the piston system is the Heckler & Koch 416. So I have some experience in using it, but unfortunately I do not have this rifle. But I would like to. It’s quite reliable based on my communication with other operators and service members. I also get really good feedback about that weapon. But that’s the only weapon system with this piston system that I know of, and yeah, it presents some advantages. 

The UAR-15 system that we are currently using within our unit is the DI-based weapon system, and the key difference is that they become contaminated quicker, and they require better and more frequent maintenance, which is not always possible to ensure in combat conditions.

Piston driven AR15 VS gas impingement

Khalepa

Well, I have served in the infantry since 2022, and I have had some experience with the piston systems, for instance, with the AK system, and I did not really notice any major differences.

Chewie

We use only the DI system.

Barman

Well, from my experience, the gas piston systems like the one that we can find on the HK 416, they are simpler to maintain. They are more efficient in terms of their principle of operation, and also they are more reliable, I would say.

But the key difference in the DI system is that, of course, it’s a little bit more difficult to maintain them. But at the same time, you can regulate the amount of gas that goes back into the receiver. So, both of these systems have their own advantages and disadvantages. 

If I were asked to choose between the two, I would use the gas piston system. It also has fewer parts that can be broken during intensive use.

Any bullpups, where the grip is forward of the breech, that have performed well?

Tarantino

I will tell you this: we have never received a foreign-made bullpup weapon. We have several domestic-made ones. One of them is called the Fort 221.

So for the short-term operations, when you have to fulfill a mission within a small and limited amount of time, and especially when you have to move around a lot, this forward bullpup configuration has proven itself quite good. But when it comes to long-term operations, when you have to, in addition to moving a lot, have to be out there in the field for quite a long time, this one is not the best option for this.

Chill

Well, I wouldn’t say that I would recommend any of the bullpups that I have used. So I have used the Fort 224, and my impressions of this weapon system are like 50-50.

I would say that the primary issue with these rifles is their ergonomic characteristics. So, especially while shooting from a prone position, it’s pretty difficult to handle these rifles. So maybe during some kind of assault actions, active offensive actions, these rifles could be usable. But in terms of ergonomics, the standard rifles are much more convenient to use.

Khalepa

We don’t use bullpups.

Chewie

We do not use any bullpups. One of the reasons is that a Ukrainian manufacturer used to produce these weapon systems with a 5.45mm, and that’s definitely not a reliable weapon at all.

Barman

I had some experience in using bullpup rifles, namely the Tavor, also the Ukrainian-manufactured Malyuk, and I think that’s it with bullpup assault rifles. But also I have used Turkish-manufactured bullpup type shotguns.

In my experience, the bullpup systems function seamlessly, but I’m just more used to the classic configuration of the assault rifles.

But the bullpup rifles have their own advantages. For example, they are more compact, so they can have the same length of the barrel. The ballistics will be the same, but the rifle will be more compact. At the same time, the bullpup configurations require more practice at the shooting range. So you just need to get used to reloading the bullpup rifle because the magazine is located in the rear part of the weapon. I wouldn’t say that this is much more difficult than reloading a weapon with the classical configuration, but it just feels unusual. This is why you just need more practice to get used to it.

Are you using suppressors and, if so, what kind?

Tarantino

When it comes to silencers and these suppressors, this very gap is not yet filled, so there is still a lot of room for maneuver and for somebody to enter this field. We do use them. We use several of them. One of them is called Ase Utra, but this one has the option of what’s called a gas release function.

Another one we have is called Ukrop FAST (Fast-Attach Suppressor Tactical) suppressor. This can be easily attached and detached. But when it comes to active combat and when it comes to automatic mode of firing, these very suppressors lose their resources quite fast, so the wear and tear comes quite fast.

Chill

Personally, I do not use any suppressors, any sound moderators, because I do not have the tasks that require such equipment. But of course, the other service members who have the appropriate tasks, they use those.

Khalepa

No, we do not use any kind of those because we are located far from settlements and towns, which is why we do not need any kind of suppressors.

Chewie

So when it comes to the UAR system, they go in a set with the manufacturer-issued suppressors. So we do use them because they go in a set. And another one that we use is the one called Ase Utra.

The reason why we prefer this suppressor that goes in a set with UAR-15 is that it has a function of quick removal. It means that to install it on the gun and to take it out from the gun, it doesn’t need much time and it doesn’t require any additional fixing of the aiming point. It means that a person can shoot if at some point he or she needs to put on the suppressor, they put on the suppressor and keeps shooting, so there is no need to do another kind of manipulations with the aiming device. 

Ase Ultra doesn’t have this function. It means that after putting on the suppressor, you still have to adjust the aiming point a little bit. There is only one exception with Ase Ultra suppressors, for the caliber .308, which is the UAR-10. This one has shown its efficiency quite well, and the preciseness of shooting for the distance of approximately 900 yards remains the same with the suppressor and without the suppressor. But that’s the only exception. In the past we used to use the UAR-10 much more often, both modifications, the short barrel and long barrel. But right now it’s more and more rare to use it.

Barman

I have used some of the sound moderators, mostly manufactured by the Ukrainian company Zbroyar. Also, some of the American manufactured sound moderators, SureFire RC2, and also the Ukrainian manufactured Mystic Medusa sound moderators. So all of them were used in the automatic fire mode, and they have demonstrated quite a high level of efficiency.

But I would say that the Zbroyar-manufactured sound moderators have a slight disadvantage in terms of how the gases are channeled. So, if you fire a weapon like the Heckler & Koch, sometimes while shooting automatic fire bursts, you can have some problems with the gas from firing.

It all depends on whether you can regulate the gas block in the weapon system or not. So, for instance, in the UAR systems, there is a possibility to regulate the gas block, and this is why you can adjust your shooting depending on what you’re using. But with some of the weapons, you cannot adjust this, and part of the gas just returns to the receiver, causing problems.

What about personal defense weapons and submachine guns?

Tarantino

Yes, we do use some submachineguns. One of them is Heckler & Koch MP5, which has proven itself quite good because this one is quite comfortable to work with, and this one is quite a mobile weapon system and easy to operate.

The only drawback of such a weapon is that you can only use it in a few situations. So the variety of usage of this weapon is too narrow. So it’s quite irrational to use this weapon system in modern combat warfare. The best example where it definitely will serve you well? I’d say the drivers of the vehicles use them, or the tank drivers use them, due to the fact that they have to fulfill other missions. The weapon itself is relatively small, so this comes handy for drivers and the tank drivers.

Chill

Well, usually the only self-defense gun which has been used is the handgun, so the pistol. As for the submachine guns, we almost do not use them at all because of their form factors. So the most standard self-defense weapon is either the rifle for every service member, or when there is an opportunity to use a pistol. But submachine guns are not widely used.

Khalepa

The Fort 20 is the model of the pistol that we are using for personal defense weapons in our unit. And as for the personal weapons, we also use the UAR-15 rifles.

Chewie

We do not use submachine guns. What our soldiers do use, because they are issued out, are sidearms. It’s either Glock 17 or the Fort 20.

Barman

In terms of submachine guns, I have only used those at shooting ranges, so I do not have any real experience with them. But our sidearms are usually Glock 17 or Fort 20, and also we had some experience with Berettas.

What about optics? What red dots and scopes are most used? What works best and what do soldiers see as the positives and negatives of different brands and types, like EOTECH holographic sights versus Holosun or Aimpoint red dots?

Tarantino

There is one optic that’s called Aimpoint, third generation. When it comes to red dot sights, we take what is available commercially. So what has proven its efficiency is the one red dot called Holosun. This one out of everything that is on the market has also proved its efficiency. But we are talking about relatively cheap options right now. Other brands that are quite popular are the EOTECH, Vortex, and Vector Optics.

Chill

I have been using the Holosun red dot scope for over three years, and I cannot say that I have any complaints regarding that. It performs its function, and the rest of the possible manufacturers of these devices depend on the unit and depend on their personal budgets as well. So, of course, there are some differences between them. For instance, the Aimpoint has proven itself really reliable. The EOTECH as well. There are some drawbacks related to its dimension. It’s pretty large, and it is not appropriate for all the operators.

Holosun, I would say that this is the device that shows the best cost-to-quality ratio. So it all depends on the unit. For instance, when we are talking about the service members that are involved in some direct action, for instance, in assault actions, then they might use the EOTECH or the Aimpoint devices. But other service members might as well use the Holosun devices and other brands that are also available on the market. So, as usual, everything is operator-dependent. I wouldn’t say that there are any particular problems with them, but maybe the price, the high price, can be called just one of the problems.

The baseline is that everyone is using the rifles with iron sights. But then, if, for instance, the additional optical devices are not provided for by the unit, then the fighters can choose to buy their own optics. It all depends on the unit and the operator.

Khalepa

In the unit that I’m currently serving in, we do not use any kind of these optical devices because we are located very far from the front line. Basically, our positions are in the rear, and since we are concerned with shooting down aerial targets, we do not need to use any of these devices.

Chewie

So we do use Aimpoint. We use the modifications M5, M4, and also we use the EOTECH.

So when it comes to EOTECH, it has one big advantage. It has quite a big screen or quite a big window that allows the operator to see a much wider spectrum, and this allows him to make much more precise aim. But the drawback of this one is that it doesn’t have this kind of underbarrel option of having the grenade launcher under the barrel. When it comes to Aimpoint, the aim itself is quite small, but this one is capable of withstanding the launching of the underbarrel grenade launcher. When the grenade is leaving the barrel, the Aimpoint still can remain on the barrel and not be lost.

The peculiarity of this EOTECH is the following: when you shoot two or three grenades from the underbarrel grenade launcher, after two or three shots, the aiming stops working correctly. The recoil from the grenade launcher impacts the work of this aiming device, and it’s no longer correct.

Barman

I have worked both with red dot sights and optical scopes. In terms of the red dot sights, I have experience in using the EOTECH 553 and the EOTECH XPS3. I’ve used them with the 3x magnifier, also manufactured by the EOTECH company, and also I have some experience in using the Aimpoint T2 red dot sights, also in combination with the EOTech magnifier. Also, I have used the Vortex Crossfire red dot sight. It’s similar to the Aimpoint T2, but it’s a little bit cheaper and it is intended to be used by sportsmen.

All of these models have their own advantages. In terms of the EOTECH and Aimpoint, they have the mil-spec certification, which is why they can be more resilient than the other brands. If I were to choose, then I would definitely choose the Aimpoint T2 red dot sight because this is like the classical red dot sight, not the holographic sight, like the EOTECH XPS3. So this means that even with the partial damage of the sight, with the partial damage of the lens, it still gives you the red dot, and you are still able to efficiently shoot with it.

Partially we buy them ourselves. Partially we are issued those sights by the state. For instance, in this unit, I was issued the Aimpoint T2 micro kit. So in another unit that we have served before joining this unit, we were issued ACOG sights for the M4A1 rifles, so it really depends.

What about scopes?

Tarantino

When it comes to the scopes, the ones that we use are the ones that zoom in at the 3x or 5x magnification, no more, because 3X and 5x are exactly the ranges that are good enough for you to operate your weapon in an efficient way and to cover that area of responsibility each marksman has.

Chill

We do not have any organic standard-issue scopes within our unit, but from what I have seen among the operators in our subunits, I have seen the Vortex scopes. So these are the ones that can be used with the AR systems.

As for magnification, it’s either 1-8x or 1-16x. Usually, our operators are using the scopes with variable magnification, and it all depends on the task. But mostly, these scopes are not used for firing, but rather for observation.

Khalepa

We don’t use scopes.

Chewie

We do use them. We use mostly four different modification brands. One of them is called Nightforce. Another one is called Schmidt & Bender. Another one is called Kahles, and the last one that we use is called Leupold. 

