Ruslan Leviyev News Today

More than two weeks after a major clash between Russian and Ukrainian forces, details are slowly emerging as to what exactly happened earlier this month in the small coal-mining town in southeastern Ukraine.

Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has reshuffled the government, the presidential administration said on January 4.

Explosions were reported in the vicinity of Russia’s Belbek military airfield on Ukraine’s occupied Crimean Peninsula early on January 4, while Moscow renewed its air attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. 

Police in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh say they have prevented another bride snatching

Forecasters in Moscow are predicting severe cold weather for the January 6-10 period.

Germany is looking for further ways to help Ukraine protect its people and infrastructure, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on January 4.

Kazakhstan has been forced to shut down 127 highways across the country due to heavy snowfalls, the Central Asian nation's Emergency Ministry said on January 4.

Dozens of contract soldiers from Bashkortostan have renounced their contracts and refused further combat duty in Ukraine. One of those soldiers who returned home last month described his ordeal for RFE/RL.

Russian authorities have put investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov on the country's federal wanted list and frozen his bank accounts. Soldatov is one of Russia's leading and remaining independent journalists, having intimate knowledge of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).

In Vladimir Putin's Russia, May 9 has become the most ideologically charged date on the calendar, and this year there's speculation that he might use the Victory Day ceremonies to make major policy announcements about the war in Ukraine.