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Here are some of the highlights produced by RFE/RL's vast team of correspondents, multimedia editors, and visual journalists over the past seven days.

Former Ukrainian Fuel and Energy Minister Ivan Plachkov discusses how Kyiv is coping after massive Russian missile strikes targeted the country’s civilian heating infrastructure just at the approach of winter.

Like much of Iran, residents of the country's southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan Province took part in recent anti-government and anti-hijab protests. But the vast and impoverished region, populated largely by minority Baluchis, has taken the brunt of the violent government response.

In Lyman, a strategic railway hub recaptured by Ukrainian forces in a major counteroffensive in the east, soldiers describe the encirclement and retreat of Russian troops -- and talk about what may come next as Moscow mobilizes new recruits amid battlefield setbacks.

On September 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin presided over a ceremony to claim large swathes of Ukrainian territory as permanent and nonnegotiable parts of Russia. That move has recast the Ukraine war as a zero-sum competition careening toward some alarming possible outcomes.

In large part due to the war in Ukraine, the EU enlargement process has suddenly been resuscitated again after almost a decade of being out cold.

Amid its war on Ukraine, Russia’s nuclear saber-rattling is causing concern. Moscow seems unlikely to launch a barrage of ICBMs on Western capitals, but the use of a nonstrategic weapon, perhaps targeting Ukrainian troops, is no longer out of the question. Here’s a look at tactical nuclear weapons.

Iranian authorities appear to have intensified their crackdown on anti-government protests in predominately Kurdish areas. There are reports of security forces using firearms and firing tear gas indiscriminately, including into people's homes.

The EU last month fully suspended its visa-facilitation agreement with Russia as part of sanctions imposed due to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Travel to the EU thus became more difficult and costly for Russian tourists. Let's look at what the data tells us about Russians traveling to Europe.

The Russian invasion left many civilians in eastern Ukraine trapped between bad choices or deprived of any choice at all. The ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive has brought an end to the brutal occupation -- but many have been left with their lives shattered.