So roughly speaking, Kahles and Leupold are equals and they work quite similar. The differences are that in the Kahles, the aiming matrix is different, but when it comes to Leupold, I would say that the lens is quite clean, so that makes this one very, very much loved. So I do possess the Leupold scopes. This is my main scope I use. It has been through a lot, and it has withstood a lot of explosions, and it’s still up and running. It’s still functioning.

When it comes to this Kahles, again, roughly speaking, it has shown its efficiency quite well. Some modifications to these Kahles scopes allow it to provide a view called parallax. That’s one of the settings. So if a soldier doesn’t know how to properly use it, it’s not possible to set this scope correctly.

We do buy a lot of those scopes. Back in the past, volunteers used to help us a lot, and other companies used to buy them for us and simply deliver them to us, but right now the system is such that we do receive from the government from the official line of sustainment very efficient scopes.

Barman

So currently I’m using the Sig Sauer scope. I need to look up the exact model, but its magnification is one to six. Its ballistics are honed for the 5.56 caliber exactly for the M855 cartridge. This is the scope which is most optimal for the usage with the assault rifle. But previously, I also used the Elcan Specter scope and also the EOTECH Vudu.

I cannot just select only one scope. One of my favorites is the Elcan Specter. It’s quite compact, and its magnification is one to four. At the level of one, it can be used as a red dot sight, and then it can also be used as the classical optical sight to magnify the image. And for shooting at longer ranges, well, I would say that the Sig Sauer is my favorite. So it’s pretty convenient to be used for shooting at ranges of several hundred meters.

How prevalent are thermal scopes? Is there a difference in quality between those used by the Russians and Ukrainians that gives an upper hand?

Tarantino

When it comes to thermal optics, the one that we use quite often is called Archer. That’s a Ukrainian domestic production thermal vision device, and this one is quite efficient and quite comfortable to use. And when it comes to the night operations, that’s definitely a must-have that each soldier is supposed to have. But when it comes to what the enemy is using, what kind of thermals the enemy is using, I cannot give you the clear answer because, in all honesty, I do not know.

Chill

Within our unit, we do not use thermal scopes, but I know guys who do, and well, it’s quite a useful thing if your tasks and if your unit imply using the thermal vision scopes. Since we are an unmanned systems regiment, we do not have the kind of tasks that require the use of the thermal scopes.

Chewie

We do use the thermal scopes and additional adapters to them. But when it comes to Russian thermals and what kind of thermals they use, I will be honest with you. I have never had any chance to get a hold of them and hold them in my hands, so I cannot compare them. 

I can only tell you about Ukrainian manufacturers. But when it comes to long-range guns, we use the Archer 7 for this very purpose. When it comes to the .338 caliber, we use guns by Accuracy International, and Sako TRG 42. When it comes to the .375 caliber, we use the Cadex 40 Shadow. 

When it comes to UAR-15 5.56, usually we use the Archer 10 for this very purpose. When it comes to simply observational functions, we use either Archer 55 or Archer 8. And I also know about some other units that use thermals called Safran because they have the peculiarity of having coolant inside.

Barman

I’ve used thermal vision scopes. First of all, in terms of the Russian thermal vision scopes, unfortunately, I haven’t had any experience of using those, but I have some experience with the Archer manufacturer with the Archer thermal vision scopes. Usually, the TSA-7 models have proven to be quite good, and also I had some experience with the Chinese-manufactured AGM thermal vision scopes, and they are also quite good.

My favorite is Archer, the TSA-7. We have used it for the longest periods of time, and we are really used to operating with it. So it has the ballistic suggested for every type of ammunition. It has a laser rangefinder. It has a ballistic calculator. So it’s quite a useful thing, and it’s easy and convenient to use.

What about night vision? Are most troops using night vision goggles and need to set their rifles up for that?

Tarantino

We use a classical one called the PVS-7. We attach it to our helmets.

Chill

Night vision devices on assault rifles and other weapons are primarily used by reconnaissance and assault units — particularly during clearing operations. As for the drone component, NVDs are used by drivers for safe and concealed delivery of crews to the positions during the night, as well as the operators themselvs for nighttime work and launches.

Khalepa

We have some night vision devices, namely Archer 10, but these devices were just issued to the guys to monitor their perimeter during nighttime. We have no need for that because we are located in the rear and we are more concerned with the sky than with what’s on the ground.

Chewie

We do not use the night vision devices installed on the weapon system. We do use them installed on the soldiers’ helmets, but not on the weapon system. Sometimes our soldiers do use the laser point night vision devices, but they use it only when they use the infrared spectrum. When it comes to installing the aim on the gun, usually the soldier does a zeroing, and if the zeroing is done properly, the efficient range of such a weapon to operate in this infrared spectrum is up to 200 meters.

Barman

We don’t use the night vision devices on the weapons systems themselves. We use them attached to the camera, to the helmets, and out of those we use the PVS-14 L3Harris. That’s a monocular. Also, we use the PVS-32. That’s a binocular. The most widely used is the PVS-14.

In my personal opinion, the PVS-14 is simply much more comfortable. I love this one simply because this is a monocular and I use it with my left eye because the right eye I mostly use for the red dot or with the laser beam aiming device. But that’s very much an individual opinion because a lot of people in my unit prefer the PVS-32.

How much leeway do troops have for customizing their rifles?

Tarantino

Well, before using any kind of modifiers on any weapon system, the way we deal with that is the following: Before doing that, each soldier is supposed to master how to handle a weapon without any additional modifiers, meaning the default setting of the weapon that he or she receives.

He or she is supposed to first get a feel for this and receive some kind of qualification with this one without any additional modifier. Only after a soldier gets used to, and is quite good at, handling the weapon with the mechanical optics that the weapon goes with, can a soldier go to another level. But this is done only if sergeants and commanders see that the soldier has reached some kind of efficiency level, and only after that, the commander or sergeant can give permission to install any kind of additional modifiers on the weapon.

Chill

The first thing that we always emphasize and that we try to popularize among our personnel is the installment of the red dot sights. We try to explain the advantages of using red dot sights on the weapons.

Then, if the weapon does not have the ambidextrous safety, we try to persuade people to install those safety levers that can be switched from both sides ambidextrously, and then the third thing is the buttstock, the pistol grip. So these things are usually not convenient due to the specificities of every person’s ergonomics.

Khalepa

Apart from just standard procedures like zeroing with the weapon, adjusting the iron sight and so on, we do not customize our weapon. We do not conduct any additional modifications.

Chewie

We do have some additional modifications when it comes to magazines, when it comes to magnifiers, when it comes to the grasp handles. Some of the soldiers do use the forward grasp handle. Some of the soldiers do use the flashlights that they put underneath the barrel. But it’s not about sport modification. The primary reason is to make the weapon more comfortable for you, and to make you a much better operator of this weapon.

Barman

I need to separate it into two parts. The first part is about the insides of the weapon systems. Mostly, we do not change the insides of the weapon systems. There might be some changes with a bolt carriage, but that’s mostly the exception. We can work with the suppressors, with the heavy buffer suppressors and optics, red dots, and handles for a better grip.

What about sidearms? What sidearms are most prevalent and in what caliber?

Tarantino

When it comes to the pistols, the most used one is the Fort 20. That’s domestic production. Also Glock. Also the one called Sig Sauer, and the last one that is the CZ. These are all 9mm weapons.

🇺🇦Ukrainian soldier with modern 🇨🇿CZ P-10 F pistol made by ČZUB.

ČZUB supplied Ukraine with a large number of weapons from its stocks, in addition to the CZ P-10 C/F, also CZ Bren 807 or CZ Bren BR. Whether these were a gift from ČZUB or the weapons were donated by the Czech… pic.twitter.com/U8nsFSN92d

— 𝕻𝖗𝖆𝖎𝖘𝖊 𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕾𝖙𝖊𝖕𝖍 (@praisethesteph) October 31, 2024

Chill

Well, previously we used to use Makarov pistols, but now we’re using the Fort 20 Ukrainian manufactured sidearms, and also I have previously used the Glock pistols. So basically, these are the most common, most widespread pistols that you can come across in Ukraine.

Khalepa

Currently the Fort 20 and the Glock 17 are the most commonly used pistols.

Chewie

So as I have already mentioned, the sidearms that we are using are the Glock 17 and the Fort 20.

Barman

So the main caliber is 9x19mm. That’s the most widely used caliber. When it comes to sidearm brands, the most widely used ones are Fort 20, Glock 17, and this Czech CZ.

What are considered the best and most reliable and what has been disappointing or considered not as reliable?

Tarantino

When it comes to these small arms and guns, a lot depends on the anthropometric characteristics of each individual – the size of the palm, the grasp that each individual has. But when it comes to reliability, in my experience, the Fort 20 is number one, and when it comes to comfort and efficiency, I would say that Sig Sauer is the best one.

I cannot give you a very clear answer about which is the most disappointing, because all of these four weapon systems will be able to fulfill their mission in the hands of a very skilled operator. So those small differences, these are the differences that each individual has as preferences only. But when it comes to functions and functionality, they all will do a good job.

When it comes to my favorite weapon systems, it’s definitely gonna be the Sig Sauer, but I really struggle with the idea of finding the most disappointing one.

At some point, Glock might be called one, but Glock is also quite a reliable weapon, and I cannot even tell you assuredly that Glock is the worst.

Chill

As for my favorite type of pistol, it’s the Glock, of course. But as for those that do not live up to my expectations, I do not think that I can choose one. Previously, we had some Soviet manufactured sidearm models. For instance, we used the TT Soviet manufactured pistol, so I would say that it was pretty bad. So those were the old Soviet pistols, and they do not live up to the requirements of modern warfare.

I like the Glock because, first of all, it’s convenient. Second, accessibility. Then the shooting precision, and of course their dimensions. Their dimensions are also pretty convenient.

Khalepa

I would just say that every weapon needs its own approach. So you just need to find the right approach to every weapon. But no, there are no weapons that I wouldn’t use.

I like the Glock 17 and the Fort 20 because both of these pistols are easy to maintain, especially the Fort 20. It’s lightweight. It’s not really large, so it’s quite convenient to use. And as for the Glock pistol, it’s just the golden classic, the classical example of a handgun.

Chewie

Well, in terms of Glock 17, from my own combat experience, I would like to say that this is a really good weapon that works pretty well even in mud conditions, even when it’s dirty. So in 90% of cases, it didn’t show any malfunctions, any stoppages, etc. Even in really bad operational conditions. In terms of the Fort 20, it’s also quite a good weapon. But well, unfortunately, we cannot provide the Glock pistols for all of our service members. But if we had this opportunity, of course, we would provide the Glocks for 100% of our personnel.

The primary reason why we cannot provide Glocks for all of our personnel is that currently our unit is not purchasing Glocks because there are no funds for this procurement. And as for the key differences between the Glock and the Fort systems, the Fort is really sensitive to humidity and it gets rusty quite soon. So basically, this can also lead to some malfunctions.

I have worked with many pistols, and talking about those that I would never use, these are some of the models manufactured by Beretta. I really didn’t like those, both in terms of maintenance, in terms of the recoil of this weapon. They were hard to maintain, and they had too much recoil. It’s also not really controllable, especially in field conditions. But of course, this is also a matter of habit.

So you just need to get used to this weapon. I’m already used to the weapons that we use, and we can just easily maintain them, even in field conditions. And also, we’re quite good at operating the weapons.

Barman

The one that we use in my unit is the Fort 20. But the drawback of this one is that the barrel is very fragile and very much open for any kind of corrosion and rust. So if I could choose one, according to my preferences, I would definitely choose the CZ P-07.

