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Amidst the pomp of Russia’s uber-patriotic state ceremonies commemorating the Soviet contribution to victory in World War II, more than 100 people across the country were detained for using the occasion to take a stand against the invasion of Ukraine.

It looks more like "when," not "if," for Finnish and Swedish membership of NATO. RFE/RL maps out the next crucial weeks of decision-making for the Nordic pair as the military alliance inches closer to expansion from 30 to 32 members following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

He did not declare a general mobilization for all-out war against Ukraine. He did not declare victory over Ukraine in the war that is now in its 75th day. He did not even make one of the Kremlin's declared goals for the war -- "de-Nazification" -- a central trope of his speech.

The president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) says the Kremlin should initiate a cease-fire in Ukraine because Russia has "blatantly violated international law."

Russian investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov discusses the blame game under way in the Kremlin and why the Russian military's setbacks in Ukraine are making the elite more “aggressively pro-war.”

Robin Dunnigan, the U.S. undersecretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, has told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service that Washington will continue to support Kyiv in its war against Russia and pursue harsher sanctions against Moscow for its unprovoked invasion of its neighbor.

The adverse trickle-down effect of international sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine are being strongly felt in Central Asian countries such as Kyrgyzstan.

Jeremy Corbyn, the former British opposition leader, says the UN and the West should have been tougher on Russian President Vladimir Putin early on, and expanding alliances like NATO isn't "the best way forward."

Iryna Danilovych, an activist who had gained a reputation for defending the rights of medical workers in Crimea, disappeared while returning home from work on April 29. She hasn't been heard from since, and her family and lawyers have had no luck in finding her.

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