CZ P-07

Right now we are in the process of rearming the soldiers, meaning that some of the soldiers have already received this weapon system, the rest of us will receive it, I guess, by the end of next year. This is being provided by MoD.

Out of those that I had a chance to put my hands on, I didn’t like the Beretta much because the way it sits in the hand is not comfortable. It has a pretty strong recoil, and this one is very sensitive and requires much more attention.

Do you run red dots on your pistols? If so, what kinds have worked well? What hasn’t? Same for pistol lights.

Tarantino

I have never worked with a pistol with a red dot. I do know that some of the soldiers use it, but for me, it seems mostly like something for the sport world, not the war world. 

It goes without saying, but there are some pitfalls and drawbacks of this because when it comes to the red dot on your main gun, it’s always in your hands. It’s always in front of you, so you can control it. But the pistol that the soldiers do have usually is in such a place where you do not completely have control every time you move.

That means that, if at some point you fall, or if at some point you are in the dense wood and it might simply knock this red dot off. So a pistol usually is in the holster, and don’t always have your eye on the holster or the pistol. While the red dot is on your rifle, you always keep an eye on it. So it simply can fall apart. And that’s a bad story when a soldier can only operate the pistol with a red dot, it means that you take the red dot out, and you cannot work with mechanical optics, it will be a very dire situation.

I don’t have much expertise in this field when it comes to the flashlights under the barrel of the pistol, and when it comes to any kind of modifications on the pistols. I do know that some reconnaissance soldiers do use the flashlights on the pistols, but that’s mostly on very rare occasions.

Chill

Personally, I have not used any red dot sights with my handguns. The only personnel that I have seen using red dot sights on their pistols are close protection service members, and for them this is justifiable because the pistol is their primary weapon, but for us the pistol is just a sidearm. So this is why we do not concentrate on using red dot sights on our pistols.

Khalepa

No, the effective range of these handguns is 20 to 30 meters, so there is no need, no sense using red dot sights on them. We don’t use pistol lights.

Chewie

In combat, we do not really use red dot sights on our pistols. Some of our guys can just install red dot sights on their pistols for sports reasons, just for training, for some personal use, etc. But not in combat.

In terms of the closed-type [fully enclosed emitter] red dot sights, first of all they are quite pricey, and secondly they can be easily broken. Again, they are susceptible to mud, to humidity, etc. And in terms of the open-type red dot sights, a bit of mud and it doesn’t work anymore. At the same time, in terms of the use of the iron sights on the pistol, they are basically fail-proof. And even if they are dirty, even if there is some contamination, some mud, you can just clean them off with your glove and keep on shooting. So they are just fail-proof on the battlefield. And it’s easier. You don’t have to put in and out of your holster without the red dot.

My issued weapon doesn’t have a red dot sight, and I feel pretty confident in getting it out of the holster and putting it back in the holster. And my personal sidearm – a Glock 34 – I have a red dot sight on it, and once again, no problems in using the holster. The Glock 34 is a sports weapon I purchased to participate in sports. This is not a self-defense weapon.

Barman

When it comes to combat and real combat warfare, we do not use the red dots on the pistols. So the war is about the dust and it’s about being dirty and there is a pretty big and high chance that you might hit your weapon either with a stick or something and simply destroy or break the red dot. That is the reason why most of us stick to mechanical sights.

As for pistol lights, we use Olight.

What about shotguns? Do you use them for trench warfare? What about for shooting down drones?

Tarantino

When it comes to military shotguns, unfortunately, I cannot give you a lot of information because we don’t have many chances to work with them.

Chill

Usually they just use shotguns to shoot down drones. I haven’t really heard anything about using shotguns while conducting any actions in the trenches.

Khalepa

Well, as of today, we do not use shotguns, because they can be used against FPV drones or other types of small drones, but our unit does not use shotguns to shoot down Shahed drones.

Chewie

Well, usually we use shotguns for the crews of armored fighting vehicles, but we use shotguns in really rare cases. Mostly, all the personnel are trained to shoot down drones with their primary weapon without using the shotguns.

Barman

We do not use shotguns at all. The weapon that we operate is our authorized UAR-15 with the very standard M855 round.

What shotguns work best for shooting down drones?

Tarantino

So out of those that I had a chance to get my hands on, is one called Benelli. That’s an Italian production shotgun. I have it in my hands. That’s a very qualitative weapon system, and definitely is a reliable one. Another one that I used in my career is the Winchester, and it also looks and works quite and is quite an efficient weapon system. 

The one that we know that we use is the one from the Turkish production, and these are the smoothbore weapons. The drawback of all of them is the following: the weapon is the same, but the manufacturers of the same weapon are different. It means that a brand new weapon from one manufacturer can be up and running and working well, but another weapon system from another manufacturer cannot work so smoothly, and it requires additional fixing of some things. The explanation for all this in my mind is quite easy because these all are not military weapons. These are the weapons designed for hunting and for hunters.

Chill

We do not really have any kind of standardization in this matter. It’s either the Turkish manufactured platforms or any platforms that we can get.

As a hunter, I prefer the classical platforms, but now we have a lot of different types of shotguns in Ukraine, different form factors, a lot of Turkish-manufactured Hatsan shotguns, both pump-actions and other models, and I would say that the pump-action guns are the most effective that can be used in our conditions of Ukrainian warfare.

Chewie

Currently we are using the Turkish manufactured copy of Benelli and also the Safari [HG-150M]. This is a Ukrainian manufacturer.

Do you use a 5.56 fragmentation round for shooting down drones?

Tarantino

Yes, 5.56 shot rounds are occasionally used. However, the firing effectiveness depends exclusively on the operator’s skills.

Chill

No, we do not usually use specialized anti-drone cartridges. It’s usually just simple shot cartridges.

Khalepa

Well, the UAR-15 rifles have the special type of anti-drone ammunition that doesn’t have a single bullet, but it has something more similar to the shotgun, which just acts as the fragmentary ammunition that you have described. We have them and we practice using them at the training sites at the shooting ranges, but we haven’t had any need to use them in the real combat scenario yet.

If we’re looking at the extreme situations and if we imagine that a rifle with the anti-drone munitions is the only thing that you have against the drones, yes, I would say that these anti-drone munitions are better than just simple bullets. They contain small gauge shot, and in comparison with the bullet, they are much more effective in damaging the drones because they can cover a larger area, and the dispersion is larger and better than in just simple cartridges with bullets.

Drone Round: The Next Evolution of Counter-UAS

Chewie

No special cartridges. We just train them to shoot down the drones with what we have, with what they fight. Because when our personnel are somewhere in the tree line and they have contact with the enemy, and they quickly need to shoot down a drone, they will not have time to change the magazine for the one with the anti-drone cartridges, and basically shooting down drones with standard munitions has proven quite efficient. So we train our people to do this. We have quite high results, and we even had cases when our fighters shot down drones with their pistols.

Barman

The only scenario where we use them is during training on the ranges. But when it comes to combat warfare, usually we do stick to our standard rounds because when it comes to warfare right now, a lot of those attacks happen suddenly, unexpectedly. It means that a soldier simply doesn’t have time to change the magazine for the magazine that has those rounds that have these fragments in it.

The peculiarity of the fragmentation round is that its range of efficiency is approximately from 40 to 60 meters, while a usual standard round can hit a drone at a distance of 100 to 150 meters, so we simply made our own conclusion and stuck to this. That using a regular round is much better than this fragment round.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

Pakistan has successfully flight-tested its first indigenously developed air-to-air missile, marking a significant milestone in the country’s efforts to establish its own advanced aerial weapons industry. The test of the Fa’az missile, announced by the Pakistani military alongside video footage of the event, puts the country among a relatively small group of nations developing their own air-to-air missile capabilities.

Pakistan’s military announced the successful test on November 3, describing Fa’az (Urdu for Victorious) as an indigenous weapon equipped with an advanced terminal guidance system capable of engaging aerial targets at longer ranges. The accompanying footage shows the missile being launched from a pylon under the wing of a JF-17 Thunder fighter. Importantly, the weapon visible in the video is the Fa’az-IIR, the imaging infrared (IIR) version of the missile, rather than the separately developed active radar-guided Fa’az-RF variant.

Senior Pakistani military officers, along with scientists and engineers involved in the program, witnessed the event. The country’s senior civilian and military leadership subsequently congratulated those involved.

The Fa’az program has been publicly known for several years. Pakistan’s state-owned Global Industrial & Defense Solutions (GIDS) displayed mockups of two variants of the missile at the International Defense Industry Fair (IDEF) in Turkey back in 2023.

These comprised the Fa’az-RF, an active radar-guided missile, and the Fa’az-IIR, which features an IIR seeker. At the time, GIDS described both as medium-range air-to-air missiles with advertised ranges exceeding 100 kilometers (62 miles) and maximum speeds of approximately Mach 3.5. The company also advertised seeker detection ranges of 25 kilometers for the radar-guided version and 40 kilometers for the infrared-guided variant. As always, such figures should be treated as manufacturer specifications, under optimum conditions at best, or inflated at worst. In an operational context, they will vary greatly depending on the type of engagement and the energy and altitude state of the launching aircraft.

Unlike an active radar-guided weapon, an imaging infrared missile relies on the target’s thermal signature for terminal guidance. To achieve engagements at distances of 100 kilometers or more would involve the launching aircraft providing initial targeting information, with the missile using inertial navigation and potentially datalink updates to travel toward a predicted intercept area before activating its infrared seeker for terminal acquisition. This is known as lock-on after launch (LOAL), an approach also used by other beyond-visual-range infrared missile designs.

Speaking to TWZ, Douglas Barrie, senior fellow for military aerospace at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) research institute in London, raised the possibility — so far unconfirmed — that the seekers used in the Fa’az missiles could well have been supplied by China.

“My assumption with the Chinese imaging infrared seeker is that this is good technology,” Barrie said. “If it’s like everything else China is now doing in the guided weapons world, it’s likely up there with the best. Even a detuned version is going to be a good sensor.”

The Fa’az design has previously been compared with China’s SD-10/PL-12 air-to-air missile, also used by Pakistan. GIDS has maintained that it developed its products locally and owns the associated intellectual property rights. The extent of any technological influence from existing foreign missile designs remains unclear, but China and Pakistan already have a very close military relationship.

With that in mind, the program also has important implications for the Sino-Pakistani JF-17 Thunder, which is central to Pakistan’s efforts to develop a more self-reliant combat aviation industry. An indigenous air-to-air missile could give the Pakistan Air Force greater flexibility in integrating, upgrading, and sustaining its fighter weapons inventory without depending entirely on foreign suppliers.

There is also an interesting parallel between Fa’az and the JF-17 itself. The fighter was developed through a partnership with China, giving Pakistan a pathway to build up its own aerospace design and production capabilities. Fa’az could represent a similar progression in the weapons arena, particularly if its development draws on earlier Chinese missile technology while establishing a domestic design and production capability.

Pakistan is not starting from scratch when it comes to advanced air-to-air weapons. The Pakistan Air Force already operates a range of imported systems, including China’s very capable PL-15E, an export version of the PL-15 beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile. The weapon arms both its J-10C fighters and JF-17 Block III jets. Pakistan’s F-16s are meanwhile armed with the American-made AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), although the use of these weapons is reportedly subject to U.S. restrictions.

You can read all about the air-to-air missiles currently fielded by the Pakistan Air Force in this previous TWZ article.

As for the PL-15E, this weapon features an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar seeker and a two-way datalink, with a published maximum range of around 145 kilometers (90 miles). Pakistan was the first export customer for the missile, which attracted considerable attention following its use during the May 2025 India-Pakistan air conflict. Although the precise outcomes of the reported engagements remain disputed, Beijing has sought to capitalize on the missile’s apparent battlefield performance as a showcase for its advanced weapons exports.

In an operational context, the Fa’az-IIR in particular could be a compelling complement to the PL-15E. In Soviet and Russian doctrine, the launch of a radar-guided air-to-air missile would typically be followed immediately by the pilot firing an infrared-guided missile against the same target, increasing the probability of a kill and complicating any countermeasures that might be employed. The same could apply in the context of the PL-15E and the Fa’az-IIR. Infrared guidance brings other advantages, too, including its capability against low-observable targets that might evade a radar lock-on. This is especially important now that stealthy targets are proliferating. Paired with an infrared search and track (IRST) system for targeting, and other networked data if available, a missile of this kind offers a deadly capability against stealth targets.

Just as importantly, the Fa’az program is about proving Pakistan’s ability to develop and eventually produce this critical class of weapon domestically. Possessing the industrial and technical expertise to design and manufacture an advanced air-to-air missile is significant, and would also provide Islamabad with a compelling export product.

The development comes as air-to-air missile capabilities become increasingly important to the regional military balance. India has its indigenous Astra beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile, while China has developed increasingly sophisticated weapons, including the PL-15. Establishing its own missile program gives Pakistan another avenue to sustain and develop its air combat capabilities.

Pakistan has not released detailed information about the test, including the engagement parameters or performance against an aerial target. Nor has it indicated when the Fa’az-IIR might enter operational service or provided an update on the development status of the radar-guided Fa’az-RF.

Nevertheless, the test marks an important step for Pakistan’s defense industry, taking an indigenous air-to-air missile program beyond exhibition mockups and into flight testing. It is a significant development in the country’s efforts to establish a domestic air-to-air weapons capability and join a relatively small group of countries with the expertise to develop such weapons.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

The prime minister blames pro-Russian hackers for the leak, as her top diplomat says the cyberthreat was ongoing.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has said his personal data had been disseminated on the dark web, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni blaming pro-Russian hackers for the leak.

Tajani announced in a social media post on Saturday that “for days now, cybercriminals have been publishing my personal data on the dark web and seeking further information, effectively exposing me to new threats and intimidation”.

The threats against Tajani, who is also vice prime minister of Italy, come amid a spate of hoax bomb threats across Europe that have forced flight diversions, security alerts at broadcasters, and attacks on supermarket refrigeration systems.

“They are also targeting my family; they are willing to pay for more details about me and my loved ones,” Tajani added in his X post. “My response is very simple: I will not be intimidated in any way.”

‘Matter of grave concern’

Meloni expressed solidarity with Tajani “following the revelations about the activities of pro-Russian hackers, and the publication on the dark web of personal data”.

She called attempts to sell confidential information about government officials “a matter of grave concern that must be addressed with the utmost determination”.

Tajani added in his statement that Italy’s “position on Ukraine is the political reason I have been targeted: defending the freedom of a sovereign state, taking a clear stand in support of a nation’s democracy and independence, is dangerous in the eyes of these criminal entities”.

He also suggested that the cyberthreats may also be a reaction to the Italian government’s efforts to strengthen the Foreign Ministry’s digital defences.

Tajani did not specify what kind of information had been shared, but suggested that the cyberthreat was ongoing.

He added that the ministry was taking the threats seriously and was coordinating its response with allied countries.

On the sidelines of this month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, China, an unprecedented three-way meeting between United States President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin could take place.

“China is in communication with relevant parties regarding a meeting between the three heads of state,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday.

“Work is under way to coordinate such a meeting,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, adding: “We hope that it will be finalised in the coming days.”

Trump has said he is open to three-way talks focused on nuclear weapons. “If President Xi wants to have it, I’d have it,” he told reporters last month.

The three leaders have met separately but have never held formal talks together.

So could the meeting, pencilled in for November 18-19, actually happen, and what would it mean for the rest of the world? Here’s what we know:

What would Russia get out of a three-way meeting with the US and China?

At the very least, a photo opportunity.

“It is a big event,” Alexander Bratersky, a Moscow-based journalist and political analyst, told Al Jazeera.

He pointed to Pyotr Tolstoy, chairman of the Russian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, who he said has described the meeting as a path towards a new Yalta – the 1945 conference where the leaders of the Soviet Union, the US and the United Kingdom shaped the post-war order in Europe.

That allows Moscow to “talk big”, Bratersky said, while putting Ukraine on the sidelines.

Simply being at the table would make Putin “first among equals”, he added, giving him a photo opportunity to show the world that he will be among those deciding the future of Europe’s security architecture after the war in Ukraine.

If the meeting produced results, he said, it would reflect China’s influence on Russia.

“We should take into account that we are dealing with a much weaker US leader after elections,” Bratersky said.

Trump remains in charge of foreign policy, he explained, but will have less leverage if Democrats, who won control of both chambers of Congress in this week’s midterm elections, start sending money to Kyiv.

“A meeting by itself will be a success,” he said. “Putin will be able to sell it at home”.

Whether anything comes of it should become clear within a month or so, Bratersky said, and the meeting could lead to another during the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Miami in December.

If nothing is produced before Christmas, he added, “it will be just a photo op.”

What does Trump want?

Optics and leverage.

Trump wants “a personal, high-drama encounter” that lets him claim he is “dealing with” the other two great powers on his own terms, Inderjeet Parmar, a professor of international politics at City St George’s, University of London, told Al Jazeera.

A three-way meeting would allow Trump to present himself as “the indispensable deal-maker”, Parmar said, talking up potential deals on Ukraine, trade, energy or arms control.

“After the midterms the domestic political need for a foreign policy ‘win’ is real,” he said.

Any image of Trump sitting with Xi and Putin could be spun as evidence that American power still commands the table, he said, “even if the substance is limited or largely symbolic”.

“The domestic audience, and his eroding MAGA base, matters at least as much as the diplomatic one,” Parmar said.

What does China want?

Not a summit on Ukraine.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he raised the idea of discussing Ukraine with Xi when they met in Beijing on October 30, and could see the “surprise” on his face, Germany’s DPA news agency reported.

Steinmeier told public broadcaster ARD that Xi said the three presidents would probably meet in Shenzhen, but not to discuss Ukraine.

He said Xi explicitly pointed out that the Russia-Ukraine war is a European conflict in which the “Europeans must sit at the table”.

Beijing is also likely to swat away Trump’s push for nuclear talks.

Last month, China’s Foreign Ministry said it would be “neither fair, reasonable nor realistic to ask China to join the so-called trilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations at this stage”.

What would a meeting mean for the rest of the world?

Allies could be sidelined.

Parmar said a three-way meeting would mark “a clear break from the post-1945 pattern”, in which Washington coordinated closely with its European and Asian allies before engaging with Moscow or Beijing.

“A free-standing trilateral [meeting] risks treating those allies as secondary players whose interests can be managed after the fact,” he said, adding that those interests could even be traded.

That would be a shift towards “personalised great-power diplomacy”, he said. But the Trump administration still has hopes to drive a wedge between Russia and China, Parmar added.

Fears of a “G3” are “understandable but overstated in institutional terms”, he said, because the three capitals’ interests diverge sharply on Ukraine, Taiwan, technology and the rules of the international economy.

“The real risk is not a formal G3 secretariat, but the normalisation of great-power deals struck with little consultation of those most affected,” he said.

“History offers many examples of such moments. They rarely produce stable order and often leave the excluded feeling the costs,” Parmar said.

Iran has stepped up diplomatic efforts amid suggestions by United States President Donald Trump that the US could resume full-scale strikes on the Islamic republic.

The US news website Axios quoted a US official saying that US Central Command (CENTCOM) was preparing for the resumption of major military operations in Iran, and that it was just waiting on orders from Washington. On Thursday, Trump told reporters the US may have to “destroy” the rest of Iran, adding that people will “know soon enough” if he acts.

Tehran’s intensified diplomatic push comes after Iran downed two US reconnaissance drones near Qeshm island in the Strait of Hormuz, which the US struck earlier this week. Iran says it will retaliate if the US resumes larger strikes.

What diplomatic efforts is Iran engaging in?

On Thursday, Iran offered the US a new nuclear and peace proposal via Qatari mediators, to be discussed only after Washington meets Tehran’s seven demands, a senior Iranian official told Reuters. The US is examining the proposal, Reuters reported.

Iran has made meeting its seven demands a condition for reopening the Strait of Hormuz and restarting peace talks, including on its nuclear programme. The demands include the lifting of sanctions on Iran, the unfreezing of Iranian assets and the end to the US naval blockade of its ports in and around the Strait of Hormuz, among other things.

It has also stepped up ties with Russia, with its top security official, Mohsen Rezaei, travelling to Moscow for talks on Thursday. During that visit, Rezaei said: “On the issue of diplomacy, we have announced seven conditions ⁠to the Americans. As long as they do ⁠not execute our seven conditions, we will neither open the Strait of Hormuz nor have negotiations.”

Meanwhile, the US has insisted a deal on Iran’s nuclear capacity must be part of any ceasefire agreement before wider peace talks can restart.

How is Iran deepening ties with Russia?

On Thursday, Rezaei met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin to deliver a message from Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. Iranian state media did not elaborate on ⁠the contents of the message.

Rezaei called it “an extremely important exchange” according to remarks reported by the Iranian embassy, but also did not give further details.

However, The Financial Times reported that Russia previously agreed to supply Iran with 90 helicopter-mounted launchers for precision-guided missiles, despite needing its own weapons for the Ukraine war. The newspaper cited a Russian defence manufacturer’s production schedule for 2024 and 2025, which it has examined, showing an order for helicopter-mounted launchers being assigned a code used to refer to Iran in Russian defence documents.

Relations between Russia and Iran have deepened since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and during the US-Israeli war on Iran that saw the two countries become the most heavily sanctioned in the world. Iran has provided Shahed drones, which Russia has modified and used heavily against Ukraine.

In return, Russia has also reportedly helped Iran develop supersonic cruise missiles, sold it Verba shoulder-launched anti-air missiles and shared information with Tehran potentially relevant to nuclear weapons.

“It is indicative of Russia’s willingness to continue supplying Iran despite its own wartime demands and with far less concern about Western objections than in the past,” Nicole Grajewski, a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the FT.

In early October, Putin said Russia was prepared to take part in mediation to bring an end to the war.

Images released by the Kremlin showed its foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov and chief of the Russian military intelligence, Igor Kostyukov, attending a meeting with Iran’s security chief alongside Putin.

The meeting also strengthened Iran’s economic ties with Russia.

“During the meeting with Mr Vladimir Putin, discussions were held regarding the construction of gas pipelines from Russia to Iran,” said Rezaei, Iranian state TV reported.

He said the gas pipelines would address Iran’s gas shortages and facilitate the sale of Russian energy to neighbouring countries.

Tehran said Iran’s natural gas refineries had been hit during the most intense phase of US-Israeli strikes on Iran earlier this year, which lasted 40 days.

Separately, Russia’s Foreign Ministry advised citizens against travel to Iran “In light of the remaining risks of a new escalation around Iran”.

How is Iran negotiating with regional leaders?

During the most intense fighting of the war, Iran struck bases in Gulf countries hosting US military assets, as well as civil and energy facilities and infrastructure.

Senior Iranian officials have repeatedly warned that any state helping the US to target the Islamic republic will be a “legitimate target” should US attacks resume.

On Thursday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held phone calls with several Gulf leaders, including the foreign minister of the UAE, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

They discussed regional developments as well as diplomatic efforts for stability in the region, according to Araghchi’s Telegram channel.

Araghchi spoke with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud about efforts to improve security and stability in the region, according to the Saudi foreign ministry.

Araghchi also discussed de-escalation efforts with the foreign ministers of Kuwait and Turkiye.

In a separate call, Araghchi talked with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani about coordinating to reduce tensions, the Qatari foreign ministry said.

Sheikh Mohammed stressed support for efforts to secure freedom of maritime navigation.

In a statement, Oman’s foreign ministry said the safety of passage through the Strait of Hormuz was a main topic of discussions, in a call between Araghchi and Oman’s foreign minister.

Iran continues to tightly control shipping lanes through the strait, where several ships have been damaged in recent days. It has granted exemptions to shipping restrictions to Iraq and Qatar, in the Gulf region, as well as to India and China.

What is Trump saying?

Despite his Republican Party suffering a drubbing in this week’s US midterm elections – largely because of public anger over the war on Iran and the resulting rise in energy prices – US President Donald Trump has refused to rule out further strikes on Iran.

On Thursday, Trump told reporters at the Oval Office that he may have to “destroy the rest” of Iran.

Former Iranian diplomat Hadi Afghahi told Al Jazeera that Tehran can ease the path to a settlement if the US also shows flexibility. He argued that Trump “really does not want to go to war, because war again will cost him more”. However, the US president’s next move is unpredictable, observers say.

Afghahi cautioned that Trump “is still surrounded by a group of hawks”, including the energy and treasury secretaries.

Trump has shown willingness to engage in diplomacy, however. Qatar’s ⁠Emir ⁠Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad ⁠Al Thani discussed diplomatic ⁠efforts to ease regional tensions in a ‌phone call with Trump on Friday, according to the Qatari Emiri Diwan.

The leaders reviewed international diplomatic efforts, including the Doha-led mediation efforts to support negotiations in recent weeks, in a bid to reach “a comprehensive agreement that puts an end to the crisis”, the Diwan said in a statement.

How has Iran responded to Trump’s rhetoric?

Tehran warned it will retaliate on a wider scale than it has done so far if the US resumes the war. It has also said talks will become unfeasible.

Iranian officials said Iran has the capacity to strike further than the Gulf using weapons manufactured in Iran.

On Thursday, a spokesman for the Supreme Advisor to the Commander of the Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said: “In the event of a new aggression, any country or force that helps America attack Iran can be a legitimate target of the Islamic Republic.”

Iran’s state media outlet Tasnim News reported: “Our missile bases have a suitable range to target the Zionist regime and American bases,” adding “Iran’s response to the possible new aggression of the enemies will not be geographically limited.”

Iran has also previously warned that cables, data centres and artificial intelligence (AI) facilities across the Gulf region could be attacked if war with the US erupts again.

What strikes have there been in recent days?

In the run-up to the midterm elections, the US said it had conducted “defensive strikes” on Iran’s Qeshm island and Bandar Lengeh in the Strait of Hormuz.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps navy says at least seven tankers have caught fire after sailing into mines while attempting to transit through the Strait of Hormuz using “unauthorised routes” near Oman this week.

Two oil ‌tankers caught fire and were brought to a stop after hitting ⁠mines on Friday, the IRGC said. They had been trying to cross the waterway “with the support of the aggressor and terrorist American military”, the IRGC added.

Control over the Strait of Hormuz has been a main stumbling block in negotiations to end the Iran war since it began in February.

Tehran has sought to limit traffic through the strategic waterway, which normally carries about one-fifth of global oil supplies.

The US has also imposed a blockade on Iranian ports and escorted tankers through the strait.

Maritime organisations have not confirmed the latest incidents.

Ritu Pant always made sure that her merchant navy officer husband told her two things before departing on an assignment.

“I always noted the details and the name of his ship and his emergency contact details in case of a crisis,” says Ritu, who is based in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand.

That’s what she did on April 25, when her husband Ajay left Paradip Port in the state of Odisha on board the MT Smyrtos, a crude oil tanker. Her husband had been a sailor for 18 years, and spent six or seven months a year at sea. But growing threats to seamen – amid the wars in the Middle East and between Russia and Ukraine, and from pirates roaming the high seas – had increased her jitters in recent years.

Yet it was through a social media post that she learned in mid-June that the ship had been captured. Not by pirates, but by the British armed forces, because the MT Smyrtos is under Western sanctions for allegedly working as part of Russia’s shadow fleet, a network of vessels that help Moscow evade United States and European economic restrictions to continue to sell oil and gas, amid the war on Ukraine.

Now Ajay Pant faces charges of flouting United Kingdom sanctions against Russia by commandeering the ship. It’s the first known instance when a European nation has kept a ship captain under arrest on such grounds, and could set a worrying precedent, say lawyers and groups advocating for the rights of seafarers. “This is a unique case,” said Tony Patten, the UK representative at the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), an organisation that works for the rights of seafarers.

Other European countries have also taken over ships that they accuse of violating sanctions against Russia, but while they’ve kept the vessels, they have so far let the sailors go. In March this year, a captain of a suspected Russian shadow fleet was prosecuted in absentia by a French court. In another case from Finland, a court dismissed charges against the captain of a Russian oil tanker accused of damaging undersea cables in the Baltic Sea on account of lack of jurisdiction. In other cases, European nations have set commercial sailors free with fines.

By contrast, Ajay faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

The case has also underlined a growing tension between maritime traffic through international waters – the Smyrtos was not in British territorial waters when it was captured – and the enforcement by countries of sanctions that are not approved by the United Nations.

‘Situation of the sea was very bad’

The open seas have always been dangerous, but the risks have mounted as wars and piracy have turned ships and their crew into active targets for militaries and mercenaries alike.

At least 24 seafarers have been killed in the Strait of Hormuz since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran in February. More than 120 commercial ships and tankers have been attacked in this period in the waterway, which used to transport a fifth of the world’s energy supplies before the start of the war.

The death toll in the Black Sea is even grimmer: At least 40 sailors have been killed in more than 570 attacks on vessels there. Piracy off the coast of Somalia has resurged, too.

For Ritu Pant, all of that meant increased insecurity each time her husband went on a ship.“I was quite worried,” she said, describing her thoughts while Ajay was at sea. “When I talked to Ajay, I would tell him that you need to keep in touch always; you need to tell me that you’re fine and everything is safe around because the situation of the sea was very bad.”

But it was not uncommon for her to not hear from her husband for days, due to network disruptions at sea. So Ritu would track updates of her husband’s ship online, a practice that has become increasingly common among families of sailors at sea.

On June 14, the MT Smyrtos was chugging through the English Channel when the Royal Marines Commandos intercepted it, in what was a first-of-its-kind operation authorised by then British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

At the time, the ship was in international waters, outside the territorial jurisdiction of the UK. Yet Chinook, Merlin Mk4 and Wildcat helicopters from the Maritime Air Group; a Royal Air Force P-8A Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft; a frigate; and a mine countermeasures ship participated in the military operation to take control of the vessel, according to the British Ministry of Defence.

The ship was carrying oil from Russia and was on track to pass through the Suez Canal on its way to India, its destination.

“This successful operation delivers yet another blow to Russia and reminds those fueling Putin’s war in Ukraine that we will not let them hide,” Starmer said in a post on X.

What followed was equally unprecedented; charges of allegedly breaching Russian sanctions were brought against Ajay, who has since been in detention in the UK. After an initial court hearing, his bail was denied.

‘Criminalisation of seafarers’

Enforcement of maritime sanctions brought against Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has been tenuous at best, which makes the Smyrtos case “very unique”, said David Hammond, a lawyer and founder of Human Rights At Sea, a nonprofit and UN-accredited organisation advocating for the rights of people living, working, transiting and operating at sea.

“It is unique in terms of the interception and the interdiction of a vessel that had been sanctioned, having passed through the English Channel as an international transit corridor. It’s, in my understanding, not happened before,” he said.

On the one hand, Hammond explained, the outcome of the case will determine how coastal states enforce sanctions against vessels. But, he said, it also underscores the risks of “criminalisation of seafarers”.

Hammond said Ajay Pant’s case was part of a broader pattern of “shipping crews finding themselves in a position where they are arrested for many crimes, such as trafficking or movement of drugs that they’re not even aware of having been put on board the ship”.

He cited the example of Ali Albokhari, a Finnish-Syrian chief mate on a cargo ship, who was detained by Turkish authorities in 2023 after 137kg (302lb) of cocaine was found on board.

Patten of the ITF echoed similar sentiments. “Our stance is that seafarers being penalised automatically when something like this happens isn’t fair. We would always uphold the right of the seafarer,” he said.

Hammond said Ajay’s case was especially without parallel. “In the case of the Smyrtos,  it could be argued that Captain Pant is being criminalised for simply doing his job,” he said, adding that the direction in which the British courts rule will set a new precedent for masters’ accountability over movement of sanctioned goods.

The case, Hammond added, “is a perfect storm in a global storm of impunity; who is accountable and who enforces accountability”.

“And the unintended consequences of which are yet to be seen,” he warned.

‘Horrible year at sea’

The case also raises wider concerns, Hammond said, about how shipping companies and the countries vessels traverse often treat seafarers. “Undeniably, seafarers are seen as disposable assets,” he said, “disposable because they can be easily replaced but concurrently, as assets for assuring continuous global movement of goods by sea.”

The killings in the Strait of Hormuz and the Black Sea have underscored that sense among sailors and their families – that the lives of those who keep the global economy moving are seen as disposable by those in power.

In a statement shared with Al Jazeera, the International Maritime Organization confirmed at least 66 sailors were killed in various conflicts this year, and hundreds of others injured. Many sailors are also still missing and feared to be dead. “It has been a horrible year for people at sea,” Patten said. “Problems have always existed, but conflicts and geopolitical change have certainly heightened them.”

Ajay Pant’s case also shines new light on a growing number of instances where navies have gone outside their territorial waters to seize tankers that they claim are violating their domestic sanctions regimes.

Since February, when the US and Israel launched their war on Iran, US forces have intercepted and captured several cargo ships in the Indian Ocean. These vessels were seized not just far from US territorial waters but also far from the theatre of their war, on accusations that they were helping Iran evade US sanctions.

The US and the UK argue that they are acting within the bounds of international law.

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea permits a warship to visit a cargo ship to verify its flag where there are reasonable grounds to suspect the vessel is without nationality. The British Defence Ministry, in its statement after the seizure of the Smyrtos, said that if a vessel is determined to be stateless, the UK can exercise criminal and maritime enforcement powers under its domestic Policing and Crime Act.

The Smyrtos, like many ships that are accused of belonging to Russia’s “shadow fleet”, has frequently changed its flag. The ship had once previously been registered in The Gambia, and then adopted a Cameroon flag in December 2025. When it departed from a Russian port, it had a Cameroonian flag, but Lloyd’s List Intelligence reported that the ship had been removed from Cameroon’s register earlier, in June. It is owned by a Chinese company.

According to the British Defence Ministry, Russia sells about 75 percent of its oil using such shadow tankers.

But whether militaries have the right to enforce their domestic sanctions and laws in international waters against individuals and vessels that are not registered in their territory remains a contested question in international law.

The capture of such vessels raises “a much bigger issue” of “the freedom of navigation at sea”, said Hammond.

To Ajay’s family and those advocating for him, it also raises a more human question: If a cargo ship captain passing through international waters can be captured and tried by nations for allegedly violating their domestic laws, is any sailor safe?

Anchored with hope

That’s a question that Ritu has lived with in the past few months, forcing the former school principal into advocacy not just for her husband’s release, but for seafarer rights globally.

“Ajay’s case goes beyond just our family, and could be a landmark judgement for seafarers worldwide,” she said. “It raises the fundamental question of whether a master of a ship can be criminalised for decisions that are beyond his authority, knowledge or control.”

The journey has been a difficult one, she said.

“Ajay was the primary breadwinner of his family, and I have also been forced to give up my work to focus on this case,” the mother of an eight-year-old and a one-year-old said.

“He has also been a caregiver to his elderly parents,” she added, saying that for the first few days after the arrest, she kept the news from them, worried for their health. “I wouldn’t allow the daily newspaper in the house and stopped sending my older daughter to school, afraid that someone would say something hurtful to her.”

Eventually, Ritu informed the family and prepared them for the struggles ahead.

“The hardest part is having to do this across continents. We have only spoken to him over short calls, and he has had no personal visitors since I went to meet him in August,” she said. “I don’t want him to feel that he has been forgotten.”

But despite the hardships, she remains hopeful, as support has poured in from the global seafarers community. “When I started posting on social media, I received so many messages from families and wives of sailors,” she said. “Every seafarer’s family I’ve talked to relates to this. So many sailors are getting targeted right now in conflict at sea; they are being made scapegoats.”

Now, she’s preparing for Ajay’s upcoming trial. “I have to bring him back home,” she said. “For his family, but also because no seafarer should be treated in this way.”

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has met Iran’s security chief Mohsen Rezaei in Moscow to discuss regional security as diplomatic efforts gather pace to end the United States and Israel’s war on Iran.

During the meeting on Thursday, Rezaei also delivered a letter to Putin from Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, according to the Iranian state broadcaster Press TV.

Speaking after the meeting, Rezaei said the talks had focused on security arrangements in the region, as well as Russia’s support for ending what he called the US’s “aggression” against Iran.

“Important regional issues were discussed with Putin and significant conversations took place regarding the post-war period and regional security arrangements,” he said.

Other topics, he said, included plans to deepen energy cooperation, including building gas pipelines from Russia to Iran.

Rezaei, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Khamenei had wanted him to deliver the message to Putin as soon as possible. The trip to Moscow had been planned nearly a month earlier, he said, but was postponed due to “daily discussions about the military situation in the region”.

He did not say what the message contained.

Khamenei said in a written statement on Wednesday that there should not be “even the slightest inclination towards submission” to the US. He also called for an “ever stronger” Iran to reach a “point of absolute deterrence”.

Seven conditions

Rezaei’s meeting with Putin came as Qatar steps up diplomatic efforts to end the war on Iran amid fears the US could renew attacks following its midterm elections.

In Tuesday’s vote, US President Donald Trump’s Republican Party lost control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate amid widespread anger over rising prices that many blame on the war on Iran.

Efforts to end the conflict have centred on the future status of the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a US blockade of Iranian ports, sanctions against Iran, and a resumption of negotiations over the country’s nuclear programme.

Rezaei said on Thursday that Tehran would not hold talks with the US on ending the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz until Washington meets its seven demands.

“On the issue of diplomacy, we have announced seven conditions to the Americans. As long as they do not execute our seven conditions, we will neither open the Strait of Hormuz nor have negotiations,” he said.

According to Rezaei, Putin reiterated that Russia is ready to provide support to end the war. Last month, Putin told Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian that Russia was prepared to “do everything” it could towards that end, Russian news agencies reported.

Rezaei said the discussion at the Kremlin also focused on the construction of a gas pipeline from Russia to Iran, aimed at addressing Iran’s gas shortages and enabling Russia to sell its gas to countries neighbouring Iran.

He added that he had briefed Putin on a meeting held in Tehran in late October among Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan, and that the Russian leader had welcomed it.

“Like our Chinese friends, we believe that there should be regional arrangements and that foreign countries should not interfere in the security of the region,” he said.

The Kremlin did not immediately release its own account of the meeting, which took place in the Senate Palace, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.

Separately, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held phone calls with his counterparts in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Turkiye and Jordan.

His calls focused on regional developments and ongoing diplomatic efforts to promote peace, Iranian state media reported.

Russia and Iran, both under heavy Western sanctions, have strengthened their diplomatic and military ties in recent years.

In January 2025, they signed a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty covering trade, military cooperation, science, culture and education.

The treaty took effect that October, but unlike Russia’s pact with North Korea, it does not include a mutual defence clause.

On Saturday, Iranian army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia said Iran had bought Russian Su-35 fighter jets and expected to receive them after the war ends.

The planes were originally supposed to arrive before the fighting began, he told the Iranian news site Tabnak, and the necessary preparations and pilot training were complete.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed hope that Democratic gains in the United States midterm ⁠elections will bring ⁠more help for Kyiv, as European officials urged the new US Congress to ramp up pressure on Russia to end Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II.

Zelenskyy’s comments on Wednesday came after American voters rebuked US President Donald Trump and his Republican Party, handing control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives to the Democratic Party.

In an interview with German broadcaster ZDF, Zelenskyy said the Democratic gains could work to Ukraine’s advantage.

“I am also grateful to the Republicans, but the Democrats speak very clearly about supporting Ukraine and providing assistance to Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said.  “They speak about renewing the connection between the United States and Europe… Therefore, there is hope that a balance of power will emerge, and that we will receive more support.”

Zelenskyy said more US aid could have an effect ‌on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“If Congress now speaks of strong financial support or military assistance, as Europe is doing and demonstrating today, then that will be something positive that will have an impact on Putin,” he told ZDF.

Zelenskyy has worked to repair a rocky relationship with Trump since an Oval Office meeting in February 2025 at which the US president accused his Ukrainian counterpart of being “ungrateful” for Washington’s aid.

Pressure on Russia

In recent weeks, Trump has made several moves favourable to Russia, including a deal to import Russian diesel.

Last month, he waived sanctions on Russia that Congress had overwhelmingly approved as part of legislation supporting Ukraine.

Ukraine has also accused Washington of delaying deliveries of interceptor missiles.

Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said she hoped the new Congress would “continue supporting Ukraine and also putting more pressure on Russia”.

“Europe as well as US, we are much stronger together,” Kallas said, expressing hope that joint pressure would force Moscow to end the war.

In Germany, leaders were divided. Chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed scepticism on Wednesday that Trump would change course despite the Democrats’ sweeping victory.

“Quite frankly, over the last two years, Trump has largely governed by bypassing Congress. Why should that be any different now?” Merz said at an event in Berlin, a day after US voters handed Republicans a historic defeat.

His foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, was more hopeful. He said the “very clear” Democratic victory could create “a new opportunity to launch a fresh initiative” to end the wars in Ukraine and Iran. He added that he was “quite optimistic” that aid to Ukraine, which has been slashed under Trump, would get “more discussion” from US lawmakers of both parties.

Scepticism

Others in Europe cautioned that with Trump in office for two more years, Washington’s foreign policy was unlikely to change quickly.

The US president has berated European leaders, roiled their economies with tariffs, threatened to pull the US out of NATO, and said he wants to take over Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of Denmark.

“Our security and prosperity in Austria and Europe must not depend on how people in Kansas or Iowa vote,” Austria’s foreign minister, Beate Meinl-Reisinger, said. “That’s why we are strengthening our own defence capability and our own competitiveness.”

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia hoped Trump “will continue his peacemaking efforts”, regardless of the election result.

Democratic aides have told US media that helping Kyiv would be a priority when the party takes control of the congressional agenda in January. But diplomacy is moving faster.

Steve Witkoff, Trump’s envoy, said Washington would bring Ukrainian and Russian delegations together in Abu Dhabi on November 10 and 11 to discuss ending the war and security arrangements for Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that he has had detailed conversations with Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, ahead of the meeting.

“The negotiations must move forward at full throttle to bring this war to an end as quickly as possible. Ukraine is ready to take the necessary steps,” he wrote on X.

Russian strikes also cut power to Ukrainian cities as Moscow claims 700 Ukrainian drones downed across multiple regions.

Ukrainian drone strikes have killed three people in Russia’s Belgorod region, while attacks cut power to multiple cities in Ukraine and parts of Russian-occupied Crimea, officials reported.

Local Russian authorities in Belgorod, which borders Ukraine, announced the three deaths on Wednesday. In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s overnight attacks damaged power generation facilities and substations in nine regions leaving emergency outages in many cities.

Russia’s Defence Ministry confirmed on Telegram that it hit two power stations in Ukraine’s Kyiv and Zhytomyr regions. Ukraine has repeatedly said Moscow is targeting its energy grid as temperatures drop before winter.

Overnight, Russian attacks on critical infrastructure caused hours-long power and water outages across Kyiv and surrounding regions.

Residents in the capital were urged to use public drinking water fountains, and emergency centres offering hot tea and power points to charge devices were set up in the worst-hit areas.

There were also power outages in Crimea, the peninsula Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014, home to approximately 2.5 million residents. Russia’s Ministry of Energy said Ukrainian strikes hit energy infrastructure overnight and that temporary outage schedules were in force. It did not say how many households were affected.

But reports also indicated that Russia-held Crimea ordered power cuts after an accident outside the region, a Moscow-installed ⁠official said, according to the Reuters news agency.

‌In addition to the capital, Kyiv, Russia also hit the regions of Poltava, Dnipro, Kirovohrad and Rivne, Reuters reported, citing Ukraine’s emergency service and local officials.

In southern Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack started a fire at a major warehouse belonging to Ozon, known as Russia’s Amazon. The strikes were on an Ozon distribution facility in the town of Adygeysk, in the Republic of Adygea, regional head Murat Kumpilov said.

Ozon said all workers were evacuated and no one was hurt, and that it had removed damaged goods from its listings and rerouted deliveries.

Russia’s Defence Ministry also said it downed 709 Ukrainian drones across 14 regions, Crimea and the Black and Azov seas.

Kremlin response to US midterms

Amid ongoing fighting between Russia and Ukraine, Russia’s Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin hopes United States President Donald Trump will continue his peace efforts after a sweeping Democratic victory in the congressional midterms dealt a blow to the president.

“President Trump continues to exercise his powers. We sincerely hope that he will also continue his peacemaking efforts,” Peskov said in a statement.

Whether a change in Congress could hinder Trump’s peace efforts, Peskov said, as cited by the state-run Interfax news outlet, that it was “an internal matter for America”.

Democratic control of the legislature in January is expected to bring a more vocal pro-Kyiv majority in Congress that could pressure Trump to change tack, but there is little hope that the US will return as a major financial backer of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Zelenskyy awarded US First Lady Melania Trump the Order of Princess Olga, which honours women who have contributed to Ukraine, according to a presidential decree on Wednesday.

The decree noted Melania Trump’s “significant personal contribution” in providing support for humanitarian aid and children in Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials say the US first lady played a pivotal role in organising a six-day local ceasefire to evacuate civilians from the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky, which ended on Sunday.

The CAS ruled last week to overturn governing body’s exclusion of ‌Russia over its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The International ‌Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has said it ⁠maintains its ⁠disagreement with a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decision to reinstate Russian teams, warning of “significant ⁠practical and sporting challenges”.

The statement on Wednesday follows announcements from Norway, Denmark, Sweden and the Czech Republic that ⁠their national teams will refuse to play against Russia at next year’s men’s World Championships in Germany.

The CAS ruled last week to overturn the governing body’s exclusion of ‌Russia from international competition following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

“As presented to the CAS, the immediate reintegration of Russian teams presents significant practical and sporting challenges, including visa and entry requirements, security provisions, logistical constraints and consequences for competition formats,” ⁠the IIHF said.

The decision has prompted ⁠widespread backlash. Latvia and Finland have also said their teams will not play Russia, while the Finnish city of Turku threatened to ⁠drop hosting duties for the 2028 World Junior Championship.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark ⁠Carney said Russia and Belarus ⁠will be barred from the upcoming World Junior Championship in Alberta. Moscow criticised the move, with Russian ambassador Oleg Stepanov telling state-run news agency TASS that Canada was “bringing politics even into junior hockey”.

The IIHF said it remains in dialogue with ‌national ‌associations, host authorities and organisers to determine the best path forward.

Czech carmaker Skoda Auto, the main sponsor of the ice hockey world championships, said on Wednesday it would “reassess” its sponsorship if Russia takes part in the annual tournament.

“If the Russian national team takes part in the tournament, we will reassess our involvement in the tournament and take further action,” Skoda told the AFP news agency in a statement.

It added that Russia’s return to the tournament was “incompatible with the values we have consistently upheld”.

Skoda Auto, a unit of Germany’s Volkswagen, has been the tournament’s official main sponsor since 1993. It also sponsors the Tour de France.

Its spokeswoman Ivana Povolna refused to specify the amount Skoda spends on the ice hockey world championships annually.

Skoda’s annual report for 2025 says the company lent 45 electric cars to the organisers, while its designers made the crystal trophy for the most valuable player of the tournament.

Russian Emergencies Ministry also says its mobile app suffered a ‘massive cyberattack’, leading to ‘false information’.

Ukraine’s Air Force has said its air raid alert app sent erroneous messages after allegedly being hacked by Russia.

Fake alerts warning of nuclear and chemical threats to areas in and around Kyiv were sent on Sunday, along with warnings of potential street combat. An erroneous message also said Russia’s hypersonic Oreshnik missile had been deployed.

“The air alert app appears to have been subjected to enemy influence,” the Ukrainian Air Force said on Telegram on Sunday. “There is no radiation threat! Stay calm and follow our updates on our channel.”

SPRAVDI, Ukraine’s Centre for Strategic Communications, blamed Russia for the hack in a post on X.

The raid alert app is used across Ukraine to warn people in real time of incoming Russian air attacks. A separate app, specifically for the Ukrainian capital, was working normally, according to Kyiv authorities.

Hours later, early on Monday morning, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said its mobile app had been hit by a “massive cyberattack”.

The ministry said on Telegram that the attack led to the spread of “false information”.

Russia’s and Ukraine’s announcements follow the end of a truce between the two countries in Kherson.

The localised ceasefire, which began on Tuesday and ended on Sunday, was the longest of the war so far.

The longest multi-day truce between Russia and Ukraine, limited to Ukraine’s eastern Kherson region, has come to an end with no violations reported by either side, but also no sign of an extension.

The truce, which ended on Sunday night, allowed hundreds of besieged residents of the Russian-occupied Ukrainian town of Oleshky to be evacuated in a rare joint operation between Kyiv and Moscow.

Russian strikes elsewhere in Ukraine on Sunday left hundreds of thousands of households without power, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. In Russia, meanwhile, authorities reported major ⁠damage to an industrial site following Ukrainian drone attacks on the Nizhny Novgorod region.

The six-day localised ceasefire in the front-line Oleshky and the surrounding area was reached after mediation efforts by United States First Lady Melania Trump and with the involvement of Pope Leo XIV. It was set to expire at 10:59pm Ukraine time (20:59 GMT).

On Sunday, Ukraine’s military said it evacuated 167 more people from threatened areas of the southern Kherson region, including 22 children and 21 people with limited mobility requiring special assistance.

“Units of civil-military cooperation of the ‘South’ group of forces, in cooperation with representatives of local authorities, evacuated 167 civilians to safer points in the Kherson region,” Ukraine’s General Staff wrote on Telegram.

An estimated 2,000 civilians were in Oleshky when the temporary truce took hold. They were offered the choice to evacuate to Kyiv-controlled territory of Ukraine or territory occupied by Russia, or to remain in the city with replenished food and medical supplies.

“The ceasefire across Oleshky and the surrounding Kherson region has provided residents with the freedom to move, access to food, clean water, medicine, plus a renewed sense of dignity without the constant threat of attack,” Melania Trump said on social media. “Let Oleshky become the starting point for lasting peace.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, quoted by Russian news agencies, said Moscow had a positive view of how the operation was conducted in Oleshky, as well as of the coordination between the two countries’ human rights commissioners.

A Ukrainian official, however, told the AFP news agency that Russia reportedly refused an offer to extend the ceasefire after Kyiv’s Foreign Ministry proposed it.

Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022, Moscow’s forces have occupied most of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as the majority of territory in Ukraine’s southern Kherson and Zaporizhia regions.

Residents urged to remain vigilant

Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin urged residents to be vigilant as the expiry of the ceasefire neared on Sunday.

“I also strongly urge you not to visit the so-called ‘red zones’ – areas and settlements near the Dnipro [River],” Prokudin wrote on Telegram. “The intensity of Russian strikes there remains high, and the threat to life is extremely high.”

Residents in Kherson city, one of the remaining areas of the region still controlled by Ukraine, remained calm, despite knowing the quiet of the localised ceasefire would soon end.

“Don’t be afraid, keep holding on,” Oleksandr Knyha, head of the Mykola Kulish Kherson Regional Academic Music and Drama Theater, told the audience as he opened a concert.

Knyha is from Oleshky and used to commute from there to Kherson for work. He has not given up hope of returning home.

“That’s also what keeps me here,” he told the Associated Press news agency.

Fighting elsewhere

Elsewhere, Moscow and Kyiv have continued air strikes, with Zelenskyy saying on Sunday that Russia continues to target Ukraine’s energy systems before winter. Attacks on power infrastructure in four Ukrainian regions overnight cut electricity to hundreds of thousands of households, he said.

A Russian attack also killed three people, including a 13-year-old girl, in the Ukrainian region of Vinnytsia, when a drone hit the grounds of a vocational school, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said. Four others were wounded.

Russian drone attacks targeting Ukraine’s Kyiv region for a second consecutive day wounded a woman and damaged homes, energy infrastructure and a retail establishment, regional authorities said.

In its daily report on Sunday, Ukraine’s Air Force said that Moscow’s forces attacked Ukraine with 433 drones overnight, of which 371 were destroyed or suppressed.

Meanwhile, more than 100 Ukrainian drones were shot down over the skies of Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region east of Moscow, Governor Gleb Nikitin said on Sunday.

The attack sparked a blaze at the Kstovo oil refinery, Russian media outlets reported, sharing images of black plumes of smoke over the horizon.

Zelenskyy said Kyiv also struck a factory for missile components and air defence facilities in Russia’s southern Rostov region.

“We are justly defending ourselves against Russian aggression and doing everything to reduce Russia’s capability to continue it,” Zelenskyy said.

Morocco has welcomed the defeat of a US-drafted resolution which sought to extend the mandate of the UN mission in the disputed Western Sahara.

The mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) expired on Saturday after a veto by Russia, leaving the future of the peacekeeping mission in limbo. In 1991, the UN established MINURSO to monitor a ceasefire and prepare a referendum on the territory’s future.

Morocco has considered Western Sahara its own territory since 1975, when Spain withdrew from the desert region in northwest Africa which is roughly the size of Britain. The Algeria-backed Polisario Front seeks to establish an independent state called the Sahrawi Republic.

So, why is Morocco celebrating the failed UN resolution? What does it mean for the future of the disputed region?

Here is what we know:

What happened at the UN Security Council?

On Friday, the US, which is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, proposed a resolution to support the principle of self-determination in the disputed Western Sahara.

Russia vetoed the resolution, despite support from 11 of the 15 council members, including fellow permanent members France and the United Kingdom.

The US draft would have extended the mission for a year, removed “referendum” from its name and made Morocco’s autonomy proposal the only basis for further talks.

Last October, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution that offered genuine autonomy to Western Sahara. Under that plan, the territory would manage its internal affairs, but remain under Moroccan sovereignty.

The Security Council had already made the proposal a basis for negotiations last year and asked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to submit a review of the peacekeeping mission.

Speaking after the vote, US ambassador Mike Waltz said it was truly unfortunate that in 2026 the veto was used to “preserve the letter R (in the Mission’s name) for referendum”.

He added that Washington’s proposal “would have moved the 50-year conflict forward” and added that the status quo is not acceptable.

Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said at the same meeting that Moscow opposed the draft because it favoured one side.

“We stress the fact that the Security Council cannot automatically predetermine matters relating to sovereignty,” he said.

Instead, Russia proposed renewing the existing mission without those changes. But that draft also failed to secure the nine votes needed for adoption, receiving two votes in favour, one against and 11 abstentions.

MINURSO’s mission has 155 military personnel and is set to cost $62m in the fiscal year that began in June, according to a UN report. But its mandate expired on Saturday.

How did Morocco and Algeria react to the failure of the UN mission?

Morocco’s royal palace welcomed the failure to renew MINURSO, saying on Friday that UN personnel and equipment should leave the territory in the coming days and that the Western Sahara issue should now be withdrawn from the Security Council’s consideration. Morocco said it remained committed to the ceasefire.

According to a UN media statement, Morocco’s UN representative also questioned why Algeria’s delegate was giving the Security Council “lectures” on the Western Sahara.

“Let these people [in the Western Sahara] go back to Morocco,” he said, “let them go home”.

Algeria expressed regret on Saturday over the failure to renew MINURSO’s mandate. Its foreign ministry criticised what it described as the US draft’s excessive bias towards Morocco.

According to a UN media statement, Algeria’s delegate to the UN thanked Russia for its draft resolution and all other member nations “who have chosen not to associate themselves” with an egregious injustice and a flagrant attack on “the very foundation of our organisation”.

Algeria’s UN representative noted that the country has been a refuge for hundreds of thousands of Sahrawi people who have been denied their right to self-determination.

The “tragedy being endured by the Sahrawi people has oddly been diluted to the concept of refugee populations”, he added.

Sidi Omar, the Polisario Front’s representative at the UN, told reporters on Friday that he welcomed Russia’s veto because the US proposal would undermine Sahrawi self-determination.

What is the Western Sahara dispute all about?

The Polisario Front, the political and military representative, does not recognise Morocco’s annexation of the territory following Spain’s withdrawal in 1975. It has been seeking a UN-supervised referendum for self-determination.

In 1976, it declared the independent Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

Decades of fighting drove at least 170,000 Indigenous people into refugee camps in Tindouf in neighbouring Algeria, which backs the Polisario Front.

The Polisario Front signed a UN-brokered ceasefire with Morocco in 1991. It called for a referendum within six months, but it was never held.

Morocco, which retains control of its lucrative phosphate and fishing resources in Western Sahara, claims historic and pre-colonial ties to the land and views the region as an integral part of its territory [“Greater Morocco”].

For decades, the US has provided military and diplomatic support to Morocco. But in 2020, Donald Trump recognised Moroccan sovereignty over the territory during his first term in office. Morocco soon established diplomatic ties with Israel as part of the so-called Abraham Accords.

The region is now the last United Nations-designated “non-self-governing territory” in Africa, where between 100,000 and 140,000 Moroccan military personnel are based.

Low-level fighting has also continued since the Polisario Front said it was resuming armed struggle in 2020.

Why is Morocco celebrating the failed UN resolution?

MINURSO was set up to monitor the 1991 ceasefire and hold a referendum in Western Sahara. The expiry of its mandate will likely boost Morocco’s stance on the referendum question, though its autonomy proposal has already been adopted by the UN.

On Saturday, according to a video report by the Reuters news agency, a festive atmosphere prevailed in the streets of El Aaiun, the capital of Western Sahara.

In the central Mechoua Square, dozens of people were wearing melfas, the traditional Sahrawi women’s garments, and long robes known as darra, as they waved Moroccan flags and displayed portraits of Morocco’s King Mohammed VI.

Selim Balouati Lakhloufi, a historian and researcher based in Morocco, said that Morocco is pleased because “diplomatic developments at the United Nations are supporting its strategy regarding the [disputed Western] Sahara”.

“The support of powers such as the United States, France and the United Kingdom for Morocco’s autonomy proposal strengthens its international position and is gradually shifting the debate away from the right to self-determination and the possibility of independence toward a solution based on autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty,” he told Al Jazeera.

What does this mean for the future of the Western Sahara?

The collapse of MINURSO’s mandate could escalate the dispute in the Western Sahara, according to aid organisations.

Oxfam has warned that losing MINURSO’s “monitoring and de-escalation functions risks undermining security and stability”.

Lakhloufi said that the UN mission’s expiry is also unfavourable for Sahrawi independence aspirations.

Regarding the future of the Western Sahara, he said that Morocco will likely continue to consolidate its territorial, economic and administrative control, while the Polisario Front will face greater difficulties in securing international support.

“The proposal for autonomy could end up becoming the main framework for negotiations, pushing independence further and further out of reach,” he added.

Starved and exhausted residents of Oleshky arrive in Ukraine after months of isolation, but some stay behind.

Starved and exhausted residents of the Russian-occupied Ukrainian town of Oleshky have crossed into Ukraine in a major evacuation operation of civilians, under the first humanitarian truce of its kind in more than four years of Moscow’s war.

The six-day ceasefire covering the town was reached with mediation efforts by US First Lady Melania Trump and help from Pope Leo XIV. It is the longest local pause in fighting since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour in 2022.

“Ukrainian citizens from Oleshky have crossed the Ukrainian border in the Chernihiv region. All of them will receive the assistance they need,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X, thanking the United States and the first lady for mediating.

“Further steps toward de-escalation and real progress toward peace are also needed,” he added.

Evacuees wrapped in blue and yellow Ukrainian flags stepped off buses at the Ukrainian-Belarusian border and reunited with family members.

Ukrainian officials met the evacuees with posters reading “You’re not alone” and “We embrace with our hearts”, while residents from nearby villages lined the highway waving flags and flashlights to greet them.

Forced to eat grass

Supply routes to Oleshky had been disrupted by fighting and drones. According to some residents, food deliveries were stopped in May, pushing hundreds of people into starvation.

One evacuee, an elderly man in a wheelchair, told the Reuters news agency that he had lost 20kg (44lbs) over the past year, becoming so weak he required hospital treatment.

Another evacuee, Svitlana Yermakova, told Reuters they had to eat grass to survive.

“We chopped grass and squash… just to hold on,” she said, adding that she risked riding by bicycle through minefields to a nearby village to get food for herself and her dog.

To reach Ukrainian-held territory, Oleshky residents had to take a complicated route to leave the devastated town just a few kilometres from the front line.

They first crossed Crimea by bus to the Russian town of Anapa before flying to Belarus, from where they crossed into Ukraine.

Ambulances lined the street, and several large military tents were erected, where hot meals, tea and medical aid were provided.

Russian and Ukrainian officials say the ceasefire in Oleshky has held since Tuesday, allowing them to de-mine the roads and bring food, medicines and other supplies into the town again.

The truce is due to end on Sunday evening.

Some stay behind

Some residents have decided to remain in Oleshky, despite the ongoing lack of gas, electricity and running water.

Russian Human Rights Commissioner Yana Lantratova said living conditions in the occupied Oleshky remained difficult, pledging she would continue to work with her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Lubinets, to help those who stayed.

“The mission has come to an end,” she said on Telegram. “We have agreed to carry out regular humanitarian missions, which is a very important step.”

Oleshky had a pre-war population of about 24,000, which plunged to an estimated 1,700 before the evacuation.

Ukrainian officials have not said exactly how many residents were evacuated or how many remained.

Despite the ceasefire in Oleshky, fighting rages on in other parts of the front, with Russia and Ukraine keeping up drone attacks against each other.

Along the shores of the Neiden Fjord, in Norway’s northernmost county Finnmark, Nils Boine* gazes out across the water. On the horizon, the Neiden River splits around the craggy island of Skogerøya, but lurking beneath its surface is a fisherman’s bounty: hundreds of king crabs.

His grandmother was Sea Sámi, from an Indigenous coastal people whose homeland, Sápmi, stretches across northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia’s heavily militarised Kola Peninsula. In Finnmark’s fjords, Sea Sámi families have fished for generations. But these waters are dissected by more than currents and shoals. Since Norway and Russia fixed their border in 1826, Sámi communities in the region have been divided by a national boundary.

Two hundred years later, this Arctic community is a combination of Sámi, Norwegians, Finns, Ukrainians, Russians, and international seasonal workers. Most of the Sámi population lives in Norway, with roughly 2 percent residing in Russia.

The Sámi have established a cross-border lifestyle, supported by flexible policies, including a Norwegian-Russian agreement allowing visa-free travel for those living within 30km (18.5 miles) of the border.

Security, however, has begun to tighten since the onset of Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine. The West sees Finnmark as part of NATO’s exposed northern flank, as it is directly opposite Russia’s heavily armed Kola Peninsula. The Norwegian border town of Kirkenes has been caught in a spy war with Russia, with multiple Russian operatives having been caught posing as tourists and fishermen while trying to engage in espionage.

Now, border bureaucracy is a daily reality, and reindeer herding, language revitalisation and hunting traditions are increasingly being navigated through permits and regulations, making the wider Arctic infrastructure feel fractured.

“I have friends in Russia,” Boine says. “We used to go shopping in Russia, and go there for weekends.”

Since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, those crossings have stopped — partly as a display of solidarity with Ukraine, and partly due to safety concerns.

“A local person was just arrested in Russia, so people are afraid to cross the border,” Boine explains. “The rumours say that he had some illegal things in his car, but he was arrested, and the [Ministry of] Foreign Affairs in Norway tried to do something, but it’s very difficult, of course, because we don’t have any diplomats in Russia.”

He is referring to the reported June arrest of a Kirkenes businessman. Lawyer John Christian Elden told the daily newspaper Verdens Gang (VG) that the man was in custody for two months under alleged “possession of weapons or ammunition”. Some Kirkenes residents were left shaken by the news, as recreational hunting is common in the region. They fear accidentally crossing the Russian border with forgotten hunting ammunition that might be left in their cars.

The number of Russian tourists visiting Norway has also declined, from 250,000 in 2019 to 52,000 last year.

“Before, we had Russian guests, but not now,” Boine says. Fortunately for his family, who run a tourism company, 80 percent of customers come from Asia or Finland. Their business has emerged relatively unscathed, but other companies have not been as lucky.

“Shops in the area have lost a lot of income without Russian [tourists],” says Boine. “Several shops have had to close.”

In a landscape traditionally connected for centuries, the fragmentation of communities is deeply concerning for both the regional economy and Sámi culture. Cross-border connections are deeply rooted in the regional psyche.

For Boine, the war in Ukraine has put his friendships with people in Russia on hold.

“They are afraid to do something wrong or write something wrong,” he says quietly. “You never know what might happen if they have too close contact,” he says.

“I want to be careful.”

Ukraine’s ice hockey federation has expressed “deep outrage” at Russia being allowed to compete in international events again.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) overturned the ban placed on Russia by the sport’s global governing body, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).

Russia have been suspended from competing in IIHF events since the country invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and earlier this year the IIHF ruled they would remain excluded.

The Russian Ice Hockey Federation (RIHF) appealed that decision to Cas, which has upheld it following an in-person hearing at its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

In a statement, the Hockey Federation of Ukraine said it “respected the authority and status of Cas”.

“At the same time, we express our deep outrage at this decision,” it added.

It said the threats, which had formed the basis of the ban, had not disappeared, adding “against this background, the decision to allow Russian teams to international hockey competitions causes special outrage”.

A statement from Cas, external said that arguments made by the IIHF “citing safety, security and other concerns” were “not supported by sufficient evidence”.

Russia are now set to be part of IIHF events in the 2026-27 season, including the men’s and women’s world championships.

Ukraine’s men have qualified for the top flight world championships for the first time in 20 years after winning promotion at this year’s Division 1 tournament in Poland.

The IIHF would not confirm whose place Russia could potentially take but pointed to its statement which said: “The ruling also has significant practical implications for competitions already at an advanced stage of preparation.

“These decisions made by Cas do not consider the practical elements which cannot be implemented immediately.”

Individual athletes from Russia were allowed to compete at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy under a neutral flag, although not in ice hockey.

The IIHF expressed “disappointment”, external with the ruling.

“The IIHF disagrees with this aspect of the ruling and maintains that its decisions were necessary to protect the safety and security of all participants and safeguard the integrity of its competitions,” they said in a statement.

“While the IIHF respects the authority of Cas and will act in accordance with its ruling, the outcome does not remove the concerns that informed its assessments.”

Germany will host the men’s world championships in May and Frank Lutz, chairman of the German ice hockey federation, said: “We reject the return of Russian national teams to international ice hockey tournaments.

“Allowing Russia to participate entails significant security-related, political, and economic consequences for us as hosts. We are now evaluating the ruling together with the IIHF and will provide information regarding the next steps.”

The United Kingdom, Finnish and Czech federations also condemned the decision to allow Russia to enter teams.

Jan Cerny, secretary general of Czech Ice Hockey said he “very unpleasantly surprised” by the decision adding: “The current stance of Czech ice hockey does not change with the CAS decision. We do not agree with Russia’s participation in IIHF tournaments during the war of aggression in Ukraine.”

The chairman of the Finnish Ice Hockey Federation, Heikki Hietanen, called the ruling “in it’s entirety, incomprehensible”.

Ice Hockey UK said: “While disappointed, we respect the authority of Cas, and will analyse the decision and its potential implications for Great Britain’s national teams.”

A statement from the RIHF said it “welcomes the decision” from Cas and stated it will work with the IIHF to “facilitate the return of Russian teams to competitions”.

A symbol of independent journalism, Novaya Gazeta has been classed as a ‘foreign agent’ by Moscow.

Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta has announced it will shut down, citing pressure from the authorities.

The independent outlet’s editorial board said in a statement released on Friday that the newspaper has been forced to end its operations.

The Russian media has come under increased scrutiny from the state amid Moscow’s war on Ukraine. The authorities recently searched the home of Novaya Gazeta’s senior editor and arrested the editor-in-chief.

“The newspaper is gone. The Russian authorities and … intelligence services forced the editorial staff to cease operations,” the editorial board said in the statement, which was entitled: “We were killed.”

Viewed as a relative bastion of independent journalism in Russia, Novaya Gazeta has been classed as a “foreign agent” by Moscow, a label used to stifle dissent.

“Novaya Gazeta is ceasing to exist,” editor-in-chief Sergei Sokolov said in a video statement published on YouTube. “On November 9 we will turn off the lights in our home, where we have lived for 30 years. We will shut down the servers and leave.”

Earlier this month, Sokolov was taken in for questioning as Russian authorities searched his home due, they said, to a link to a criminal case involving his colleague Oleg Roldugin.

Roldugin was arrested in April and charged with “unlawful access to computerised information”.

“How far will the Kremlin’s relentless campaign against Novaya Gazeta go?” asked media watchdog Reporters Without Borders in a statement after Sokolov was arrested on October 15.

“Six of its journalists and staff members have been murdered, its newsroom has been raided, its journalists have been prosecuted, and the publication has been designated a ‘foreign agent’,” the press freedom organisation noted.

The forced closure of Novaya Gazeta marks another escalation in Russia’s crackdown on press freedom, with few independent media outlets or journalists left in the country, as censorship levels and arrests of regime critics have skyrocketed since it launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The newspaper had already trimmed production inside Russia after Moscow invaded Ukraine, as authorities revoked its media licence.

The paper’s then editor-in-chief, Dmitry Muratov, jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for his “efforts to safeguard freedom of expression” at the helm of the paper.